Create MDL Clubs

 Yuanwei:

And lol, people are already segregated. This will just make them feel they belong somewhere and maybe have a safe place where others won't judge their tastes that much. Just my opinion.

I agree with this. 

MDL is a great place for Asian drama fans in general, but it does seem overrun by many Kdrama fans. There are still articles and whatnot that highlight J and Cdramas, just... not as much as SK entertainment. it's just my opinion, but I think that makes it difficult to connect to the MDL community at large unless you, too, watch a great deal of Kdrama. if there were clubs, however, that provide a space for wuxia, sageuk, taiga, or HKdrama fans... it's like, "ah, here are my people."

 bannie:

How many are active? 

Just cautioning the bosses. Every change has drawbacks. 

Only the admins know how many users are active, but there are many who are just lurking around/reading/updating lists than being active in the forums and feeds. That's supported by the fact that an article gets a few thousand views in one day. 

What do you think would happen if they created clubs/groups for real? Do you think people will stop frequenting the feeds and drama pages? I honestly doubt it. They will probably just spam and feel free to post more random stuff in clubs. I'm not sure how that would impact the forums though.

Goodreads also has some pretty fun groups I think where you are a bit challenged. Where you are challenged to read books you aren't normally reading. For example groups where you are supposed to choose one of five books to read one month based on a theme. Or a yearly challenge where you are supposed to read books that fulfil certain criteria from a list: like has a MC that is non gender-normative, or isn't heterosexual, or from a different culture than yours, or books about sports, medicine, non-ficiton etc. Then you get "points" (informally in the group) based on how many of the criteria you managed to check.  Sort of like this: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18955648-the-52-topics-for-the-2018-reading-challenge

I think that would be quite fun with dramas as well as I tend to get drawn into certain favourite plots and don't challenge myself enough with different perspectives and ideas. Perhaps there are already something like this on MDL? I don't tend to explore the more social aspects of this site. 

 mecchaumai:

I'd love the clubs to be able to find like minded people drama wise

I call that my friends list lol, 

I personally dislike partitioning people...but thats just me...

I believe it'd certainly add more to the site. As a photographer enthusiast, i'd be more likely to share my work on a photography club here, if one existed.  But in any case,  Jin and I will consider all points before we were to create clubs on MDL. There is still a lot to be done before we can undertake such a task [getting mobile completed, etc] 

 OldAnimeLady:

I call that my friends list lol, 

I personally dislike partitioning people...but thats just me...

Just my two cents:

My friends list is more like an acquaintance list with the only obvious commonality (without further discussion/interaction, which doesn't happen much per my experience) being that we all like Asian dramas. I log in frequently and will be active in the feed when I'm not on a busy period, but I do find it difficult to have meaningful interactions here. 

With or without clubs, people are welcome to participate in all the general areas (forums, articles, feed, etc)---because this is by all means a welcoming community already---but I think clubs provide an intimate setting to socialize and know people. And TBH clubs are how I've often made friends on and offline! 

I'll mention this just because it comes to mind and I think it relates: I'm not active on devArt anymore, but I do remember when they first implemented their groups feature. The underlying basis there is that everyone loves art, but art comes in different mediums and groups were a big benefit in allowing writers to find each other (poetry was my thing, can't speak for how things went for photographers, etc.) There were some issues within the litcom (IMO), but lit groups made me feel better connected to that site because I had finally found some wonderful people who enjoyed writing plus sharing and critiquing each others work. AFAIK, groups didn't have negative impacts for the overall community.

So for that reason I disagree with the sentiment that clubs divide. They shouldn't be created with an intent to exclude anyone from any certain group or to breakup the MDLfam, but rather unite people with more specific interests. All the while, those other general areas for interacting are still there --- I can't see MDLers at large abandoning these parts of the site to shuttle themselves away to their respective clubs. 

I understand the "groups" things better now.  SO BESIDES asian dramas what other interests do you have for eg mine would be be history, genealogy, gaming, music (currently jpop although not always the case).  

I am all for this I misunderstood I thought clubs within the category of Asian drama (like the forums sort of are now)

Mea culpa