Billeywest: I only ever, ever soc stuff with original content, so you have my support at the very least ;)

Yeah, I hope it didn’t sound like I was taking a poke at Japan Probe. I was actually thinking of the sites that post the same same stuff that JP does (usually a day or two later) and then submit it to JapanSoc. Sometimes I read those posts and then look at what JP had posted before and it’s almost the same.

Peter, I just had a look at your profile page and could only find one article you submitted (“Some good ideas from Japanese schools”). You posted it over four months ago and got 5 votes, which was very good at the time. Sorry if it didn’t generate the interest you were expecting, you might find that if you post something now, you’ll get more traffic. At the very least, you’ll get an extra link in Google’s search results.

Peter Payne: I’d take a look at the ones that didn’t do so well and avoid submitting ones on similar topics? That would probably get more posts up on the front page.

Billywest: I for one only soc stuff (usually) that has original content or research in it – JapanProbe is a great site but when they just stick a Mainichi article in blockquotes and put “Hey wow look at that” after it, I don’t think it’s noteworthy. If it must be on JapanSoc, I’d rather see a link to the news article myself. I guess people are hungry for readers.

Deas: It’s hard to stop sensationalist stuff succeed, because if that’s what people want to read / find interesting, techincally it should be on the first page, it is a real shame when great stories go nowhere though. I like to comment on ones that are struggling, that can often get them a second wind of reads. As for the submission limit – I think weekends are flood days. Loads of new stories come in, whereas midweek not as many appear. If Nick pursues the idea of community moderation then it’s all good, but if not I’d still advocate a post limit.

Also – I would say no to the submission limit simply because there are flood days. And it makes it hard to change the rankings if everyone is limited to the same number of submissions from here on out. It would mean that inactivity would be punished, versus activity being rewarded. Right? And we can always deal with the spammers. But I’m fully willing to hear the arguments for a limit. :-)

However, as the site grows, so will it’s post count. Among those posts, there will be lots of stuff that has been posted about elsewhere countless times, as well as good stuff that gets buried. I think Nick has done a good job so far of trying to develop a system that will separate the wheat from the chaff. I’ve seen some good posts get buried at JapanSoc (not referring to my own excellent posts ;) ) by posts containing the same old stuff written about on 10 or 12 other blogs, including Japan Probe, that week. I mean, if someone wants to write about the latest maid cafe, I wish he/she would add something original to that story, or just link up the Mainichi Shinbun article that he/she is rehashing, instead.

Anyway, I try to limit my posts at JapanSoc to one every two days.

Firstly, I agree it’s possible for people to abuse the site by submitting all their blog posts. I can always raise the number of votes needed to get on the front page, but that won’t stop the Upcoming section getting filled with sub-par posts that make finding anything good quite a chore. Another option is to lower the bury limit to discourage over-submission. Currently a submission is deleted if there are three times more “buries” than votes, but if people call for it, I could change this. I’d prefer to see a community-driven solution like burying, but I’ll keep the possibility of imposing limits in mind should it become a big problem. Let me just add that a few months ago I asked people to only bury something that was off-topic, treating the “bury” button as a “report spam” button. However, these days I leave it for the users to decide how they use the button.

Having said all that, I wouldn’t want to discourage people from submitting their own blog posts. It’s the community of bloggers doing just that which has helped kick-start JapanSoc. Use your best judgment is all I can say.

Secondly, you’ve got me with the colors! I have no excuses. The orange just happened to be part of the original template I used for the site, and it made me feel all warm and tingly inside. The size of the WordPress “Soc it!” button, too, was just the standard size and I didn’t give much thought to alternatives.

Finally, thanks for your support. It’s fun seeing new faces on JapanSoc, and reading all the posts. There’s a good mix of content and a great community of like-minded bloggers. The next six months should be very interesting! :)