1. How many k-dramas have you watched in total? This year or in my lifetime 😂😂

Tbh I'd just like to have better kdramas, the discussions come in themselves.

I know this is a rather unrelated and unpopular opinion (or only my opinion) but maybe another sister site to expand beyond kdramas can be good for viewers of c, j, thai, tw dramas that don't find a positive community like DB to discuss them.

No mention of Facebook, Twitter as options for source of K-news. Guess, I am growing old for Social Media.

I would like a monthly or weekly "Kdrama Meme" thread. Beanies meme game on fan wall is quite strong.

I wonder if DB is

1. Going to organise a k-festival
2. Planning to add non-drama k-content

Personally i wouldnt really want no 2.
I do like it if they can improve the current site in terms of creating more features for beanies engagement w each other or as @wapz suggested, providing a space for other j/c/thai/tw drama discussions.

I definitely want mainly kdrama-related stuff from this site, but I wouldn't mind having occasional other k-content things as well, like food, culture, kpop, travel, etc. But that's never going to be the primary reason I come here. But I've loved the movie nights, and that frequency feels right to me, for the most part.

I feel like the majority of things I want (that this site is not already doing) are related to interactions/conversations with kdrama fans/other Beanies, because there is pretty much no one in my offline life who watches them.

Done!

I hope my responses have been successfully submitted :)

I would prefer that dramabeans focus on Kdramas. I don't think it's a good idea to expand because Kdramas are already a vast theme.

There are other websites on Kpop or youtube channels for Kfood.

So, as long as it relates to the Kdramas (and not C, J, TW, Thai. I don't mind when people gives their opinion about other dramas, but I would prefer that dramabeans stays focus on Korean ones), I agree.

I think ancillary Korean culture content would help add to the enjoyment and discussion of K-dramas.

personal messaging!!!
Movies content very welcome (release dates, genre categories, lists, upcoming movie festivals regionally
I would really also like an overview and profiles of most known Drama PDs, writers, Movie directors
Hangouts for music shows!
maybe a Dramabeans Calendar feature?
Older dramas - availability - but also for current dramas - where can I watch, which regions available. I have tried to search many but either picture quality is horrendous or it is not available. I remember downloading dramas before 2010, took a veeeeeeeeery long time, before streaming was an option.
Maybe a Dramabeans Star Avenue - every year or month, the dramabeans staff could vote to give a star to 1 actor or actress or soundtrack singer or PD or variety star.

I like how this site is now and people already do talk about dramas from other countries on the open threads. I get that they probably wanna get more in depth but then isn't that when people use their fan walls?

I like how there's been a monthly (I think it's monthly) post about a movie that either everyone has agreed to watch or that's being recommended or just discussed in general.

Once upon a time kvariety shows were covered and I get why that kinda went by the wayside but again, I think if people really wanted to talk about it, they could use the open threads or fan walls. (Sidenote: I'm SO glad those old variety show posts are still up. I just discovered them and it's like watching the episode all over again haha. I love those detailed posts and opinions and insights)

Another thing, Dramabeans has different social media accounts such as youtube & the site formerly known as twitter & instagram if you're into that.

I definitely don't think korean food or kpop needs to a thing here unless it's related to dramas because there's already so many places to write or talk about that.

But now I'm curious, what would you name a Dramabeans sister site?

I like getting Korean history and references to food, locations, actors etc from other Beanies, that’s enough for me except when it isn’t and I have Wikipedia, YouTube and koreandramaland for more research.

If there are changes afoot, my greatest wish is that Dramabeans would load faster.

I would love to see more 'technical' content about kdramas. Like more in-depth stuff about drama structure & screenwriting, how it differs from hollywood. Maybe there are korean books about the industry itself that could be summarized or discussed. Or, for example, Is there a list of all the little plot patterns that they use? Are there Uni courses on drama writing, etc.
I know it's not a huge content area, but I really enjoy watching the drama structure unfold and getting a glimpse behind the curtains would be fascinating.

20 kdramas? Lmao.
I started watching kdramas since 2013, and I’ve lost count.
I just started watching cdramas two years ago and I’ve watched more than 20🤭🤭🤭

I would like to have a book and webtoon open thread for recommendations. I often start a webtoon when I know the drama is coming out and by then they have it behind a pay wall or you can only read it daily with ads and daily passes. There are a few different platforms so it’s hard to justify the payment to finish a couple of webtoons and pay for all the different drama platforms.

Thanks for taking a poll for our opinions, DB staff!😊

This isn’t all relevant, but it seems like as good a place as any to share some additional thoughts (that are perhaps unsolicited!🙏).

1. I don’t think this was even suggested, but I’d really like it if DB didn’t turn into a celebrity news/gossip site. There are websites that do that, and I like that it’s not a focus here. That’s not to say that I’m above it - I was very excited when I heard that Son Ye Jin and Hyun Bin were a real life couple, I watch variety shows, and look up actors on Instagram, etc. - it’s just that I like the focus being on the shows and the acting and I think it’s part of the reason the community is so lovely.

2. I’d love a way to have bookmarks, so that it’s easier to return to the posts and the comments I want to revisit

3. The DB team already do a great job selecting themes and threads to invite discussion about multiple dramas at once. This is one way that post-drama discussion is already being encouraged and cultivated!

4. I agree with @Reply1988 and others that a private messaging feature would be great. Sometimes I worry about beanies who have gone quiet so it would be nice to have some way to check in with those beanies without publicly calling out to them via an @ on our fan wall.

5. I look forward to @welh’s weekly posts in the Open Thread because they include news or cultural insights. I don’t know if this kind of content can be formalised, but I appreciate understanding more about the cultural, historical, societal and political (etc.) context of dramas. Would it be possible for posts and comments like this to be tagged in some way? Then beanies who like that sort of content can find it more easily; otherwise, it’s easy to miss, especially when it happens on fan walls.

6. DB is the most fun when you can participate during a kdrama’s live airing. Comments sections for older dramas become very quiet after they air. I’m not sure what can be done about this, but it might be nice if perhaps people can subscribe to the comments section of a drama so that they are alerted when people comment on those dramas later. It’s like a way to say you’re happy to discuss it again with people who didn’t manage to watch it whilst it aired. But people who watch a show later still miss out on the contemporaneous fan wall activity, which is a shame! So maybe an option to tag fan wall posts with a drama name and episode number might be nice? (Sorry my wish list is very long!!)

7. I sometimes wonder how to make participating easier for lurkers and introverts. Maybe there can be more than just a like/thumbs up option? Like a heart, laugh, sad/tear-y face, and thinking option as well?

Sorry I seem to have a very long wish list!😅 This is not to say I am unhappy - DB is my favourite place on the internet, so thank you for what it already is!

Personally, I really like the News section because I don't read Korean and also don't search around for stories or websites that cover Korean entertainment in English. I'd be happy to see that type of content expand to include a deeper dive into general entertainment industry news or happenings. I understand dramabeans doesn't want to get into the more gossipy coverage of actors and their personal lives, but it would be interesting to read and join a discussion about an interesting interview an actor, writer, or director gave or something like that.

I would like to expand the film news bites and even the CM/commercial/advertising news bites (including the Kdrama actors and actresses and even Kpop stars).

Also, I would suggest to do a weekly update of PPLs on any ongoing Kdramas (including clothing/fashion?).

I've said this before, but if recappers are given the time, space, and pay to write comprehensive recaps, we will get all the ancillary cultural information we need. Plus beanies always add to that in the discussion. So I say stick to recaps Dramabeans! It's what sets you apart from other sites.

Watching all these comments go by today, I just want to mirror each and every Beanie who said (or implied) that Dramabeans is their favorite corner of the internet. It certainly has become mine.

Yes, it could load faster because ugh JavaScript ugh WordPress ugh ugh 2017 (I loathe stating technical quibbles...but please let this be on the docket, pretty please...even if only for our Mother Bean @reply1988 whose internet isn't strong).

But, the community that has gathered here is golden. I'll contribute anything I am able to contribute in order to protect it.

So, could I add... @db-staff You've asked us for what we want to see here...is there anything more that you need from us apart from ten trillion opinions??

I nearly want to beg for an easier way to access the tag index page, the WWW posts, and the drama chat posts. There is a long drop-down list on the recaps page, please please consider adding these 3 tags to it too. Or anywhere else on the site that you prefer, and is within 2 or 3 clicks, not me searching for dramabeans tag index page on google!

Thank you for seeking our input! I very much appreciate the DB staff. Not only are your posts informative and fun, you've found a way to monitor comments so they are respectful. Having participated in various other online groups, I can't over emphasize how important this is. I love coming here for the humor, shared interests, and the fact that as an introvert I feel safe posting comments.
🫘Beansprout🌱 award for DB staff for creating a friendly and welcoming space!

As others have already noted, I would love some tech updates. Pages load excruciatingly slowly, and pages freeze so often that it's now my habit to frequently copy as I write so I won't lose anything. Happening again as I write this!! Also a adding place for tech needs: support contact info, how to's for fan wall entries and general directions etc.

In response to the questions, I'm really fine with site continuing to focus primarily on k-dramas, with occasional forays into film or other types of TV shows (I feel like there are lots of other resources for k-pop, fashion, etc. and that the fandoms for those areas don't always overlap with dramas). The most helpful thing might be providing more ways to interact with other Beanies (for instance a feed of posts by folks you follow so "following" actually means something, or the ability to search for Beanies so you could see their latest posts or a way to message specific Beanies).

I haven’t read all the comments yet but I would love a Korean book club! We could have discussions on the Hangout Thread dedicated to the book of the month or more realistically quarterly? A summary would be nice with questions to propel discussion. Yes I’m suggesting this as I want to be more accountable with my reading!

The options for the first question are strange. Exactly what kind of useful information do you expect to get out of those results?

Similarly the rest of the survey isn't very suited to how I consume dramas or media or Korean related anything, and I find the questions worded weirdly and suspicious, and since I can't leave certain ones blank, I'm sorry, I didn't submit my answers for it.

Maybe try fixing the fact that your site can't handle any post with over 100 comments and keeps breaking, first, before you try launching a Kdrama Con or any other major site updates and content changes lol.

Making the site more user friendly as it is NOW, and cleaning up the dozens of glitches and bugs that have been around since 2017, I think would be of greater benefit to you and your user base.

I know sites are more and more concerned with how they can keep running and making money to keep running, but all around me are sns platforms becoming carbon clones of one another, and becoming less and less usable for the general person, and less and less interested in quality of use, and the quality of content on them, just as I become less and less inclined to use them or engage at all.
Your open forum and recap discussion platforms are your strongest features, I think making those better versions of their current selves, and not biting off more than you can chew would be more recommended than anything else.

(Only @kayedrama and I will remember this but the private messaging that was briefly available in a limbo version of Dramabeans that existed only between site updates in 2017 sometimes still haunts me to this day haha)

Suggestion: I'd love a column (maybe right under the "Currently Airing" column?) that lists start dates of upcoming dramas for, say, the next 2 weeks or 4 weeks. Maybe said list could be updated maybe weekly, when the "Currently Airing" column updates. Right now, I have to trawl through the News Bites to figure out what's coming next on which channel and unfortunately, my memory does not serve me well!

Definitely want to stick with kdramas as the main content. The recaps and interactions with other viewers are the best things about Dramabeans.

I would like to see more tech and site improvements. Faster loading times. And the Drama Hangouts to be promoted better, like in the top header with the other sections or at least in the side column with a list of the current drama hangouts. I see they're in the Featured section, but there's limited space there and there's a lot of images on the Dramabeans' front/home page so they can all be a blur.

Beanies have said almost everything I’d have wanted to say, so I’ll just say this one thing no one has mentioned: I think the SEARCH function is not very advanced, it only works when we key in the EXACT name of the show. Say, if I want to look for WHERE STARS LAND, I would have to type FOX BRIDE STAR, and even FOX BRIDE STARS wouldn’t work. Now I don’t even remember which name WHEN THE WEATHER IS FINE goes by on DB 😅 Of couse I can go to the google page, type the name of the show in whichever order I remember, and also type “dramabeans” as one of the key words, then google would show me the link to DB. But it would be cool if the search function on DB can detect a show by different names.

Thank you so much for taking community opinion into account. There are some good suggestions around the content of the site, but I'm with everyone who says content is not the issue (because it's great).

Instead, I would improve both the technical performance of the current site and its functionality, esp. in ways that enhance user engagement. At this point, many of us come here for community as much as we do for content.

Jumping in for some general feedback: I think this site is brilliant and offers so much valuable information about all things kdrama. I especially like the “series/show context” showing up atop the recaps pages, and the easy access to find all matching episode recaps once you’re on such a page.
However, navigating sometimes is not easy and I would greatly appreciate adding a more sophisticated search engine, so that I could find dramas I’m interested in more easily. I find that I do have to know the exact name of a drama to find said context page - which sometimes I don’t because other titles are used in my region. I sometimes use Google to solve that problem, but it would be nice to have a dedicated search here. Features could be wildcard text search, multiple search criteria (say I want to find dramas with genre “rom-com” featuring specific actors), or even a recommendation engine (yes, that is not specifically a search feature but solves the same use case), so that I get to see other content I might be interested in.

That being said, I know how difficult it can be to develop these things. And before that was done, I’d have a look at overall site performance and introduce features to enhance that (like lazy loading of comments, since those seem to be the main factor when it comes to increased loading times, etc.)

But even without all that I’m pretty happy about the community that was created on this page, and can easily live with the status quo. Recaps & discussion threads to those are after all the main reason I’m on here. 😆 I don’t need other content…

One reason I started to frequent this site was that some bloggers and a lot of commenters provided linguistic, sociological and historical context. I also really like it when there are book recommendations. I know that's kind of intellectual for a television discussion site that concentrates heavily on rom-coms! Yet one of the things that makes Korean TV addictive is the constant feeling of things being familiar and alien by turns. I would love it if every time there is a poem on a drama if there was a link to more by the poet or a translation, for example. I do google old songs to find videos on youtube, but it would be great to have a leg up on those. Like in the recent drama Not Others, there's a scene where the grandma sings a little song to the baby. I would love a link to someone performing the song. I might be weird though.

I do not need links to Korean food content as I am already watching "over 20" Korean food-content providers on youtube! I know from running a website in the distant past that nothing gets clicks like recipes, though.

So many I lost count long ago.

Almost everything I needed to say has been said, but here are my thoughts that I hope have not already been told by someone else:
a) This feels like a home away from home, and I have not said that for any site, not even Facebook, for about a decade now.
b) What makes it unique is its Kdrama content. There are fabulous shows from other countries, but something about K-dramas hits different. For example, when watching What Happens To My Family, I cried. Not the sniffling-dainty-tissue-dabbing kind of crying but the real, gut-wrenching, sobbing kind of crying. I cried so much that my head hurt for two days (especially episodes 40-43, which kills you.) Or, I have watched a drama and have become so obsessed that I still think about it months after it was over. Or, there is this one drama that didn't seem as exciting WHILE I was watching it, but it grew on me to the point that it keeps popping into my mind unannounced....this has NEVER happened with any other drama ever in my life. You like something, or you don't. But a story on screen that can take a life of its own - it's a first. So please, do not even think of diluting it. K-drama all the way! (Now, if we could find a way to reach the scriptwriters and tell them to learn about how to end a drama successfully.....)
c) I agree about revamping the site. I became a proud premium supporter recently. I am happy to contribute more if that would mean the site managers could free the site of bugs or transfer to a faster server.
d) I would love to learn more about the favourite actors/actresses of the beanies, so featuring an actor per week could be an option? Especially if they have other interests we could look up - theatre, for example. The newbies like us only tend to know the pretty faces that pop up all over the Insta and TikTok. Learning about other actors (INCLUDING those pretty faces, of course) would be nice. There were recently Park Seo Joon and Jun Ho topics that generated some fantastic discussions.
e) Last but not least, this site's kinship is made possible because of the extraordinary beanie admins, so I want to give a shout-out to all of you.

I would love more Korean Movie content! But with the many movies coming out in a year's time I can imagine that would be too time and space consuming. So I'd rather just more Kdrama content! Keep up the good work Beanies. 👍 😊