The Yu Yu Hakusho Forum

In order to understand the Yu Yu Hakusho Forum, it’s important to understand a little bit about how OtakuBoards was quite different than the format members are familiar with as of 2007. You see, back in 2001 before the forums in each section of OtakuBoards became more centralized in February of 2004, it started out with a main section for anime called Anime Otaku that at first simply had forums such as Digimon, Dragonball and Gundam for discussion.

May 15 2001

As time went on, other sections such as a Tenchi forum was added until somewhere between September 22, 2001 and January 22, 2002 a General Anime Forum for all anime that didn’t have it’s own forum was added to the Anime Otaku section of OtakuBoards.

September 22 2001
January 22 2002

Though later on the Tenchi forum would become the Tenchi/Outlaw Star Forum and then the Tenchi/Outlaw Star/Teknoman forum before it was eventually removed. Other forums would come and go in the Anime Otaku section, including a Cowboy Bebop forum and Trigun forum.

Later when Anime Otaku had been renamed Otaku Anime and was moderated by Shyguy; between April 20, 2003 and April 24, 2003 the infamous Yu Yu Hakusho forum along with the .hack//SIGN forum was added to OtakuBoards. Something that as Shy put it: This was because the existing staple of forums was getting kind of stale, so we needed something new to shake things up. I think it might even have been me who suggested creating both forums.

April 20 2003
April 24 2003

But its addition did not shake things up as Shy had expected: Reaction to both forums was pretty lukewarm, which is strange because both series were extremely popular at the time. Yu Yu Hakusho was the more active of the two, but it seemed to have a weaker quality of member posting in it. Aside from Dagger I can’t really remember anyone who made intelligent posts there on a regular basis. Most of the threads were the same generic stuff you’d see in any anime forum: favorite character, fangirl rantings, questions about music from the series, etc. Needless to say a great number of these threads were deleted for repeating topics or overall post quality.

What makes the Yu Yu Hakusho forum so unique is that it would be one of the last series specific forums added to OtakuBoards for discussing an anime, before the site switched to a more centralized format instead of a decentralized one of having separate forums for more popular shows.

Even before the switch was made it was clear that people’s opinion in regards to having separate forums for different animes was divided as can be seen in these posts from the thread: OtakuBoards v7 in the Suggestion and Feedback part of OtakuBoards.

POST ONE | POST TWO | POST THREE

Another example of why a centralized format worked better was clearly seen in the .hack//SIGN forum something that according to Shy: The .hack//SIGN forum was the exact opposite. Even though only a handful of members posted there the discussions were very intelligent and thorough. Azurewolf and I created OB’s first thread directory to organize discussion in .hack, which only made Yu Yu Hakusho look spammier and more chaotic by comparison.

Although it is unclear if this had an impact on the decision to move to a more centralized format, it did make it easy to see that the separate forums simply made things more cumbersome for both the members and especially for the moderators. The Yu Yu Hakusho forum only made this worse by being one of the spammiest forums to have ever existed on OtakuBoards. Or rather it was a good example that having too many forums made moderating a chore since things were not as organized as they are today.

Or it could have been due to what Shy remembers: Part of it might have been that the Yu Yu Hakusho forum attracted a lot of new members to the site, and those new members hadn’t read the rules yet. We had sticky rules threads in the forum; in fact, at one point I even made a sticky warning people to follow the rules or we’d be forced to get rid of the forum. For whatever reason most threads in that forum were locked at any given time, and a significant number of members were banned for ignoring repeated warnings from moderators such as myself.

I used to have screenshots of 12 of the 15 most recent threads being locked in that forum. It’s pretty awful. To remove clutter I ultimately started to delete threads in that forum. Nobody wants to post in a forum where all of the threads are closed.

To this day, the Yu Yu Hakusho forum is remembered for how troublesome it was. When the project Otakupedia began, Shy, formerly known as Shyguy, disputed a fact presented by Charles for one of his entries:

11-26-2006 Otakupedia Entries/Suggestions/Discussion thread

Shy: Anyway, I need to take issue with this statement in the Down With Newbie Lounge Article.

Charles: Amid much controversy (including that generated by Mnemolth – who still maintains that the Clown and Businessman analogy was misrepresented by everyone), the Newbie Forum was deleted, and with it, the last spam hub of Otakuboards. Not since has there been such intense spam activity.

Shy: You’re forgetting about the Yu Yu Hakusho forum.

Though he was known as Shyguy at the time, Shy was responsible for moderating the Otaku Anime part of OtakuBoards. Since Yu Yu Hakusho did not have it’s own moderator, the duty of watching this forum was his responsibility. One that he clearly remembers as he made it obvious that the Yu Yu Hakusho forum was just as bad as the Newbie Lounge that was infamous for how spammy it was.

Before the Yu Yu Hakusho forum was finally removed; several times it was used as a point of reference in requesting that other series specific forums be added to the Otaku Anime section of the boards.

9-20-2003 Suggestion and feedback forum, Thread: New Lounges

This would not be the first time that James would not agree with adding other forums based on the premises that they should be allowed since one that was so spammy like the Yu Yu Hakusho one existed. It was clear that James had other ideas in mind for OtakuBoards and further spammy forums like Yu Yu Hakusho was not one of those ideas.

12-23-2003 Suggestions & Feedback, Thread: Rurouni Kenshin Forum?

Once again James made it clear that just because forums such as the Yu Yu Hakusho one existed, adding new ones would be pointless since the new format would most likely not include a decentralized format with many forums for each anime.

At one time even a survey was done by James, the Site Director, to see what people’s opinion was on moving from a decentralized format with individual forums for each thing or a more central format where things were kept in the same forum. In the end, it became clear that the majority supported doing away with the cumbersome individual forums and making things more centralized.

12-05-2003 Otaku Lounge, Thread: OtakuBoards Survey

James: [survey question] 8) Would you rather a decentralized forum system on OB (more forums, less activity per forum) or a centralized forum system (less forums, more activity per forum)?

With 18% wishing to keep a decentralized forum format, 43% in favor of a centralized forum format and 39% who were either fine with how it was or wanted some things centralized and other things kept in a decentralized format. In the end, somewhere between December 30,2003 and 3-16,2004 the Yu Yu Hakusho forum was retired and OtakuBoards moved to a more centralized format. Though the exact date is not known, with the formation of the Official Threads Directory in the Anime Lounge:

3-16-2004 Anime Lounge, Thread: Official Thread Directory

And this screen shot from a web archive showing the structure of OtakuBoards on August 6, 2004 with an Anime Archive posted in by James on February 14, 2004

December 30 2003
August 6 2004

It is clear that during that time frame is when the Yu Yu Hakusho was removed along with all other series specific forums. Also, when asked if the Anime Archive contained the threads from the now deleted forums such as Yu Yu Hakusho, James replied:

Yep, the Anime Archives contain our old anime forums/threads/posts. Some are missing (I think most of Digimon got wiped out due to a technical issue), but everything else is there.

So it is apparent that by no later than February 14, 2004 The Yu Yu Hakusho forum was no more. This was also confirmed by asking Lady Asphyxia who also recalled that the forum was deleted in February of 2004. However, even though the forum was long gone, it was far from forgotten due to its horribly spammy nature. It was even used in the popular event The Great OtakuBoards Scavenger Hunt 2006 as one of the clues during a round.

7-31-2006 Community Events: Thread: The Great OtakuBoards Scavenger Hunt 2006

Question: #9

A wasteland.
A now-lost home to the spirit world
And spammers alike.

-Shy

Lunox: The Yu Yu Hakusho forum. I’m going to feel like an idiot if it’s something completely different, but it’s the first thing that entered my mind.

When asked, one of the first things members who were around when the Yu Yu Hakusho forum existed will say is how incredibly spammy it was. Though a few don’t really remember it at all, still, it was clearly known as being a disease on OtakuBoards as you can see here from what members have said when asked about the Yu Yu Hakusho forum.

Sara: I don’t remember much about it—I’ve never spent a lot of time in the anime forums here. But the Yu Yu Hakusho forum was (in)famous for being the wasteland of the boards. Shy moderated it, and loved to hate it.

Lunox: Sorry, but I don’t really remember specifics! But as it stands, the Yu Yu Hakusho forum wasn’t known for having any particular members or threads, because most of was already bad. It was referenced to as a black hole or hell by members or the people who modded it, but I don’t remember anything much else.

Gavin: Most of what I know are the generally accepted facts of the forum, that it was an utter black hole until Dagger came in as the moderator and cleaned it up which is what really made her her name on OtakuBoards, I think at least.

Kei: From what I remember about the YYH forum, the most popular (and spammiest) thread in the lot was the “Who’s Your Favourite Character” thread. Most people would come in and just so “OMFG Kurama isso hotttttt!!” or something to that effect, which of course would bring the ire from fans of other characters, so on and so forth. I don’t believe it was ever closed due to the fact that most of the Mods at the time thought that the forum was a lost cause and rarely ventured there. I do believe there was a general trivia and question thread in there as well, though they didn’t do much better in the quality department than did the Character thread.

Desbreko: About the only thing I remember of it is that it had a reputation as being one of the spammiest forums on OB at the time. At one point there were something like thirteen closed threads on the first page alone and someone had taken a screen shot of it.

DeathKnight: From my perspective that forum started off pretty much as a typical anime forum here. I was never big into YYH so I didn’t venture into it much but the, uh, typical YYH fan could be said to be/appear to be quite young. The quality of the threads/posts in that forum degenerated to the point it became kind of a pox on the forum as a whole, lol.

Even now people refer back to it like it was a plague. “Well, at least this isn’t as bad as the Yu Yu Hakusho forum”.

Lady Asphyxia: While I was around at the time, unfortunately I was never really involved in the forum. All I remember about it was that it was incredibly spammy and when it ended, Shy [possibly literally] danced on its grave. He was quite glad it was gone.

Shy: I probably could have devoted more time to moderate that specific forum, but I was moderating five others at the time as well. It’s not as if I didn’t try to improve things, but there was only so much I could do. Why we never had a desginated moderator to that forum is beyond me. I imagine the idea came up pretty often, but pretty much once James saw that the place was a wasteland the plan was always to get rid of it with the next version change or something.

When the forum was deleted it was definitely not missed. I don’t think we’ve had more than a handful of discussions on Yu Yu Hakusho since.

Although the Yu Yu Hakusho forum is long since gone, not only is the forum itself not forgotten, perhaps most notably by Shy who moderated it when it was a part of OtakuBoards. But it lives on in the form of a much better and less spammier part of OtakuBoards as a separate thread in the Anime Lounge where fans of this show can still gather together and discuss the anime Yu Yu Hakusho in it’s designated thread.

Categories: Forums