Which I'd put with House, because of the medicalness, though I don't watch any other medical-ish shows.

Which means I pretty much won't be in that thread to discuss Bones because I don't watch House but have plans to, as such I won't in it.

Sigh.

Really? I mean, House is very episodic - I find that my tolerance (and recall) of spoilers is markedly different for shows like that than for shows with a sustained arc.

Yeah.

I get the cross-pollination position. And I think there's some merit to it.

But people who don't want to be spoiled for a particular show that's included in a bucket thread with a show they're watching and want to discuss? What do we do with them?

Bucket threads and cross pollination will not please everybody. Of course I know we're not going to please everybody anyway. This is why I also think there's some merit in deciding not to discuss TV at all any more -- the people who don't want a bucket thread system, or conversely the people who don't want single show threads, whichever one we pick, we're explicitly telling the other camp we don't discuss TV here, because the end result is the same for them. There are no threads for them to discuss what they want to discuss, with the people they want to discuss the show with.

That's the real problem in all of this. One way or another, there's going to be a portion of the board we're telling to go somewhere else for the discussion they want.

Well, we're never going to not discuss TV -- that's just silly. Also, we all know there's no way to please all of the people all of the time, which is why we have days of formal discussion on proposals and voting with a minimum participation level. As a group, we've decided that's the best way to make decisions. I don't know what the answer is, but I know that there's never going to be concensus about it.

Really? I mean, House is very episodic - I find that my tolerance (and recall) of spoilers is markedly different for shows like that than for shows with a sustained arc.

When it comes to shows and spoilers I tend to have a very long memory. As much as I'd like to be able to skim and then forget stuff that's just not how my brain works. I've not watched House so I don't know how episodic it is.

Short version of all of this seems to be that we have two types of folks here. Some like bucket threads and how that works, some like single show threads and how that works. Those two things seem pretty non-mixy to me. At the end of it all whichever camp has the majority will get the threads as they like it and the other camp won't. I don't see much of a way around it.

This is why I also think there's some merit in deciding not to discuss TV at all any more

Have you met us?

I'm fine with the current setup, but not discussing television would make me unhappy.

I don't watch the shows discussed in Natter. I'm a year behind on Dr. Who. I don't have premium channels and I'm not likely to. I like Supernatural, but in a rather distant, non-squeeing way. The board is unlikely to want to discuss L&O: CI, even though I'd like some discussion of it beyond "OMG. Vincent is so hottt!!!!" I just don't think we can be all things to all people.

Which means I pretty much won't be in that thread to discuss Bones because I don't watch House but have plans to, as such I won't in it.

Hmmm. A puzzlement I'm not sure how to resolve.

Some like bucket threads and how that works, some like single show threads and how that works.

I think the issue, though, is more that some shows won't sustain a thread. Those are tougher issues than the ones that probably could go on their own. It is a hard balance. Is the current arrangement (whitefont in Natter) working better for you than you think a mixed thread would?

Frankly, I'd probably get more mileage out of separate BSG and SG threads - and I suspect that both of those are among our heavier trafficked shows, and could probably thrive. Are there others among the current batch that would be worth giving a trial run, maybe in conjunction with a (trial) bucket thread or two?

One problem is that it's so seasonal. While Eureka is on the air, it could certainly support its own thread, but not during the six-month hiatus.

At the end of it all whichever camp has the majority will get the threads as they like it and the other camp won't.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the voices of anti-proliferation have not typically come out on top when it comes to voting. We have a VM thread, a Lost thread, and a Heroes thread.

Right now, the main shows that people have proposed adding to Premium (character-driven morally ambiguous arcy FX dramas) are either not discussed at all, or are discussed fleetingly and superficially in Natter. Right now, there's no discussion to exclude anyone from, because our current thread structure isn't optimized for such a discussion to occur in the first place.