Anime News Network.

These forums are a lot like Forumwarz in that they’re a huge battleground for pompous windbags, pseudo-intellectuals and hardcore fanboys to bash their heads together, but ANN is a bit special in that it sold out to the man a couple years back, and so puts up a guise of impartiality to what was originally a proto news blog/fansite.

Under the guise of looking professional, the rules are structured as such that almost any poster will be tolerated within bounds. You can get away with almost all kind of abrasive criticism toward anyone so long as you flesh out your posts. My favourite target was the former columnist for the Answerman weekly, but because the forums are also a vehicle for anime industry reps, you can also attack specific companies as well by posting criticism right in their face.

It is VERY easy to troll this place or derail topics. Just put out a large canned argument in one of the first few replies to a certain topic, and all posts after that will be in response to your views. You can also get people to shut up, defend your view point or egg them into a fight by citing your “credentials”, because that adds “legitimacy” to your arguments and most people on that site know they talk out of their arse.

ANN is also the only place to date where I have received real “deliveries”. People would send me PMs about how much they appreciated me telling off the people they didn’t like, because they couldn’t put their feelings into words or were too afraid of being banned.

The primary barrier to entry at ANN is you need a fairly developed knowledge of anime, psychology, philosophy, sociology and economics. It can all be BS, but you need some general concepts to sell your ideas. Wikipedia is a good sub for anime experience. Psychology/Philosophy/Sociology/Economics need to be taught, but intuitive Logic can sub for Psychology/Philosophy/Sociology.