This has been an interesting discussion to follow. I've been around a couple of years, although more lurky than posty for a large chunk of that time, and I'd say this. While there is certainly something I'd call the Buffistas Way or Buffistas Spirit or whatever that describes that certain je-ne-sais-quoi that is composed of snark and irreverence and warmth and verbosity and uncomprising intelligence and wittiness and yeah, being conversant in the language of pop culture, this board has also long been very different things to different people. I know there are many folks who primarily hang out in Natter or Bitches, etc. and interact with one another in a loosely social context--and while I know of several of them from reading their posts on the show threads, I haven't had the chance to interact with them with any kind of depth because both threads move way too fast for me to participate on an ongoing basis.
I've peeked into the more nattery threads occasionally and the conversations there sounded like immense fun. But aside from the time issues, I gotta say the primary reason I come here is for the intelligent and fun discussion on pop-culture-y subjects with like-minded people, namely TV shows that invite analyses and to a lesser degree, movies. I think I'd feel the void once the traffic on the Angel thread starts to quiet down, and I'd love it if there are arenas where I can discuss other shows--even if they are not necessarily ME productions--that may merit thoughtful discussion. (NovaChild brought up Joan of Arcadia as an example, and I'd be all over that if there is a JoA thread--note this is not any sort of suggestion or proposal or anything.)
I dunno. I'm just thinking out loud. I *am* against general TV thread because conversations in such thread get unwieldy and the spoiler policies would be nightmarish. Even the Box Set thread, which is the one where I'm most active as a poster these days, the thread flow goes through a lot of hiccups as the talk switches over to different shows--and that's with only 3-4 shows with active discussion. Would a few new/small threads for specific shows (*if* we deem there is a critical mass of people wanting to discuss the show in question) be such a terrible idea? I mean, as I recall, Smallville had its own thread for a while and the traffic/# of participants there were manageable, IIRC.
Ehhh. I lost my train of thought. Anyway, when push comes to shove, I'm down with the concept of "let's coast along without any major changes for a while and see what happens". It's good we're having this conversation though, I think.