Maybe this could combine with the politics thing. We cou ld have a Buffista on-line zine to which critiques of shows, movies, books, politics, social issue whatever could be submitted . Only Buffistas could submit (participants only or lurkers as well?). Someone would act as editor, accpeting, rejecting or sending back for rewrite.

Hell, ita has always been the Buffista to whom I would most like to submit.

Hell, ita has always been the Buffista to whom I would most like to submit.

Ple's got my vote.

Another possible thrust for the Buffistas would be to reverse the usual dynamic: content board, with discussion boards attached. So we start as a discussion board, then create content (that is, longer articles etc.).

Consuela and Dana have already written pieces of this nature, on genre TV, that are on a site similar to 11th Hour. We *certainly* have the resources here to create such writing. We also have editors here, and people who can make it all look pretty.

We're well beyond just a Jossverse-driven community by now, IMO.

Is it a community primarily focused on the Jossiverse shows, or has it already expanded into something which (like Literary Buffistas) wants to discuss other topics within this community.

I tend to think both are true. The primary focus is still the Jossverse, but the relative weights between Joss and non-Joss have been steadily changing for some time. Which is good, because it bodes well for longer-term survival.

Which also means that I don’t feel a need to force the issue. Natural growth from a broad consensus of Buffista interest will work fine, IMO.

Politics is also a very different beast than, say, a new show, or even a general movies thread. I'm much more likely to change my opinion of a person based on whether he approves of John Ashcroft's stomping on the Bill of Rights than on whether she thinks Kristen Kreuk can act. Many more opportunities for flame-age, for troll-attract-age, for bad feeling-age. I'm with the nay-age.

ITA. I don’t mind it being discussed in Natter, interestingly, because I think the awareness that the thread is not politics-specific, that there are other people reading aside from those interested in the discussion, and the topic could be changed at any moment, act as a constraint on antisocial behaviour. I’m probably just funny like that.

Meanwhile, I’m kind of tickled that I got a post deleted and yet the last one (where the on-topic thing was a blatant warding of the Evil Eye) got to stay.

The weird thing about the "shall we feature content" discussion is that all the boards elsewhere are an attempt to Build Community as an add-on to a content site, which is really a way to Make People Keep Coming Back, and indeed Make People Keep Hitting Refresh, so that you get more hits and more ad views.

The board is an add-on to the content, in other words. It's a fascinating idea that content could spring out of the boards.

It's a fascinating idea that content could spring out of the boards.

We've already done this a little bit with the filk site and the Buff Dive site, plus there have been articley type things like Brian's article on Vampire Ecology and Dana's analysis of OMWF. I think it's a great idea. I know of at least two people who found us through the filk site (I even met one of them tonight).

I don't want to be the Voice of Doom here, but one thing to bear in mind: the bigger and more diverse Buffistas.org gets, sooner or later the issue of funding will raise its head. And I'd hate for this community to break up because of something so profane as money.

It's probably just worth considering. If things are handled right it may not be a problem. But I'm sure it's one of the reasons why other sites like 11th Hr. and (I think?) TWoP are closing down.

We don't have any paid staff, obviously, so I guess the question is how much can we grow and stay all-volunteer? When does the workload become too great for people to handle at work/in their free time?

We don't have any paid staff, obviously, so I guess the question is how much can we grow and stay all-volunteer? When does the workload become too great for people to handle at work/in their free time?

From an organizational standpoint, our big weakness is that we're dependent on ita. Should she take a world tour with some buff brilliant krav kickboxing coder stud, we'd be left hanging. The answer, of course, is for force John and Gud to learn PHP more faster. Well, Typo Boy knows PHP too, so that's a plus.

We have a lot of people here who either know some PHP, or could pick it up right quick.

Isn't Jon B one of the code warriors as well?