:wub:

There is a reason why I skimmed that bit the first time t wry

Edit: Bwah.

I like the show I LOVE Angel and the enthusiasm is shared.

Whereas (in my family) not much else actually is.

Any way I have to go to the dentist today. I am going to my FATHERS dentist who is almost but not quite as scary as my mothers dentist.

She is a woman.

Okay, somebody's hogging all the 3430s. I've never seen a numberslut with that kind of endurance. Almost a fixation or a mania.

This is just a little discussion board for a soon-to-be-gone TV show and its low-rated spinoffs, I'm just throwing out hypotheticals. Sorry.

That's one of those comments that just makes me go "huh?"

I've been thinking about posting boards a lot lately, with the show coming to a close and the knowledge that I'll lose my Buffy looming nearer and nearer. And my reaction (you know, the one that comes after the “huh?”) is really on two levels.

Firstly, and to quote Fay "so whether the show is shit or shinola is pretty much moot" (and what the hey is shinola anyway? :)

What I always appreciated from the boards (and I've read a few ME related ones in my time) is the ability of people to bring in their own realities. It’s not a choice between show and real life. It's not a choice between topic and gossip. It's not about substance versus filler, either on the tv or on the board. It's the capacity of people to mix the two. It's why the wit and humour of what people post is underscored, and strengthened by, but never dependent upon, the references to the show. The subliminal quotes. The inferences and references and side-swipes.

I never get caught in the mythology of BtVS (or AtS or Firefly), because the stories it tells me, the lessons it teaches, the people it shows me aren't unique to the jossyverse. That's why the analysis of the show is always so meaningful, because the people that do it really well? Pepper their interpretations with stories from their own life. I get to know them not as a reality, and not as a name on the screen, but a combination of the two. They’re like a character that moves through either world. And when things were done right? Their stories are more compelling than anything from ME. And I still learned all the same lessons.

The other thing I learned outside of the realities of the show, is the myriad realities of posting boards. Reading your bureaucracy thread for the last couple of months was like the final exam. I've lived through some pretty ugly board stuff in other places, some of that was discussed here, some not so much. Ich bin eine Bronzer, so yeah, I've seen just about everything the internet can throw up and spit out in beige font.

And people's reaction to it all is coloured so much by their investment in that process. If one’s board is like a bar, or a coffee house (or the ubiquitous Buffista cocktail party :) then that person is going to react when that place or their experience is threatened.

Be it by the host of the database, or a disruptive visitor, or an offhanded comment from a regular poster.

Everyone values their board experience differently, and that shows so much in their posts and their care, for their environment and their fellow posters.

And the biggest lesson I ever learned is that it's impossible (and rather foolhardy) to make any assumptions about other people's commitment to their posting environment. Maybe if you’ve never cried over something someone posted, or felt sick to the stomach over the the latest kerfuffle, or had to call in to work to say you’re gonna be late because it was impossible to pull yourself away, you may not understand that. But it doesn’t make it any less true.

OK so some people are already writing essays on Buffy but honey they're not COMPULSORY essays, they are COMPULSIVE essays, which is different (lack the workroom whip and slave driver aspect of the compulsory ones I write). I am a compulsive natterer.

ita, can I have a chatroom too?
Please?

well it's more a desire for self-sufficiency which comes from a combination of wanting to 'work to live' not 'live to work', an increasing desire to be part of the solution to fixing the world's ills rather than continuing to contribute to making them worse, and as a consequence, a refusal to be part of the system that I see as exacerbating the problems.

I wanted to comment on your post last night, moonlit, but I got sucked into a discussion about the erm.. something on one of the later Buffy episodes elsewhere (caught myself just in time then!) and by the time I got back, there were deep thoughts about the state of the world all over the board. And I felt inadequately prepared to respond. I still am, but on the upside, I’m more awake now :)

I think I understand and sympathise with the heart of your points.

I do meaningless paper pushing work. Really. It’s what I’m good at. I’ve the skills and talents to do it well, but in the big picture scheme of things? It doesn’t contribute. I work in an industry that created a need for itself through bureaucracy and legislation and fear-rattling, and my contribution to the mechanics of what they do it so far being pointless I can’t look it in the eye or I don’t think I could look me in the eye afterwards.

I think what appeals to me about what I termed a subsistence existence (which really is just a pipedream in modern society anyway) was the idea that I can’t fix the world ills. I don’t feel like I can even make the smallest difference. So the idea of reducing down my sphere of influence to just me, and a house in the middle of nowhere, with not much to be responsible for and no capacity to effect others negatively, is pretty attractive.

Or you know, pretty much what you said :)

OK so some people are already writing essays on Buffy but honey they're not COMPULSORY essays, they are COMPULSIVE essays, which is different

Zoe, I honestly don't know if you're agreeing with me, or chiding me. I'm not even sure if that was directed at me. But given my exposure to ME fandom, I think I understand compulsive, compulsory and the fine line that separates them.

This is just a little discussion board for a soon-to-be-gone TV show and its low-rated spinoffs, I'm just throwing out hypotheticals. Sorry.

Personally, I'm not sure how much weight to give this comment. It's not the first time Caroma has said this sort of thing. For example:

Caroma "All Ogle, No Cash -- It's Not Just Annoying, It's Un-American" Mar 29, 2003 12:18:08 pm EST

...plus sundry other things about not being able to take discussions here seriously, e.g.

Caroma "All Ogle, No Cash -- It's Not Just Annoying, It's Un-American" Mar 30, 2003 12:54:02 am EST

For me, it doesn't pose the question, "is serious consideration of Joss's shows valid?" so much as, "why does Caroma always feel compelled to post something of this nature when the discussion gets a bit more intense?".

But that's just me.

Zoe, I honestly don't know if you're agreeing with me, or chiding me. I'm not even sure if that was directed at me. But given my exposure to ME fandom, I think I understand compulsive, compulsory and the fine line that separates them.

{pause to think}

OK.

Edit: < /acting like I'm in a chatroom >
and over editing.