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.)

My initial thought was cable drama - Mad Men and, to a lesser extent, that Glenn Close one that I'm blanking on right now sparked some real discussion, but even with those, there's less than a thousand posts in nearly a year. Procedurals isn't that much further ahead. While I don't mean to suggest a cut off level for posting volume, I think those numbers are indicative of the fact that the threads haven't incubated in-depth discussion the way we hoped. To me, that suggests that the trade-off in pulling the convo out of Natter might not be worth it. (The remaining survivor of the experimental threads, Reality, moves at four or five times that pace, FTR, and really is seeing much more volume than when it was Natter fodder.)

Premium Cable posts at about the same rate as Cable and Procedurals, actually, but I'm not subbed to that thread and I'm aware that there are some more complex issues there, so I personally don't want to comment on that thread. Which doesn't mean more edumacated folk can't do so.

It's a can opener and a vibrator! It slices, it dices, it juliennes!

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.

Oh, good point. So, in specific, thread closure might not be a good idea right now, but might be a good idea at some other time when gigantic hassles like strikes are not a factor.