Even without strict thread-nannying, I don't think it's practical to have parallel TV-talk in multiple threads. If there's already a conversation in progress over in Network Drama, bringing up the same show in Natter isn't going to have much traction unless people want to cross-post and repeat themselves.

So while I appreciate the spirit of "these threads weren't meant to take anything away from Natter," I don't think it's ever going to work out that way, no matter how nice we all are about it. Having a thread dedicated to Topic X will inevitably move most Topic X talk out of Natter.

---

I'll chime in as liking the new TV threads, and liking that this discussion is NOT in Natter any more, because I never kept up with it, or sometimes never even saw discussion on some shows, because of the speed at which said discussion flew by, and it was too diluted by everything else.

That being said, I'd say the most successful is a tie between Network Drama and Non-Fiction. Network Drama has the most posts, but Non-Fiction seems to have caused the most cross-pollination discussion.

Comedy is doing well, but about 200 posts behind the other.

Cable Drama is doing quite poorly, but it's hard to say if that's because of the whitefont thing (I don't think so), or if it's because the only show we're actually discussing right now in there is The Riches, and not everybody's catching it on first broadcast.

---

It didn't catch. It was also just hard to find it if I was looking for it. It always seemed to happen when I wasn't around. I also don't watch a lot of the stuff that had a sizable Natter audience.

I don't think that has much to do with you not being at your computer while watching it, though. Not only am I on Pacific delay, I TiVo a bunch of stuff and don't have a computer in the room with the TV.

---

I don't think that has much to do with you not being at your computer while watching it, though.

I may have misinterpreted the TV talk I'd come across. It always seemed to me to be going on while the show was on, or soon after it was over, but I could be wrong because I don't watch GA, TAR, AI, House, and many of the other [memfault] shows I can remember seeing getting talked about in Natter.

---

I just never felt like there was much TV talk going on in Natter.

Actually, that's not true. I felt like there was always TV talk going on in Natter, but I was never a part of it, because I couldn't find it, or was 1,000+ posts behind or something.

Also, I frequently felt that if I did find TV discussion later, I would respond, but the person I was responding to had said something 150 posts ago and wouldn't notice or remember, or would reply themselve -- in about 300 posts, where I probably won't see it.

So, instead of solving our problems, this only seems to have given ammunition to both sides.

There are people who are happy with the way these threads have worked, and there are people who are not.

But there are people who were not happy with how it worked before, and think it works better now. So how do we resolve this? I'm at a loss.

On actually constructive things -- I think of all the threads we created, the Non-Fiction thread seems to be most capable of, and best candidate for continuing more or less as-is. Few people are afraid of cross spoilage, and there have been several cases of successful cross-pollenation to new shows in the thread.

---

Also, these days, there's probably always going to be some kind of reality show on, so that thread will always be able to generate traffic.

---

The good thing is, we don't have to resolve this. We let the experiment run its course. After that people can (but don't have to) propose any sort of TV thread they want, and we'll each have a little more of an inkling about what we do and do not like about discussing regular TV outside of Natter.

People who prefer to discuss [whatever shows] in Natter, will know that from experience, and vote against the proposals. People who want their talk to happen outside of Natter will know that from experience, and can vote for the proposals that work for them.

(If anyone proposes anything, that is. And they may not.)

---

So how do we resolve this? I'm at a loss.

Voting works pretty well. At least whenever we've been at loggerheads in discussion, the votes usually clarify things.

That noted, this discussion is useful to me because it does make clear that there are people who miss TV in Natter, whereas I never talked TV in Natter.

It seems like there's some sentiment to let the experimental threads run out, and then consider voting on new threads - bucket or single show - before the fall seasons start. I do think the non-fiction thread has provided the most cross-pollination service.

---

yes. I can think of several times when people have been pointed towards the experimental threads when they bring up TV shows, and I am pretty sure this happened with ita and GA once even after she had expressly said "those don't work for me".

Okay. I guess I just didn't see those as "shooing". Someone who was in the conversation said hey, we have a thread for this! And people said "not for me, thanks" and... just different interpretations, I guess. And a couple of people chiming in on the same topic can make you feel dogpiled, no matter what the topic, of course.

Now, if the question is whether discussion is harder to sustain in Natter now than previously - I'd buy that. I'm not sure there's any way around that via whitefont rules, for Natter, anyway. What whitefont rules would make those of us who are staying out of the threads for spoilage reasons happier?

---

If the threads are going to be closed down after the end of the experiment, then I'm proposing we keep them open. If someone has a counter-proposal for a specific show thread or a variant, I think it's time to propose.

If the threads are going to be kept open while we decide what we're going to do, I'm happy with that.

---