I'll just say that no one should feel, or be made to feel, that they are less worthy, or have less status, intrinsically because they joined later.

Word. Totally.

I'm in an odd place WRT "oldtimer/newbie" b/c I've technically been around for 2 years, but really I've been in and out since we moved to WXing and only got here for more than a few posts about a month ago. So in a way, I identify with both camps, if there are camps. FWIW, yes there are growing pains and joining pains and all kinds of pains... but if you try, if you listen and are honest and think and do all the things you always do when meeting new people, you're fine.

Arguing with someone you know is different from arguing with someone you don't. Period.

I'm wondering what the interpersonal online expectations are, and why they seem to be so different from meatspace expectations.

Yes. This. It may be my newness to on-line areas, but I'm not quite sure what we're aiming at here.

no one should feel, or be made to feel, that they are less worthy, or have less status, intrinsically because they joined later. That's absolutely insane. If you think you were unfairly condescended to, that's not good.

This also. I'm very glad to say that while I've experienced the 'do they even care what I say?' thing, I can quite happily put that down to a) normal newbies feelings and b) normal mild paranoia.

I also want to say that I'm very glad that Buffistas isn't a private island, and doesn't even have an attempt at it (in the way that, for example, LiveJournal does). I wouldn't be here if it did. (Of course, that might be a reason you want it to be....)

Edit: rather xposty.

but I'm not quite sure what we're aiming at here.

We're talking! To figure out a few things! And also to hear ourselves talk!

It's not life if you're not nattering about something.

(in the way that, for example, LiveJournal does).

God, LJ is so weeeird. Can I just whine for a second? Yes. Thank you.

We're talking! To figure out a few things! And also to hear ourselves talk!

Ah. Buffistas. I forget sometimes.

I only mention that this should be a private board outright because it seems that many wish it could be. But I don't natter so I doubt I'd really feel the impact on the comraderie as the core Buffistas do.

This joining thing? Hardly unique. These joining pains? Hardly unique. What is pretty Buffista about it is the level of discussion about them, in my experience. Which I think is more a good thing than a bad.

I agree.

And it may blow over. It really doesn't seem like too many of the several hundred new registrants are actually posting much.

BTW, there's a link to Tim's posts last night on the Whedonesque blog.

Just to join the processing party a bit...

If we make this a private island, it'll die. I'd rather be flooded with trolls than become some kind of private members club, I really would.

It could die either way -- if we become a private island, we'd probably burn down and flicker out, with the flood of trolls, we'd probably explode at some point into a ball of flames. Either way would be too bad, but the first is almost certain, and we can guard against the second.

But I don't natter so I doubt I'd really feel the impact on the comraderie as the core Buffistas do.

It's funny to me seeing the little sub-communities that seem to be popping up. I mean, I'm hardly in the show threads at all, and when I am I see a lot of people I don't know. And that's cool. So if we're talking about the comraderie of, say, the Firefly thread, that's going to be a different comraderie from Natter, or Spoilers, and I don't think they'll ever be fully integrated again. Which is fine by me -- not many people really have the time to keep up with all the discussions in every thread.

I am in a strange place with regard to this board. I've been onboard since before Buffistas was a term. I've been an active poster, but not so much with the proliferation of threads at WX. I do think I've had some input intellectual, emotional and financial in the creation of this board, and I stop in every day, even when I don't have time to really catch up, or to post at all. I'm emotionally invested in the posters--the people--I've gotten to know over several years and three boards. By nature I turn a gimlet eye on newbies, but I do that in real life so it shouldn't be a surprise here. But it's a silent appraisal, a judgment-withheld period until I get a feel for (not of! serious!) the new persona.

Problem being, I'm rarely a visible member of this community any more. Because while I'm reading and nodding silently, circumstances most often pull me away from the computer before I have a chance to post my take on a conversation, or an opinion while the subject remains in recent memory. I'm mostly okay with that. But people who don't know me assume, when I finally do have a chance to make a comment, that I'm some clueless newbie, and it bothers me that something I say to someone I feel I know may be viewed as tacit permission to be as familiar by someone new.

urgh. Not fing finished.

I haven't the experience of board-implosion that Allyson and others have had, but I do heed the warnings. The spectre of the possibility frightens me. But at the same time, I don't think we can become insular and private, because as wonderful as we are as a group, as groups within the group, as clusters of individuals and as a conglomerate, we will stagnate without an influx of new people and new POVs and new ideas.

Finished now.

But at the same time, I don't think we can become insular and private, because as wonderful as we are as a group, as groups within the group, as clusters of individuals and as a conglomerate, we will stagnate without an influx of new people and new POVs and new ideas.

It wasn't my impression that anyone was actually arguing that as a serious idea. Were they?