Yes.

Could you elaborate on that a little bit so I could have the benefit of your thoughts on it? I'm not interested in pushing an agenda, and it would help me sort through it.

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

I'm interested in your previous experience because I'm approaching this as an issue of board/community dynamics. What happens when it gets too big? What happens when all the satellite groups lose the center?

I don't see the subcommunities to necessarily be a faction in the negative sense. People get to know each other, they establish relationships - all inevitable. I just think that topic driven threads allow entry into the group more readily. You're not obliged to talk about yourself or know the history of the other posters - just the subject under discussion.

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.

Again, there will always be some subgroups and subcommunities and individual relationships formed. I just think having the equivalent of show threads is healthier for the board long term.

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 felt this way initially. And still kind of do, but now I'm with you in not giving a shit.

whitefont everything for one week, whitefont HSQ until the end of the season?

I can't see this working practically. And that's not even until you get to people that find spoiler font headache inducing.

What I think is the only practical solution is something like the WX TT TV folder. Except I still have to squint when I want to talk about Murphy's Law in the BBCAmerica thread, because I still intend to watch State of Play one day.

Also -- I'm way into saying what our mission isn't, without actually accepting we have one. Our mission? Not WX TT TV. Nor TWOP. We don't have the infrastructure.

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 respect that this is your reaction, but I don't get it at all. Because I don't like a higher %age of Buffy fans than I do of crocheters or martial artists. It's just a thing.

David, for years now the show threads have been to me a subcommunity that I'm not part of.

David, for years now the show threads have been to me a subcommunity that I'm not part of.

I know, and I don't participate in the fic writing threads or Canadians or very much in Minearverse. Perhaps my concern is baseless. But it just seems to me that it would become increasingly difficult to enter a community that was driven solely by personalities than one that had on-topic discussion. Besides, I like the analysis and want it to have new and useful outlets.

I'm only really interested in the quality of discussion here - that's the lifeblood I think. What fosters it and what quells it? I don't know if there are definitive answers, but I do think how we structure the board affects it.

David, for years now the show threads have been to me a subcommunity that I'm not part of.

I'm trying to come up with a way to articulate the distinction between subcommunities and factions that I think David is trying to make. Not speaking for Hec, but my take is this: Of course there are subcommunities, and that's not a bad thing. But those subcommunities are widely overlapping, so while I'm not likely to run into Jesse in the show threads, or David in the music (cuz I'm not there), I do feel myself to be a part of one or another subcommunities here that do intersect with you. [My inner poli-sci geek wants to start talking about cross-cutting cleavages and civil society now, but I'll spare you.]

Without the topic-specific threads (or with fewer of them) it's more likely that I'll spend the bulk of my time in a particular subcommunity, and my linkages to people whose primary relationship is with another one will wither. There, I think, is where David's factions come in - not subcommunities so much as separate communities. (This, it should be noted, is not where we are, or where we're necessarily headed in the short-term, but I do think it's worth discussing as a potential long-term issue.)

I posted this and then the board went wonky and ate my post, so maybe that's my answer, but I shall attempt repost, nonetheless.

Is factionalization bad?

I understand that, ideally, the board is one big happy family. But, the reality is that we're a large group with varied interests. Historically, we shared a common interest in Buffy/Angel, but even that has changed. Over the years, we've morphed into more than just Buffy/Angel devotees.

Is there a concern that we won't be as cohesive with more threads? Or that new thread topics will bring in new people who don't share our original common interest?

I think it is fallacious to say that we're a cohesive group now. Also, right now not everyone here is a Buffy/Angel fan.

But it just seems to me that it would become increasingly difficult to enter a community that was driven solely by personalities than one that had on-topic discussion.

I think this is right, though I don't think there's any particular evidence that it's a problem currently. Just on the general point, it's much, much easier to join a community via a topic--okay, for me it's much easier--than via Natter.

I'm probably your outlier on that question, though; I'm a big fan of topic. I mean, I'm not subscribed to Bitches because the idea of trying to scale those walls intimidates me, and I've been posting here for... God, over two years now.

Without the topic-specific threads (or with fewer of them) it's more likely that I'll spend the bulk of my time in a particular subcommunity, and my linkages to people whose primary relationship is with another one will wither.

But honestly, that's already true. There are tons of people who mostly post in one (or three) threads. There are people in the Angel thread who I don't know at all.

I think what I'm trying to say is, I don't get the difference between someone who only posts in Angel and someone who only posts in Natter, in terms of the Buffistas As One Community notion.