I would have hoped I could have personally emailed more people to apologize for being a dick, but I got to as many as I could. And I also apologized to John, both here and in private.

Let's go back to our deranged fanboy discussions and stop the rest of the nonsense now, eh? I think everyone feels sufficiently stupid. God knows I do.

John, I'm sorry to hear you feel that way, and I hope you'll be ready to take the Stompy mantle back up someday.

Monique, thanks for the summarization.

I'm not at "Ack! Too many threads!" yet, but I appreciate the problem for people who are in my threads AND Firefly AND Natter AND TTT, none of which I post in. I agree we don't have the resources to become a general TV/entertainment board right now. I do think we may want to cap the number of threads in the future -- but I'm not sure we're at the point where that's necessary just yet. It will make a big difference if Buffy and Angel both end their runs after this season.

{{{John H}}}
{{{Schmoker}}}

I enjoy reading both of y'all's posts in Buffy and elsewhere, just so you know.

Anyhow, back to the current discussion:

What I would like to know is do we see ourselves as trying to become a board where everything (or anything with a verbal support group) is open to it's own topic or not? If we are, I think we are a much bigger board than perhaps the original intent.

I do think that the number of threads will be naturally self-limiting. COMM, Press, Beep Me, Nillytown, etc. do a lot to ease my fears that I'm missing something important because I don't read all the threads. Also, judging by the tone of the board, I think that general chatter on topics ranging from skin care to recipes to sports to fashion tips to higher mathematics to cute stories about our cats tends to stay in Natter and Bitches.

Looking at the rest of the threads, from the old (Buffy, Angel, Quotables) to the middle-aged (Smallville, PPO, Bitchy Fic, Literary) to the relatively new (Firefly, Music, TTT), I sense that the general theme of this place is that we are a group that is devoted to all aspects of language and storytelling (I think that music can fall under that rubric). I wouldn't call us an "arts" board, since there's a lot of stuff in that category that we don't really talk about much.

(Buffistechnology is sort of the odd one in the bunch, but given that we are communicating via computer and that we have so many people who are computer/entertainment equipment wizards, it's a valid resource.)

Threads that wouldn't fit Buffista Island (the way I see it, anyway) would be sports, politics, cooking, pets, crochet, and health care. These come and go on Natter on a regular basis. Threads I do see as maybe fitting in some day are: TV [NAFDA], TV [UnAmerican], a movie that seems to be on the entire hivemind's radar, Anime and Cartoons (which I would love to see, but I'm not sure there's enough interest), plus any future Joss shows. I could also see a general Movies thread, but I think that spoiler ettiquette would have to be hammered out well in advance of starting such a thread. If we continue to nurture and attract writers, we may even want to start a poetry workshopping thread while leaving GWW for prose.

Does this make sense to anyone else, or do I need to go get more caffeine?

That makes a lot of sense to me, Anne.

Quiet note: I am unsubscribing from Bureaucracy. I will re-subscribe when both posting volume and general tone have become more Buffista-like.

Is this possible to do? Cause I tried and Bureaucracy is still there on my message board taunting me with unread messages.

I think the site admin threads in the sidebar are always there, but the posts themselves won't show up when you do read new.

yeah, I don't do read new. I'll get better at ignoring it.

I've gathered that you and Kristen were both important somehow on the Bronze boards, but there seems to be some sort of story about what you did there that makes you important in fandom and connected to ME staff, and I don't know that. Could I have the reader's digest version, please? Thanks.

I'm not really sure how to answer that. Maybe Monique did. It makes me uncomfortable.

We both were involved in boards that tanked due to infighting and assholes, and splintering.

Unsure what ME staff has to do with any of it, or why it's relevant to our experiences with fandom and message board dynamics. Maybe you could clarify?

I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. You said, basically, that I should shut up because I didn't have context on what K. was saying. After I had some time to think about it I decided to ask for context, because it was clear to me there was backstory there I simply did not know. Maybe I should have emailed, but I felt odd about doing that.

ME is relevant b/c I've seen your posts about Fury & Minear things, and I wasn't sure if it was an official connection (e.g., employment) or an unofficial one. Monique did explan that for me.

I'm not really sure how to answer that. Maybe Monique did. It makes me uncomfortable.

Monique did. Emphasizing, of course, the only reason anybody should pay attention to you and Kristen is because you both know her.

I think Hil neatly summed up the issues around thread-proliferation. Let's let that sit for a bit, then come back and make a community decision about how to go forward. We don't need to rehash this debate much more, I don't think, so let's get a protocol in place. Let's remember that it isn't an either/or issue and that ultimately we'll probably come to a compromise stance that allows for growth, but not unchecked, and that also factors in bandwidth.

I'm glad there has been Doberlerization.