There was a thread on Table Talk that did that, I think. Not the forced summarization, but someone volunteered to maintain a digest version of one of the Mothers Who Think threads.

I don't remember the forcing part!

Hey, Sophia (if that is your real name!), you might want to edit out your signature in a post up there...

I'm responding here to a comment in Lightbulbs, since (my part of it anyway) doesn't have to do with the current discussion:

This happened with me and the Music thread, and also with Comedy and Procedurals. The conversations I was having in Natter and the people I was having them with are now simply missing from my board experience.

t deep breath

I've been mulling over tossing this out there, and I still don't know if now is the time, but I think it would be appropriate to revisit a couple of the tv threads - Reality has exploded but the conversation in a couple of the others has been pretty sporadic, and I personally think there's a question to be raised about keeping them.

I like Technology as a separate thread because more than once I've had a tech question and popped in there. It's my very own Geek Squad where I know the credentials of the people answering the questions.

I've also used Music as a source of "I just heard this song, who is this!" It's nice having a pre-defined group with the qualifications I need.

brenda, which ones are you thinking of? I think a few of the cable ones are a bit under used, but the rest seem pretty active.

I don't have strong thoughts on which threads might deserve revisiting, but I'll be strongly pro the idea that threads should be able to be closed without Drama. I think as a culture we've been reluctant to close threads on the chance that we'll hurt somebody's feelings, but that has led to long unfocussed topic-threads that die a slow death.

As we sow, so should we reap! If a thread's not functioning, and doesn't show signs of future function, then we shouldn't be shy about retiring it.

The lowest use thread by a very wide margin is, of course, Buffy...

I think the underused thread closure idea isn't ready to be visited yet. We've just come off a writer's strike, there's a lot of shows that have only just started reairing, some aren't even scheduled until next fall. I'd like to make sure that any apparent underuse is a result of that, not just that people have lost interest and/or it just doesn't generate enough interest. IOW, too soon to tell.

One of the issues with the cable drama thread is the cross-over to the procedural thread. (The Closer? It's a cable drama AND a procedural.)