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.

Smallville started as a weird subset, like Bitches, but not. And then Due South became a subset of Smallville.

The current Due South thread has included discussion of Stargate and Sports Night to some degree. But mostly it's discussion of Due South.

I'm rather against combing Smallville and Due South under one thread. For two reasons. One, Smallville is a currently running show so there will be more Smallville discussion than Due South, etc (I assume). Two, and this is purely selfish, I now dislike Smallville to the point where I get irrational when I hear about the storylines.

I don't keep up with Natter because it goes too fast for me to keep up with.

Honestly? I doubt that anyone keeps up with Natter. If they do, it is by far the minority of Buffistas. The rest of us skim a little, skip a lot, and join in. I don't understand why so many folks have I-can't-keep-up-with-Natter issues. Fine, don't keep up. We still want to say "hello" to you.

exactly Burrell. I do the Diet - read the last 20-50 posts, Beep me and Press, then join in for the time that I am on-line. Next day, do the same. I occasionally search on my name or on a topic if I was waiting for or expecting a response to something.

Fine, don't keep up. We still want to say "hello" to you.

So what you're basically describing is a chat room mentality. That's not my thang. If I say hello to someone, I want to be around for "how are you", you know? I don't want to miss it because there are 300 posts abou cats and jobs and cooking in-between.

Edit: Which does not mean you can't post 300 messages about cats and jobs and cooking while I'm getting coffee, of course. It just means I can't read them, and I don't want to participate in a conversation where I know I'm going to miss the end.

I don't want to miss it because there are 300 posts abou cats and jobs and cooking in-between.

I'm not sure how adding extra threads will help. Natter's been insane pretty much from the beginning. Every new thread we've added hasn't decreased the amount of Natter.

We can't FORCE people to Natter, of course, but the potential balkanization makes me sad. It makes us less community-like. There are people in Spoilers and Smallville who I have NEVER seen before.

And the community part of us is the best part, IMO. I wouldn't travel across the country to meet so damn many of you if you were all just some people who happen to watch the same show I do.

The community built from the being together in the same thread(s), and the more threads we have, the more splitty we are, and the less community we have.

My .02, FWIW.