"OH! Too much Natter! I can't be there! I don't grok natter! I can't deal." Each new thread feels like a rejection of natter to me, which is weird. It's almost as if saying, "OH! I only want this part of the conversation and I want it conveniently packaged for me somewhere else."

Oh, God. That's awful.

I don't keep up with Natter because it goes too fast for me to keep up with. So it's nice to drop in sometimes, and I know that it's full of cool and interesting people, but there's no way in hell that I can read all the posts that have happened since last I posted - so I'm generally conscious that I'm bouncing in rudely and interrupting, and that somebody may very well have just announced that such-and-such a trauma happened to them this morning and I've missed it because I only went back 20 posts. But this is my issue, and it's why I don't get into Natter very often. Not out of a rejection of the people in Natter, but out of a consciousness that I'm not contributing fully and am effectively interrupting.

wrt the Music thread - it seems fair enough to me, since there are people wanting it (and music is showcased in the shows, come to think of it, although I know that's reaching) and I don't see it as less reasonable than Literary. (Although it isn't a thread I'd be using much myself.)But I do take your point about feeling that there are too many threads.

A thread about Movies I would like, but not at the expense of anyone else's comfort here. Heck, if I need to talk movies, I can get my arse over to Filmunlimited without needing to undermine the Buffista atmosphere.

So if the Movies thing is even still under consideration, let me retract my 'Yes' - my attraction to the idea is, I think, not so strong as the discomfort with the idea that other people have voiced.

(I'd still be comfortable with a HoYay thread to replace PPO and dueSouth, if that's on the cards as a means of reducing the number of threads)

It's almost as if saying, "OH! I only want this part of the conversation and I want it conveniently packaged for me somewhere else."

(Funny... this is Natter about Natter)
When I said I hadn't the stamina, I was meaning I couldn't keep up. When I can't keep up, I don't feel like I can add anything meaningful to a conversation, for fear that I'll be annoying and repeat what has already been said. The issue for me isn't that I wasn't that I wanted it conveniently packaged. I just want to participate without feeling like a shmuck.

Some thoughts:

• My experience of Gar and Caroma arguing was like that Gary Larson cartoon -- "blah blah blah Haiti blah blah Aristide blah blah blah" and I just skipped past it, but I started to actually notice it when it got more personal. I wish it hadn't, but I think the outcome, once namecalling got started, was actually surprisingly good. It reached a climax then stopped. I wished it hadn't reached that climax, but it didn't ruin the board for me.
• Whose politics? Despite the fact I watch West Wing, I'm not happy if it's going to just be a US Politics thread. Won't somebody think of the Unamericans?
• When a TTT thread was proposed, Angus said, jokingly "Good, because all us hobbitocidal people won't have to put up with your rantings" or the like. I mean I know it was meant in fun, but there's an interesting point there. Are we creating new threads because people in the "I love X" group love the subject matter so much, or are we creating the thread because people in the "I hate X" group want it ghettoised? That's kind of sad.
• Can we stop saying "shit where you eat" quite so much? It makes me want to retch every time I read it.
• Can we stop saying "when there's no more Buffy and Angel" quite so much? It makes me want to cry every time I read it.
• I'm pro general music and movie threads, but in a weird way I never really understood how Smallville and Due South threads got started. Is the criterion just "significant numbers of Buffistas like a certain thing"? Because see above with the like-it/get-it-out-of-Natter test.
• If we're going to have music and movie threads, though, why not a TV thread?

Whose politics? Despite the fact I watch West Wing, I'm not happy if it's going to just be a US Politics thread. Won't somebody think of the Unamericans?

I'll talk Australian politics with you, John. You may have to remind me of some of the names, though.

I don't keep up with Natter because it goes too fast for me to keep up with. So it's nice to drop in sometimes, and I know that it's full of cool and interesting people, but there's no way in hell that I can read all the posts that have happened since last I posted - so I'm generally conscious that I'm bouncing in rudely and interrupting, and that somebody may very well have just announced that such-and-such a trauma happened to them this morning and I've missed it because I only went back 20 posts. But this is my issue, and it's why I don't get into Natter very often. Not out of a rejection of the people in Natter, but out of a consciousness that I'm not contributing fully and am effectively interrupting.

I wanted to say something like this, but I post in natter more than FayJay. But still, I am always feeling like I am interrupting. So I don't think we are rejecting the Buffistas by not being able to natter. I think it is just that perhaps the more shy among us feel inhibited about skipping and then posting. I know it is me, and that everyone does it, it just feels weird. But I don't want anyone to feel that I am rejecting Buffistas, it is more that I wish I could talk more and smaller threads might give me a chance to do so.

Smallville and Due South were made in the WX days, to move specific HoYay out of the way, back when we were freewheeling and fancy free.

And then they came here.

so I'm generally conscious that I'm bouncing in rudely and interrupting, and that somebody may very well have just announced that such-and-such a trauma happened to them this morning and I've missed it because I only went back 20 posts. But this is my issue, and it's why I don't get into Natter very often. Not out of a rejection of the people in Natter, but out of a consciousness that I'm not contributing fully and am effectively interrupting.

I know I can't do anything if this is how you feel, but bouncing into Natter is never rude. For the most part serious and big messages are posted in Beep Me first. Also, and I cannot really emphasize this enough, there is NO INTERRUPTION IN NATTER, just as there no "on-topic" in natter. 10 people may be discussing the low-pressure system over Iowa at the same time 3 people are talking about the drugging of race turtles and 2 others about the come-back of velour jumpsuits.

In otherwords, as you feel like it, come, join the non-sequiterness of it all.

so I'm generally conscious that I'm bouncing in rudely and interrupting, and that somebody may very well have just announced that such-and-such a trauma happened to them this morning and I've missed it because I only went back 20 posts.

This is a danger; though I think most truly traumatic events will probably appear in Beep Me. The John H diet will probably minimise the risk.

but in a weird way I never really understood how Smallville and Due South threads got started.

Well, at WX anyone could create a forum. I think people got sick of natter being all Clex all the time, and so Smallville was created. Then the people in Smallville started talking about Due South, and thus it was born. Same with Spoilers Lite. At WX, though, we all had our own Bureacracies, too.

I don't keep up with Natter because it goes too fast for me to keep up with. So it's nice to drop in sometimes, and I know that it's full of cool and interesting people, but there's no way in hell that I can read all the posts that have happened since last I posted - so I'm generally conscious that I'm bouncing in rudely and interrupting, and that somebody may very well have just announced that such-and-such a trauma happened to them this morning and I've missed it because I only went back 20 posts.

This is how I feel too. Also, if I have to skip 200 or 300 posts at a time (which I do), I'm not really conversing -- I'm jumping in, making an announcement or posting an immediate reaction, and jumping out. That's not something that interests me, bottom-line.

I have a question: does anyone participate in another forum where there's so much resistance to new threads? Because everywhere else that I post or have posted, it's pretty much start one if you want one. It's funny on a meta level how something that started out of necessity (we weren't allowed to have a bunch of threads on table talk) is now viewed as a major virtue.