One thing about Lightbulb, the proposal used to open it need not be the proposal that is put to vote.

My problem with going into lightbulb is that once we do that, the clock is ticking. We might need more than three days to figure out what exactly needs to be proposed. If we could specially open Lightbulb for, say, 10 days to hash this out, I would be fine with moving the discussion.

I still think that a poll to figure out what shows people are watching/want to talk about would be a good first step; NovaChild's list could work. The amount of discussion a show currently generates is only a rough indicator of people's interest. I know I've taken my discussion of shows without their own threads to other forums, and I don't think I'm the only one. (Maybe I am, but that would make me sad.)

And seconding Fred Pete's point about Previously.

I still think that a poll to figure out what shows people are watching/want to talk about would be a good first step;

I think that's a good idea - I'd avoid questions like "which shows would you want a thread for" or anything too specific personally, but it'd be interesting to have a gauge of what things are grabbing our interest. Maybe a double checklist to differentiate between "watching" and "want to discuss."

I don't know if I can articulate why the idea of a "what are we watching?" poll bugs me, but it does.

Primarily, I feel like such a poll assumes that we will be creating non-ME individual show threads at some point, and I feel like we haven't finished having that discussion yet. I feel very strongly about splintering the community as little as possible.

semi-related question:

Is it safe to assume that any new ME TV show would get it's own thread?

Woo hoo! Are we finally having the "Who Are We, And Where Are We Going?" discussion? I'd much rather have that than a "what tv shows do we like?" discussion.

That said, I don't really have anything to say, oddly. I don't think we have an urgent need to be opening new threads, just because the ME shows are over. People still talk about Buffy, don't they?

(I think that thread proliferation fractures the community too, but that's just subjective).

I think the community is already fractured, and that's OK. Every time I go into a thread I don't usually go into, I see names I don't recognize. There are too many of us already to be all one big mass. I see the fractures as neutral.

Yeah, I'm sort of with Jesse. We have a natural tendency to want to be all things to all people, but even with those of us I'd term "regular" posters, there seems to be a big divide in the way we use the board. Some people are largely in the community threads like Natter and Bitches. Some people only hang out in spoilers. The comics people are in Other Media. The fic people are in Fic and Buffista Fic. Even Minearverse has its own subculture now.

Personally, I'd love some kind of TV thread--because while I enjoy the occasional discussion of, say, Joan of Arcadia, I also when reading Natter or Bitches want ot catch up on the random...um...natter. And if I dont' watch JoA for a day or two, I'm not going to go back 300 posts and figure out where the discussion was. If there's a TV thread, I can just not read it until I've watched the episode.

Meara is me. I like a lot of shows that I know other Buffistae like (the OC being the primary one) and, as the luddite without the home computer, I've never been able to hear what other Buffistae have said about various episodes, or comment on it myself. I'm all for a general tv thread (and always have been), not so much separating it by genre or specific show.

And my general feeling right now is that a general tv thread would be annoying for nearly everybody, and there aren't any shows out there that warrent their own thread. Not that I would tell anyone not to propose something they thing there's an audience for, just that I don't think I would second it, nor vote for it.

and, as the luddite without the home computer, I've never been able to hear what other Buffistae have said about various episodes, or comment on it myself.

people will still watch and post from home, so even in a show specific thread you are going to have to go back and look for the discussion you missed while at home.

I am firmly in the leave everything alone camp. I find it interesting that posts are not racking up in here at a high speed as they do when something sets people on edge.

Woo hoo! Are we finally having the "Who Are We, And Where Are We Going?" discussion? I'd much rather have that than a "what tv shows do we like?" discussion.

That is the kind of conversation I wanted to have too, I was just approaching it from a there's-the-gap POV. I'm finding myself wishing for some sort of bureau script, so that I'll have the right buzz words on hand. Essentially, I just can't figure out how to approach anything so vast and ill defined, without breaking it into chunks.

When we've had similar who-are-we/who-do-we-want-to-be conversations, the general decision is that we're a pop-culture board with a penchant for ME's work and Tim's work. This is part of the reason we've decided against a general genre thread, a politics thread, war thread, or whatever. We can't and don't want to be all things to all people. Now, ME is no longer putting out work. Tim's working on something we can't see for a while. Which part of "Who Are We, And Where Are We Going?" would you want to look at? Isn't the overall picture stable, and this is just the one area with a gap? That was my impression. I wanted to figure out whether or not we needed to fill the gap, or if it was now so small, we could just walk right over it. That's all.