Naaaaani

I also agree with KyattoFaibu. I've almost left the VK scene exclusively for the fact that the fanbase as a whole can seem rather toxic. It's very competitive and with the heavy rotation of new bands all the time, it just gets old with people shutting them all down in any way that they can. It pushes people away I think from even wanting to interact. I have a good 3-4 friends that have accounts here but don't bother being active because people tend to be overly opinionated and hold their opinion high and truest instead of just focusing on what they like and connected with the people who like those things. I don't like Mejibray and I never have and never will, but I wouldn't go around posting something insulting about them any chance i could on a new release, new look, or general news about them. I don't like them so i just don't care and I'm not going to discourage someone from liking them if that's what they choose to like. And yeah some will say in defense you shouldn't worry about what others say and if they don't like it don't be on the site... well there you go... people don't like it so they're not being on the site. What did people expect. These are just a few small examples, but i agree with pretty much every point CAT5 made.

While I pretty much agree with everything already said, one major thing I think is getting over looked - do the kids even know what the fuck a forum is?

That's a bit extreme, but it's hardly an exaggeration to say that social media has mostly killed off forums in general. Back in the early days of MH/TW, and hell, even before it, forums were -the- way to have an online community for a specific thing. Social media has largely changed that, for better or worse. Honestly, the fact that MH is still around given how forums have mostly died off is kind of amazing to me.

Even if interest in VK and Jrock abroad had never decided, I still think forum usage would have a steep drop off.  And we're no where near that peak interest. I truly think Kpop had taken the mindshare that VK used to hold. I'm not talking for hardcore fans, but for all the casuals. I'll not going to get in to it deep here, but I know at Anime cons every Jrock vendor has been replaced by Kpop ones.

To be totally frank, I expect MH to die some day. The fact that this place has lasted a decade blows me away. But with the current trajectory of VK and the internet, I just don't see this place lasting another decade. And that's ok. While the idea bums me the fuck out, when this place does burn out, that doesn't erase everything that has happened here. All of that said, I'm not wishing the end comes any time soon and I hope that some day we can be celebrating the forum's 20th anniversary.

@Ito I have actually seen people on FB/TW say that they haven’t joined here because they don’t get how message boards work. This being an antiquated platform isn’t a fabrication on your part: the kiddies would rather use discord or twitch than a forum because that makes more sense to them.

We’re old 👴🏼