>>24602448Well, originally we had a set list which was Veibae, Snuffy, Momo, and Bunny and the list was established based on a... in hindsight admittedly limited and superficial criteria, which has been "dumbed down to" any vtubers "frequently associated" with the girls. However, back at the beginning, we knew that any VShojo discussion was going to naturally involve certain others because of what we all perceived as public friendship. The original idea for this thread was to be a sort of /vt/ version of "Projekt Melody & Friends" without being a direct ripoff or spinoff of that thread. This was due to /pmg/ literally hating /vt/ and everything about it, so we wanted something that felt familiar but didn't directly feel like we were just /pmg/ on /vt/. So instead of "VShojo & Friends" we became "VShojo+". Anyway, the "friends" part even on /pmg/ has always been an issue, but we were hoping the list of approved +'s would keep any kind of dumb argument to a minimum. So the set list would be people who would be naturally talked about while one or more of the girls was doing something and a lot of it came from Lewdcast guests and the D&D sessions. Every original + was a Lewdcast guest (except Merrydawg and Takahata who at the time was not a vtuber) and / or involved with D&D because, back then, that was really the most "frequent association" we saw. We also included information such as the New Years' collab and Mouse's birthday where we saw a lot of people invited but the common names in all events were the ones we kept as the official list. Of course, now we know more and know better, so the criteria back then was idiotic and based on really generalized and only public information. Indeed, today if we were to use the same criteria of "public information" the + list would be gigantic. It isn't surprising then that the "official list" lasted about 4 months in /vsj+/'s existence before people started questioning it. The first domino that fell was Veibae joining, so we took her off and replaced her with Anny, who at the time looked like she was going to become a friend with multiple girls (at least Nyan and Vei back then). Bunnysperg and other folks questioned the limitation of the list (the former because he was a sperg for taking Bunny off but nobody really listened to him). At the time we debated among ourselves whether the limitation was a good idea because the girls were growing and expanding friendships and there were always questions about whether someone should be added to the list or not (not at all dissimilar to the stupid arguments people have now over who is a "+" or "/lig"). Eventually was just said "fuck the list" and made the only rule that a person could be talked about here if they had a "frequent association" with VShojo or the girls and that very vague definition has stuck ever since because nobody could agree on what would make someone a plus or not. Even back then people were talking about "well we need to have collabs!" or "they need to interact with the girls on social medai!" or other dumb arguments. None of which resulted in anything. The problem was it was too subjective. Even the original spirit because this place, which was to really be for VShojo girls and their FRIENDS was subjective because we don't know shit about what the girls view as friends or not, or who and how they interact with people outside of public discourse.
tl;dr: a "+" is someone who is very obviously a friend to multiple girls. Collabs do not make anybody a plus; public interaction do not make anybody a plus; the GIRLS determine who a plus is by their desire to want to frequently associate with that person. It also has to be girl(s) plural. Silver has friends in Fream and Mira but they're not really friends with the other girls on the same level. Commander Chaos is a friend to Froot but not really anybody else. And so on. So, based on that criteria, if I were to put forth an "approved" list again, it would look like this:
Snuffy
Haruka
Kson
Lord Aethelstan
And that's it. I would then open up the floor to discuss other possibilities such as Takahata, Anny and others I know I am already forgetting, but that's why it would be discussed. I don't consider Shylily to be a "friend" yet to any of the girls because the interactions with her have felt businesslike so far. Could change, who knows, but not right now. The thread would have to hammer it out until a consensus was reached because nobody owns or controls this place. Then we'd figure it out, define the + again and add or subtract names as needed, which is what we should have done in the first place. In short, the + was a bad idea executed horribly and we should have stuck with a list, but a list with better and tighter rules.
