I like the concept of the Recommendations megathread, and I continue to support its existence.
Megathreads are not like regular threads: they aren't for browsing. For recommendation threads in general, the tendency is to just skim the recent pages, make your post, then stick around for a page or two of replies, then leave. It functions to consolidate a lot of mini-discussions.
I don't think there should be an expectation of "You must read every other recommendation before asking about your own tastes", at least for expected giant threads.
The "explain why your like your favorite anime" is a different concept, and probably an interesting starter. But it's not the same as a recommendation, of course.
I appreciate the feedback, even if we disagree.
Then you're stuck with a thread where no one cares. When asking for recommendations of a specific sort, it's different than browsing for just something to look into in general. I.E. I'm looking for a new sports series. I don't want to weed through 6 pages of posts only to find out there's only 4 sports anime listed, all of which I have already seen before. If I make a new post in that thread, then it'll just be people repeating themselves over again which, sorta defeats the purpose, and if anything promotes MORE mini discussions, unless someone is constantly weeding through it and consolidating peoples' posts.
The idea of the "Favorites" thread is that, almost everyone makes a single post, listing their top series, and anyone whose looking for something to watch in general, they can easily browse through the page and see lists of series and quick synopsis and why people like them.
By allowing people to have separate threads for specific recommendations they don't need to filter this out, they only get content they care about for reasons they care about.
I.E. the OP can make this thread, and get series that are suitable for a 13yr. old kid. However, in a mega thread, people don't always list things like "Not appropriate for young teens as there is slight nudity, and it's a little bloodier than some other series". Or they don't list things like "A 13 yr. old might not be able to grasp the concept of this series".
I can talk about... i.e. Chaos;Head. Which is a pretty well done series(though comparatively not even close to the game so far). I can promote it as awesome, and thrilling and great with design... and although it's not nec. Inappropriate for a 13 yr. old to watch, the themes and ideas would go over a 13 yo's head. So the OP might read my post and think it's good for a 13 yr. old, only to find out, it's not good for his nephew, wasting both of their time.
A megathread isn't a bad idea, but it shouldn't remove the purpose of smaller recommendation threads. A megathread is for general, when people are looking for "Anything" to watch/read. Specific threads are for those looking for something. Not to mention there's a part of tastes... in that...
... I can post recommendations for one demographic, but it would totally miss for another demographic that's slightly different. There has to be specifics. If someone asks for a comedy series, I need to know how much anime they watch, and what kind of comedy. I can't recommend series like Zetsubou Sensei, Sun Red, or Koche Kame to people when the references and background needed to actually enjoy the show past the slap stick is quite a lot.
So if the megathread happened as you wanted... it would just be meta discussion after metadiscussion after metadiscussion for people looking for something specific, none of which linking to anything else anyone wants. Then to find something in the thread, you'd have to weed through tons of pages hoping to find a topic that is close to the one you want. Not to mention it's a pain when two different conversations are going on at once, and you have to figure out which posts are referring to what you want, compared to those that you don't want.
Really, separate topics for separate topics. Even if they are requesting stuff, what they are requesting is different per person.
OP: Sorry for the metadiscussion. I request again though that you give us more specifics in what you're looking for, so a better recommendation can be given.