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.

If we go with trial threads we could do both - it's just that the single show threads would need to generate enough talk on their own to justify their existence whereas most bucket threads should be able to hit that mark easily.

I think the broad bucket threads in bon's proposal are probably too big.

But it might be worth trying that approach anyway and see what kind of dynamic it stirs up. My gut is that we'll get a kind of TV land Natter in there, but that might be enough to sustain regular conversation on many shows.

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?

Natter doesn't work for me, there's too much going on in there. For me I kinda like a slow moving thread. I can't keep up with a lot of posts. I don't mind the idea that a thread might be pretty quiet a lot of the time and then pick up when something interesting happens on the show, or only have a lot of activity on the night that the show airs.

I feel like the sticky point to bucket threads is not the people who don't watch some of the shows; they can skim. But bucket threads seem to be a problem for people who don't want to hear details for shows that have aired, but that they haven't watched and don't intend to watch for at least several months. And while I have sympathy (as the woman who never sees a movie until it comes to Netflix), I do think that it places a bit of a burden on the rest of the community to try to accommodate that wish.

That's not to say that I don't see the burden that it otherwise puts on the people who want to remain in the dark. I can see why it feels like one is being excluded, but I don't think that's actually what is happening.

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.

I guess I don't understand why it's a big problem if a thread sits quiet for a few months while a show is on hiatus. Threads for shows that aren't on hiatus will pick up.

Okay. Which shows, though? Honestly, so far it seems like the shows that are currently in Boxed Set could manage that. Possibly several of the Premium ones. That kind of supports the bucket thread idea - that they're generating sustained discussion.

For the shows that don't have a home currently - what shows do we think we want more discussion of, and what shows do we think will generate that kind of conversation? The shows that SA mentioned first off, maybe - but I get the idea that the bucketing was kind of the point there. So which shows are we thinking might be good for at least a provisional one-show thread? Most of the shows currently housed in Natter - I don't know. I don't see it for House or Bones. A bucket for reality would save me some scrolling, but I certainly don't see any that would hold up a thread. Maybe SPN or Friday Night Lights. Others?

And if bucket threads will help us suss that out, maybe we should start there anyway. Even if it won't help everybody, it's still a net gain for discussion.

A bucket for reality would save me some scrolling, but I certainly don't see any that would hold up a thread.

TAR, Survivor, Project Runway, Top Chef, ANTM...am I missing any? The trouble is they've all got weirdly short seasons so posting about them tends to happen in bursts. (And they don't lend themselves to deep sustained discussion, regardless, because they are by their nature shallow and fluffy, which works well for Natter.)

Oh, I agree. I do think there would be a little more posting in a bucket thread, but I think it works very well in Natter, and the whitefont poetry is kind of fun. I just wanted to come up with as complete a list as I could of what's in Natter these days anyway.

I feel like the sticky point to bucket threads is not the people who don't watch some of the shows; they can skim. But bucket threads seem to be a problem for people who don't want to hear details for shows that have aired, but that they haven't watched and don't intend to watch for at least several months. And while I have sympathy (as the woman who never sees a movie until it comes to Netflix), I do think that it places a bit of a burden on the rest of the community to try to accommodate that wish.

For me it tends to be that I want to avoid a bucket thread until I have had a chance to watch a show a couple of days after it has aired. I have found it easy to skim over SPN postings and not retain anything that will keep me from enjoying the show if I decide to rent or buy the DVDs, but I sometimes forget to skim past the posts for a show I do watch, like Dresden Files.

The problem with any bucket thread is that some people will lag behind and don't want to be spoiled on other shows.

The advantage of any bucket thread is that it will encourage more cross pollination and is a bit more in keeping with the community as it has existed. That is, it builds some new commonality instead of moving more towards splintering.

The advantage of the single show threads is you don't have to worry about cross spoilage.

The disadvantage is that it moves towards more splintering.

Pluses and minuses on both sides.

How do you want to play it?

Broad general bucket threads? A drama thread?

Buckets put up by proposal, but with the probationary elements?

Buckets and single show threads all done with easy set up, quick pruning?

Damn. You go away for a holiday weekend, you come back to a discussion that's sustained itself well beyond your initial proposal.

I figured we were going to end up discussing the thing we started talking about in the Heroes thread discussion here when I brought up the Premium expansion. Something would have happened and we would have brought this up eventually. I don't think the way we talk about television serves us in the best way, and I think one of the main reasons we are here is to discuss television with people we like. Namely us. So it is a good thing that we're talking this out--though it's not quite what I had wanted for something I thought would pass on a bullshit consensus!

Originally, when I put forth the Premium expansion, it was with the idea that bucket threads are one of the net positives of our community. They bring a lot of people who watch different shows in contact with one another, foster show pimpage (look at all the people who have given SPN a try because of such enthusiastic watchers in Boxed Set!), foster cross-show discussion and multi-show meta talk, keep up a medium posting volume (excepting show nights), and still manage to have continuous discussions about show X while show B is being squeed about. Boxed Set is the best example of this, and Premium is similar but to a lesser degree--smaller pool of shows, smaller group of people in there posting regularly, smaller post volume.

This is not to say single-show threads don't work, because they obviously do. We started with single-show threads, and with shows that have become really popular with our community, they are also a net positive, because they offer focused discussion that is easy to navigate too if you've just caught the show or are a newbie.

But, for me and apparently for a number of other people, bucket threads are attractive and work for the reasons I stated above. And I think that, generally, they are the best option for us as a community because they keep us that quirky, pimptastic, mutual-squee place that we are.

However, I'm not in favor of a "drama" bucket thread, or a "comedy" bucket thread. I think those categories are too large. I think they could sustain discussion, but I don't think could sustain *focused* discussion, which is in part the point of any thread we put together. Like brenda pointed out, there is some other kind of categorization we use that is harder to suss out, but (in my opinion) more worthwhile overall. Something like a procedurals thread would be more in keeping with that idea--there's a distinctive component of those shows that set them apart from the idea of "drama", and I think there's enough cross-watching among the audience that a discussion would be sustained.

I spent the weekend trying to figure out what, exactly, made it so obvious to me that the FX shows I mentioned would fit in with Premium where it was not as obvious to other people. And one of those things was season length. HBO and Showtime shows tend to have short, focused seasons, somewhere between 6 and 13 episodes (generally). The FX shows have been doing the same. Such short, focused, limited seasons are a component of the genre I was trying to establish through "cussin and fuckin" shows. I don't know if that helps any. But I think I would still like to add the FX original dramas to Premium, whatever we decide to do wrt new threads.

Also, I think reality shows sustain themselves fine in Natter; as Jessica said, they are short bursts of fluff that lend themselves to a flurry of "omg" posts and then are rarely talked about again. But shows like Bones and House, Grey's, Numb3rs, Friday Night Lights--those are all shows I think we can and have discussed with more focus and thought in the past and could be sustained in a bucket thread of some kind. (And Psych! It would be great to talk Psych. It doesn't quite fit Boxed Set, 'cause he's only a fake psychic.)

The other thing about Bucket threads that I think are a net positive is that they can mutate and grow with whatever shows come up (continued...)