The 2021 Stage48 Member Ranking

I have been a member since 2013 and still have less than 100 posts mostly because I just got back into following the 48G three years ago and often just reads the forum instead of participating on the discussions. As much as I'd like to participate on the voting (because there are some graduates on this year that wouldn't be eligible on the following years that I'd like to give points), if I don't meet the requirements to participate then the least I can do is respect the rules that have been implemented for times now. Also personally I don't think voting on this event is a number one priority right now (though once again, this one is just my personal opinion so there might be some ineligible people who really wants to participate).

But if there is going to be a change on the rules and later it was found that I'm eligible then I wouldn't be against it

 

I want to take part in this because I think this voting gives a relatively small but honest insight into how we international fans think / feel about these idols. Who are OUR favorites. In addition, in contrast to the official SSK, this forum has an honest system. You can enter 20 different names once and that's it. No additional purchases or accounts that allow you to have multiple votes. Just one vote. So the more (different) people who vote=better and more exciting battles. These restrictions were surely a smart move during AKBs prime, but they could need a little overhaul. AKB48 stucks, but hopefully this forum doesn't..

Spoiler: 1 - about cheating

Yes you can still rig it by using multiple accounts and act like a different person. In fact some people are so long registered they could posses X accounts by now. But how do you want to take action against it? Controlling their ID cards while face timing? A bit to much. So we have rely on everybody's honestly

Spoiler: 2 - surprised

"OUR favorites" - I was so surprised when I saw the names who won over the years, no Maeda or Sasshi, but Takahashi 4x, Okada Nana 3,5x, Shimazaki, Oshima Mai, etc..
How close was the Watanabe-Okada-Yamamoto year? So exciting

 

I don't know why people here are annoyed so much for this minimal amount of 100 posts to vote. It's reasonable (same as this that we have to use all 20 spots to make our vote legit) since as everyone who is interested about Asian pop music knows that fans of pop music "from country next to Japan" are really well organised to vote in any kind of polls etc. to support their favourite groups, even in small local elections like these one here.

Probably no one wants to tell about it loudly here, but I will tell it clearly and directly - in my opinion this barrier has been made to protect Stage48 Election system against aggresive voting by people who even don't know more than 10 songs of 48G and Sakamichi - but they know all songs of group formerly related with 48G - and against multi accounts

 

That's information I didn't have. Good to know that these accounts are relatively easy to spot.

No one can predict someone else's actions and the reasons behind them. Humans

 

Well, they're not. Sure you get the occasional amateur that uses the same IP accidentally (or without realising it could be traced at all) but those aren't the problem. If YouTube/Twitter/Tiktok et al. can't figure it out, some mods using 7 year old forum software that doesn't even work right half the time aren't going to do better. Especially when they don't have a 100+ post history to compare against.

I do know that, especially for people new to the forum (or worse, new to 48g) it can be hard to reach 100 posts. Heck I remember being daunted by the 75 post requirement on another forum when I first became a fan. Most people need to lurk a bit first before they have anything to talk about (or know where to talk about it). But this isn't the "International Fan Member Ranking", it's the Stage48 Member Ranking. It is intended to gauge the interests of active members of this forum, not drivebys, and not really even lurkers. So, I don't really see that it needs to change.

Also, frankly, no one is stopping you or anyone else from putting together another vote here with different rules. I know doing that has been suggested at least a few times in the past.

 

And yet Stage48 gathers fans from around the world, so my statement is not incorrect.
Why is someone, who may be lurking between the threads of this forum for let's say 9 1/2 years (like you) ineligible to give his/her vote. As long as that person is mostly up to date with the current events regarding 46 and/or 48 there shouldn't be a problem.

Maybe in the future, but not now. We'll see.

 

I don't think the problem is the minimum 100 comments per se. I do believe it has its own merit, if the admin wants to keep the rule. on top of that rule, though, people are also discouraged to catch up with that requirement. it just makes it unnecessarily difficult for aspiring members to participate.

The rule might be partially created to prevent multiple accounts voting for the same person. Yet, @dutchie has pointed out that the admin can easily detect such wrongdoings by checking on the IP address.

One then could wonder why people are discouraged to catch up (or in some people's words 'spamming'). The forum used to be very active and lively so such rule was understandable. But, now?

Plus, there are options for us if we don't want be distracted by such 'spamming' ('watch threads', 'ignore', etc).

A more specific discouragement might be more apt.. (i.e don't bring up old threads) rather than a vague 'we discourage spamming to fulfill the 100 posts' requirements.

Again, this award is not everything. That's true. But people like to be part of a fun event. People want to be heard (in indirect ways, at times). That would probably keep them longer in this fandom... which is what we need now。 that's why SSK works wonders in the past to boost their popularity (besides the money).

 

I don't see the big deal about getting to 100 posts. I barely post once a day and that isn't a lot, so getting to 100 shouldn't be an issue.

The minimum post limit is to ensure some activity and a decent level of post, not just random snark

 

I have no problems with the 100 message threshold.

But what would change if you would decrease it to 50? Is a "100 post"-ranking better than a "50 post"-ranking?


Rather than enough users with 100 posts, Id rather have 100 members i am interested in btw :/ Not participating again this year

 

Restrictions on spam do always seem to be too vague, often coming down to "I'll know it when I see it." But I also don't know how to define it more accurately, any attempt that I've seen to define it narrowly invariably catches harmless acts or leaves out obviously bad ones.

I think the main issue here is how @Dokuro3313 described his proposed solution to the 100 posts problem. Even if he put enough effort into all of his posts to keep them from being spam, the way he described his recommended course of action made it sound like textbook* spam. And since he it was a recommendation for others to do the same, that is kind of a problem.


* in so far as a thing so difficult to define has a "textbook" form

 

All rankings submitted so far have been counted unless there was something to be double checked - in those cases you were sent a reply with further instructions.

Voting is open until 31 December 2021 9:59 pm (UTC) - if you haven't done so yet, remember to submit your votes before the deadline!

 

Does anyone remember how long it will take after the voting deadline for the first batch of votes to be revealed? ^^

 

Last year's voting concluded on May 9th at 9pm UTC and the first batch was revealed on the 11th at 3pm, so I'd say 1 day and 18 hours? Unless it changes this year.

 

It looks like only less then the half of last years participants are participating this year. I guess in the end they will reach the exact half.

Actually it's sad to see how international 48G fandom is dying slowly.
For me it seems like some of the fans only joined the fandom due to PD48 and the more time is passing since this show the tinier the fanbase gets.

 

I *will* be participating but Christmas is a busy time of year for me and I'm guessing that it's the same for many other people? However all being well I'll be submitting my entry in the next couple of days.

 

I got enough posts by now (yai ) so I'll submit my list either this evening or tomorrow.
Christmas may be a thing, I was busy the last days too, but the S48 SSK started nearly two weeks ago, and shouldn't most people here already have a list of their favorite members so they only need to log in and send a quick message?
So I think what Dokuro3313 said isn't that wrong.

( Merry Christmas to you all )

 

There's another thing. Many people dissapeared when their oshimens have Graduated and Younger generations of fans are not so much into forums. Now people are using groups on Facebook (or maybe it's better to say Meta ) and Discord. Also Twitter has new era, because younger generations rediscovered it. It's all because people want to have one website/app to get notifiactions about what they're interested.

So I've another thesis: Big forums/websites dedicated to specific topic are dying slowly.

It was obvious, because there are a lot of people in K-fandom who have short "best before date". This fandom is quite young and rotation of people there is soooo much bigger than in J-pop. If You're really into J-pop then You can be in every age and people will not treat You as "boomer".

Congratulations!

 

I'm pretty sure PD48 caused more 48G fans (internationally or in Japan) to leave and switch to Kpop than it brought fans to the 48G fandom. it's probably one of the many reasons why the fandom is less active, the other reasons are that most of the popular girls graduated and their fans left with them, scandals (like the NGT one) made people leave, AKB going on long breaks (1,5 year without single before Ne mo Ha mo Rumor) and ending most of their shows or events (especially the elections which was one of the event that made the fandom alive). and lastly, people just don't use forums so much anymore sadly. But I feel like lately the forums have been a little more active... so I guess it's not too bad.

Besides, maybe some people wait for the year to end to send their ranking, at least that's what I'm doing. I will send my list in the next days

 

Funny fact is that I came here, or better said stayed here exactly because this forum makes it easier to follow the idol world. There is much going on, I don't know how many SNSs accounts it takes to get the same amount of news and informations.

There are right now 17 members online + 150 guests. Let's say 10-20 of the guests are members who are not logged in. If half of the rest would join (~65) and start interacting with us, it would be a lot more lively.
The quest is to figure out how to make them register