I really like it although I still struggle with being able to answer. At least I understand the questions now!
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I think it’s great, personally. It’s fun to practice writing in Japanese from time to time with no pressure to get it all right. I don’t think I would be writing anything yet if it didn’t exist!
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がんばってよ is fine too, but it sounds like you are currently not satisfied with me and encouraging me to be better. Because of that, it’s often associated with もっと (more) as in もっとがんばってよ. It could be used in a neutral way as well, but it’s often to someone who is lower in status or younger than you. I’m sure you preferred not sounding like that, so I made the change 
よ and ね are a bit tricky subject though. Maybe you’ll find a better explanation in our future article someday.
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Thank you for all of your great feedback! I won’t reply one by one here, unless you write in Japanese and need to be corrected, but I’m reading all of them 
If you haven’t made a comment, more feedback is welcome and appreciated. 
One thing it didn’t come up as a topic but I’m curious to know is what did you guys think about topics going to close in 4 days? Did that feature encourage you to practice because if you didn’t answer, the topic will die.
I revived some of the topics (like say Hi topic) and changed the settings not closing for newcomers, but left some topics RIP. Do you think I should revise them all, or is it okay not to resurrect them? For the future, should I keep up with the 4 day rule, or remove it completely?
Thank you in advance.
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I think it’s really helpful. Sometimes I just like reading the thread to see people’s answers and the corrections you provide. I will try to start participating more regularly again.
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マミさん、こういうスレッドがいいと思いますよ！マミさんの専心は健気なことですね。みんなの参加者を頑張らせていると思います。面白い質問も出すし、会話も続かれるし、すごく勉強になります！
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よかったです。ありがとう！
「専心(せんしん)」ということばは、にちじょうかいわではあまりつかわれないことばなので、かえました。
「健気(けなげ)」も、本人にたいして言うことは、ほとんどなくて、本でのびょうしゃや本人がいないところで「あの人、すごく健気だよね」みたいなかんじでつかいます。りゆうは分かりませんw
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On the one hand, I feel like the questions in the posts are easy and simple to understand for me, to the point that I think that anyone with even a basic understanding of grammar and vocab can write a decent answer so having the answer templates really defeats the whole point of the exercise.
On the other hand, I just get so overwhelmed by the answers given by the other members, by how much grammar and vocab I don’t yet understand, that I feel too worried that my comment are gonna look like I’m not even trying or something.
In fact, I feel like I have a lot more to learn by reading other people’s comments and trying to figure out what they mean, but I don’t want to have to ask them because my japanese is definetly not yet good enough to phrase what exactly I don’t understand only in japanese, and I also don’t want to be the guy how gives up on the whole point of trying to comment only in japanese and start asking questions in english just because he’s too dumb or lazy to figure things out on his own…
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In that case I would say just don’t read the other replies in the posts. Start out by just responding to mami, and build up your confidence from there.
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I personally don’t really answer because of the timing constraints, but more whether I really have to say something in relation to the question, or add something to the discussion that hasn’t been said yet.
I understand that having so many threads open becomes an immense chore to keep up, so I think your time and workload is more important here. A large variety of threads with shorter reaction times (like how it’s done now) is the best way to do this. So I think you’re doing perfectly!
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I think that’s a bad idea.
No. I want to participate in many Japanese only threads. but things could happen. Life calls for example. Other things could be, when I drafted, I was stuck in Japanese grammar I doubted to use, or most probably I haven’t learned the grammar yet, so I put my effort in my draft(s). I use different application(s) for my drafts. Google Keep, Google Docs, Evernote, you name it. I even took about a year just to post one thread.
Although …
Rambling
@Naphthalene 先輩 probably said it better in their own words but let me try to say this in my own words. I hope I can convey what I mean clearly in English. I think it’s more because of my social skills than my language skills. So this is why it really takes efforts for me to talk.Now, now, I want to explain more, but I feel uncomfortable explaining more. So I’ll zip my mouth now. Sorry. I’m even not sure this paragraph is still related to your question, so I just used this details hiding. Anyway. 
Yes, I think you should revive them, but not all if you’re busy. I think WK communities could use this thread to request which thread that needs to be revived because they need to participate.
I think you should remove it completely. One year is ok.
I admire Japanese politeness. Sensei said thank you a lot. Probably if we meet physically you also bow that Japanese bow a lot. Oh sensei. I can’t thank you enough. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! I’m sorry if I don’t thank you enough!
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Like Pep95, the 4-day time limit didn’t really dictate whether I replied or not; it was more dependent on whether I felt I had something to say, and whether I could then say that using my limited knowledge of Japanese.
I understand that it would be quite difficult responding to every post in dozens of 1-year threads, but I don’t think there’s any need to close threads so early. Sometimes a thread which has been dormant for a little while may get relevant and spark new discussion. I know I’ve done that recently. 
And sometimes it’s not even necessarily about correcting our mistakes, but just being able to construct a sentence in Japanese and feeling good about it, even if you don’t get a reply. So I think there’s some value in having these threads remain open, even if you’re not actively responding to them. We can always talk to each other on them, after all!
This would be my solution for you, mami-san:
Have all the threads be 1-year threads. Create a limited number of threads every few days, and respond to these threads for a limited time after they’re made. So for example, you could make a new thread twice a week, and keep ‘active’ in each new thread for a week after they’re made. Once a week is over, you would stop responding in that thread, and it would be considered ‘retired’.
If a thread doesn’t get many responses and naturally dies off within the active time limit, you could retire it early (i.e. stop responding) and start a new one. Maybe you could pin them to the top of the Japanese-only forum so it’s clear which are the active/retired threads? Or do we have a flair system? IDK how anything works lol.
The way I see it, this is the best of both worlds as you’re not stressing yourself by juggling dozens of open threads, but those who may have missed out on an interesting thread can still participate if they want. Those whose main goal is to get help with their grammar will know that they can do so on the active threads, and people who want to just have a conversation can do so on any thread.
Hope that makes sense, feel free to disagree!
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I did not notice this was such a new forum.
I like the idea, but it scares me/makes me feel insecure. I mean, I see people answering all these questions with such long and elaborated sentences! Even begginers! I do not even know how to start building a sentence and I feel like I am missing something or there is something wrong with my learning.
PS: basically what Atlas101 said a few comments above
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I really haven’t payed attention at the forum at all until now. Luckily saw the title of the post while reviewing and took a look at the Japanese Only( Beginners) section. I have to say that its filled with an amazing amount of content that will help me advance with vocab and grammar. Thank you.
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Thank you for your correction, Mamimumason.
I definitely did not mean it in a condescending way, nor am I unsatisfied with your work. I did want to convey a bit more of an emphasis on the “work hard!” aspect of it, tied to the fact that it seems overwhelming to deal with all of the threads, but not in a way that meant you already weren’t working hard. An encouragement, or cheer, rather, was my intention.
I should have known that there was a hierarchy thing going on, too. That’s probably one of the hardest things to get accostumed to, coming from a culture without such customs.
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Don’t mind what you don’t know. The fact that other people know a lot more than you is going to be a reality in hundreds of fields, wherever you go, specially when you’re going to learn. You’re here to improve and you can only do that by allowing yourself to make mistakes, and to not know.
Everybody that’s commenting, no matter their perceived level, is also doing it to practice and improve. To learn. Even advanced users know only a fraction of what is possible to know. We’re all in the same boat.
Reading other comments is great practice, specially when reading Mamimumason’s corrections. But actually trying to think up an answer is going to give you more for your japanese. Go ahead and make mistakes. It’s incredibly rewarding once you get used to it.
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The time constraint was a good incentive, to me. If I had specific vocabulary I wanted to practice, or thought up a specific phrase on the spot, I would immediately do it so as to not lose that opportunity. It also gives me certain peace of mind that you aren’t going to have to reply to an year old thread that’s already mostly inactive, just for me.
I have not yet been in a position where I regret not being able to reply to a specific topic, though. I know new ones are coming eventually.
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I am going to steal part of @xelael’s reponse to @Atlas101 as it’s quite relevant here.
The other thing I would say is, if you don’t know how to build sentences, @mamimumason usually provides a sample answer template for the question she asks in each thread. You can start small, and build up from there. Ignore everyone else’s responses at first and just focus on making your own. I am veeeery far from proficient in Japanese (am probably just around N5 level), so if I can participate, then you can too. 
In the meantime, study up on some grammar to help you get confident with building more and more complex sentences. There are some great free resources out there such as Tae Kim and Imabi (online ‘textbooks’); and Japanese from Zero and Japanese Ammo with Misa (video series).
Pretty much all I have used so far for grammar is the two video series above (and I haven’t even finished them yet), and extensive Googling when trying to say something a bit more complex. I’ve done the first two chapters of Genki as well, but I got through them really quickly as the content had already been covered by the videos.
So the reality is that you can already do a whole lot with just a small amount of knowledge. You will make mistakes, but that’s what mamimumason is here for, so I would fully encourage you to give the threads a go.
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First of all thank you for your reply and words of advice. I will have a look today into those grammar resources that you mentioned and hopefully try soon to answer a couple threads 
I’m new to the community and I absolutely love it. It helps me learn new sentences structure and motivates me to get working.
I really appreciate your hard work. Replying to everyone is not easy job to do.
本当にありがとう！
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