ita--

I am not sure why I am vaguely discomfitted by not having a common ground. It is more not having a common ground to add new people (which will happen regardless). So I could be assured that any new person MOST LIKELY was a fan of TV shows I was also a fan of. And that would make them less ike a stranger to me.

I am not being objective or trying to speak for anyone other than myself. It just makes me feel weird that maybe we don't know who we are, and I am reaching for a way to define it so that my brain can stop thinking about it.

msbelle, the spoiler policy for the movies thread as given in the thread header is:

Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.

We tend to be pretty cautious in practice.

Using that as a guideline for a general TV thread, maybe whitefont everything for one week, whitefont HSQ until the end of the season? Though I don't think a general thread is the best idea because the spoiler problem would be so huge.

But we don't just get along because we all liked Buffy, if we did we would enjoy other Buffy boards too. And we don't stop getting along or having things in common or very likely having likes and dislikes wrt to media of all sorts just because the shows are off the air. You are still Sophia to me with or without a Buffyverse or other ME shows.

The interest driven threads pull people out of just their cozy pockets (I think) and maintain lines of discussion which foster the whole community.

But historically, I don't think this has been the case.

But historically, I don't think this has been the case.

Do you think my basic premise is unsound? I think trending towards natter threads without a tighter focus will encourage factionalization. I think interest driven threads focus the discussion on specific things which draws people in who feel able to join the conversation because it's on topic, and that they don't have to feel like they don't belong because they haven't spent months chatting in Bitches.

I do think historically the music thread and the literary thread have pulled people in from other groups.

What's your experience in other boards, Ple?

Do you think my basic premise is unsound?

Yes.

What's your experience in other boards, Ple?

Screw other boards. My experience *here* has been that factionalization increases with each new thread.

I think because of meeting and natter and lj and backchannel that factionization has already happened. The people I don't post with I probably wouldn't post with in a thread about why I am always right.

I do think historically the music thread and the literary thread have pulled people in from other groups.

Barely. Especially wrt the music thread. It's a pretty small number of posters in there, and it's a fairly intimidating group, honestly. I'll post there because I don't give a shit, but I can definitely see people not wanting to get into it because the stuff they want to talk about is the wrong stuff.

I can definitely see people not wanting to get into it because the stuff they want to talk about is the wrong stuff.

And of course that's self-perpetuating. I'm much more likely to post about Neko Case there than Evanescence, because I know one is "right" to like and the other isn't, but probably more people have opinions on Evanescence.

I'm not sure I see a solution, though, other than Jesse cloning herself.

Well, it's not like I post in there a lot anyway. Even in the movies thread, which I feel like should be much less like that, I feel like more often than not, I'm posting into a void. Don't know why, it's not a huge issue, but there it is. Every thread is different.