If it doesn't get picked up by a network, there won't be much left to talk about, except the same handful of episodes, over and over and over.

That's never stopped us before.

I forgot earlier, but I wanted to say something about dropping in on Natter. It's ok, really. I'd say that at any given time there are two or three or twelve conversations going on anyway, so we're all talking around each other to a certain extent anyway. And if you happen to jump in with a tale of your most excellent fabulous day right when someone else has been laid-off? Well, it happens. I've certainly done it before, especially if I'm catching up in one window and jumping ahead to post in another. The worst that'll happen is you shut up for a minute and mention it again later. It's pretty easy to spot a cross-post in situations like that, and no one's going to be upset.

Also - the meara is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Don't ever be shy about throwing one out there. (So is actual meara, of course, but be more careful with the throwing.) And if you want to respond to something from 500 messages ago, why the hell not? If it was discussed to death already - well, we're no strangers to that around here, and may well pick up the ball again. Or, you know, not. Sometimes a topic will grab hold, other times it won't.

But I hate that people are feeling that they might be crashing the party in Natter just because they haven't been able to keep up. I try to keep up, and generally stay pretty on top of things, but I'm way behind in most of the threads I usually follow right now, what with family in town and stuff. Also, keeping up with Natter in general is different than keeping up with a particular conversation you're interested in. A couple of people mentioned asking a question and 300 posts getting in between it and the answer - I don't think that's really a good description of the flow of Natter.

Anyway, my two cents.

If it doesn't get picked up by a network, there won't be much left to talk about, except the same handful of episodes, over and over and over.

That's never stopped us before.

I mean, new people might not stick around, because *they* might not want to discuss the same handful of eps over and over.

Also - the meara is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Don't ever be shy about throwing one out there.

So wanting to say that you've got to get a good spin on that meara...

No separate politics thread. No separate religion thread, no separate sex thread (Bitches can handle that on our own, thanks). The topics come up in various places and get dealt with, but having one concentrated area of potential controversy makes me nervous.

I get why nobody would want one of these, but if it was a place to discuss *only* politics, religion, and sex it'd be a great place for Allyson's asshole thread. IJS.

I really fear Allyson's asshole thread. I remember net.flame. It didn't help. It tended to infect other groups.

I want Buffistas to be an asshole-free zone. I need one of those BADLY.

I thought it was all a joke.

edit: Because who would truly want one of those, anyway. Sorry.

I want Buffistas to be an asshole-free zone. I need one of those BADLY.

Me too.

So...the Music Thread is humming along and I love it already.

Natter isn't so much a cocktail party anymore as a cocktail party inside the Astrodome. Sometimes I can see the people I want to talk to there, but mostly they're pinned against the opposite wall with a crush of people between us and there is the shrug of acknowlegement that we're never going to make it to the corner near the good dip and get to talk about the thing we want to talk about. (Not to say the people I do see in Natter are not who I want to see. I do. And I talk with them. But there are people I don't get to chat with in Natter. That's my point.)

Which saddens Steph and Kat and Burrell, but...we went and doubled in size within a month. And to my mind - it's a little disingenuous. Because Bitches and Smallville and Spoilers and Sang Sacre were already separate little mini-communties within Buffistas. If I wanted to find Ellen I looked in Smallville. (And when Fay stopped posting in Bitches for a long time and I missed her, she was over there playing in the HoYay.) I see Gud more often in Sang Sacre than any place else. I only see Candy and Le Nubian in Spoilers. Connie Neil doesn't venture out of Bitches very often, and that's usually where I'll see Elena. These are not new developments.

There was a time, not that long ago, when I read every post in every thread. That's not even remotely possible now. Sure, I can hop into the last fifty posts of Natter and I do. But the focus of the music thread doesn't just give me a place to talk about that subject - it gives me a place where I can actually talk to people I want to talk to. People that didn't spend that much time in Natter.

I don't want to change Natter and I won't stop going there. But it was actually preventing me from seeing/talking to people rather than facilitating it. I know that's a very saddening notion to some people - but that was my experience. Maybe other people didn't have that experience - but plenty of people have noted that they can't keep up with Natter. And the most Natterful cry, "You can't keep up with Natter! Just jump in!" and yet...a lot of people don't. And there are reasons for that.

These are just growing pains. There are all kinds of sociological studies about group dynamics and what happens when certain numbers of people are in parties. After you get to a certain point, inevitably people form into smaller groups. Inevitably. We can limit the number of groups we are willing to form. But unless we drastically revise our self-conception and close the gate to newcomers, this was bound to happen.

David, dear. Thank you so much for that. Exactly what I've been feeling, had begun constructing an unhurtful as possible post about at least twice and gave up in defeat.

I'll probably lurk in Music, since I need to learn more than I have any knowledge to share. But if I have a question or I do have something to say, I'll feel like it's more within the context of the discussion than a random remark tattered by the wind of the merry-go-round.

Which saddens Steph and Kat and Burrell, but...we went and doubled in size within a month.

Except that hasn't really done anything to Natter. Natter hasn't grown much in terms of people, it's just much faster than WX was. Same Natterinos, more posts per person.