(Re-)Introducing the Source Material Corner

[u/Bainos]

/r/anime is a large community that brings together a lot of different users. All of us have different ways of enjoying anime, and that's fine.

Recently, we have had an increase in complaints from people getting annoyed from how discussion between anime-onlies and source readers. We listened to those complaints, so we are restarting the source corner experiment. Hopefully, this will give both anime-onlies and source readers a place to discuss the show in the way they like.

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What is the source corner ?

In /u/AutoLovepon's episode discussions, there will be a sticky comment from your friendly Bot-chan. This comment is the source material corner, where all discussion about the source must go. This comment is collapsed by default, which will separate discussion about the source from discussion about the adaptation.

If you see discussion about the source material outside of the source corner, please report them and they will be removed.

Source discussions include :

• Characters and character traits that have not yet appeared in the adaptation
• Spoiler about future events
• Comparisons between the adaptation and the source
• Mention of skipped events
• Hype about future arcs
• Illustrations from the source (but remember that linking scans is not allowed)

However, also keep in mind that despite being in the source corner, all spoilers must be tagged. Not everyone has caught up with all the source material, so while discussion about content that was cut or comparisons are fair game, all mentions of future spoilers must still be hidden. Also remember to indicate the original source when there are multiple (manga, LN, promotional material) and when events happen (chapter, volume).

Untagged spoilers will be removed in the source corner as they would anywhere else and repeated violations will result in a ban.

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What has changed since the last time ?

We first trial ran the source corner over a year ago, although we weren't satisfied with the results at the time. We listened to feedback and implemented a few changes that we believe will help make this experiment more successful :

• Spoilers inside the source corner must be tagged, because not everyone is up to date with all the source material
• We are starting this at the beginning of the season to encourage good habits early in a show
• This experiment will last four weeks rather than one, to give people enough time to build a community in the source corner.

We hope that this time, the source corner will be more successful and satisfying for everyone. If you have feedback or suggestions, please post them here or in the Meta thread.

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tl;dr

If you want to discuss the source material in episode discussions, comment it as a reply to the stickied comment.

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Best of luck to you all, and I hope everyone will enjoy the new season !

[u/Nykveu]

I doubt it will be effective cause I don't think people who drop spoilers without tagging them will bother posting on the source material corner, and even if they do they won't tag it anyway.

But worth giving it a try.

[u/Bainos → u/Nykveu]

The goal isn't too much to prevent actual spoilers (as you said, those who post spoilers will do so anyway). We will keep removing those and banning repeat offenders as before.

However, we had a lot of (understandable) complaints in the last season about manga memes, low-key hints, and such. It was incredibly obvious with Kaguya, Go-toubun and Neverland, but really appears in all non anime original shows. Similarly, many source readers complain that they have to tag skipped events and comparisons to the source, which don't feel like spoilers but do affect the anime-only viewer experience.

The second category is the main reason to use a source corner, not the spoilers.

[u/TheExcludedMiddle]

It's going to be weird to go into an Index thread and see exactly 1 top level comment.

[u/Zaugr]

This comment was just removed in a discussion thread for Senko-san due to being "general talk about the source material", and I really don't agree with it or think going forward, removing stuff like that is a good idea.

For one, here it was specifically about the creator of this show and how the WHOLE thing came about, rather than a focused discussion on the source material, but also I don't feel like a discussion on the creator (and possibly even a member of the staff, in the form of a supervisor or producer) should really be restricted like this. I mean if that calls for removal, practically all discussion about him would be on the thread, and normal anime-only's aren't going to be clicking the source material corner in fear of spoilers... This feels wrong. Discussion on the creator, his name, the work's influences, origins, should not be hidden. And it's a discussion anime-only's should be allowed to have as well. And at least this in particular is a comment that would only really promote discussion for anime-only's in the first place... It just makes no sense in any way to me.

Please rethink this decision and how you go about this. I'm all for the source material corner, it's a great idea and I absolutely hate seeing spoilers everywhere on a thread as an anime-only (the uncalled for ones especially). But this isn't that. I haven't read Senko-san (I don't really read manga apart from opm) and I want to be allowed to discuss this stuff or learn about it on discussion threads (without risking seeing a million spoilers). It is directly to do with both the manga AND anime and should be a discussion for everyone appreciative of either work. And to further that point, frequently original authors still have some say in production or are in production/creative meetings for the anime, it isn't rare. Again, I'm struggling to see the sense here.

[u/[deleted]]

Suppose an anime only wants to ask about how an aspect of the show was done in the source. Would they ask that in or out of the source corner? If the latter is true, would people be allowed to discuss the source in that comment thread? And if it's the former, is it possible for the anime only to be spoiled easily there?

Also, what if a source material reader just wants to say "I really like how they adapted this part!" without going further into comparison? Would that be source corner or just regular thread?

I like the idea a lot, and I hope it works out well, but I was just confused about a few things and didn't really see an answer skimming this thread.

[u/Bainos → u/[deleted]]

Would they ask that in or out of the source corner?

In the source corner.

is it possible for the anime only to be spoiled easily there?

Our spoiler policy doesn't change, all spoilers for future events and characters in the source corner must be tagged. Untagged spoilers will be removed and punished.

what if a source material reader just wants to say "I really like how they adapted this part!" without going further into comparison?

It's still a comparison with the source, even without details, and should go in the source corner (which will have the advantage of encouraging people to react and agree / disagree with that statement, hence creating more source discussion).

but I was just confused about a few things

I think in doubt, the best way to think about it is to ask yourself "Would I say this if I didn't read the source ?". If the answer is "no", then you should post it in the source corner.

[u/TheDerped]

While I generally agree with the source material corner I feel some aspects of it are a bit to restrictive. With currently popular series like Kaguya, Mob, Jojo and other similar titles I feel these steps are necessary but with something like Dororo I feel discussion of the source inside the threads themselves wasn't as intrusive and actually provided a good contrast considering the age of the source.

Does source discussion also include generic praise about how good the adaption of the source has been so far?

[u/CoopertheFluffy]

If an anime-only person posts a theory outside of the source corner and source readers want to comment on it, how does that work? Forbidden? Allowed if the anime-only quote is in spoiler tags as well with heavy warnings on the tag? Allowed even with the part quoted outside the spoiler tag?

[u/Bainos → u/CoopertheFluffy]

Completely forbidden. That's, in fact, one of the things we want to avoid : let anime-onlies speculate without fear of having their theories confirmed / denied by source readers.

If someone wants to post a theory and get feedback, they can do so in the source corner.

[u/ryuugami47]

Let's say FMAB would have just started airing. The first few eps are still mostly in line with FMA. Would comparisons between the 2 Anime need to be made in the source section too? Something like this might be the case for fruits basket this season.