ChiKat "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Jul 28, 2007 12:43:42 pm PDT

I just wante to point out this post of ChiKat's because it's honestly the closest thing to how I feel about this board and because it's just in general a great post that might have gotten missed at the end of the discussion thread.

Re: the Future Us discussion, I wish that this was one of those times where we had access to a big UN-type room or one of thoes Senate Committee tables with the nametags and the lights you have to push before you can make your points or ask your questions. I wish it was possible to gather all of us in a room to discuss this in person so that I could look over at breanda and know that she's saying something totally in jest cause she's smirking at me instead of looking angry. I wish I was a little bit taller. But, I am oddly looking forward to the discussion. I think the difficulties of the past two voting discussions will lead to a better discussion of the bigger picture.

*brenda has never said anything in jest to me nor smirked at me to let me know she was saying something in jest. Thinking about it now, she might just not like me. Contrary to evidence otherwise.

To me, the bucket threads are a way to cover all of TV in a few threads. In other words, a compromise between the idea of separate threads for every show someone might conceivably watch and the possibility of TV discussion getting drowned in Natter/Bitches. I thought the experimental threads worked well that way. Also, the experimental threads showed the existence of communities that hadn't been noticed before within the Buffistas.

It isn't perfect, but as people have noted many times before, no solution will work for everybody. One possibility -- a lengthy (72 hours?) whitefont period to reduce spoilage while re-defining the spoiler threads to allow discussing spoilers for everything. (If the threads don't allow that already -- I don't subscribe to the spoiler threads.)

The more basic question -- how much do we want to be a TV board? Again, as other people have said, to a large degree, we are. A TV show started the community originally. Natter spun off to allow the TV thread to focus more on TV. Bitches started as a collection of fic about one character on the show. So I don't see a problem with an emphasis on TV.

experimental threads showed the existence of communities that hadn't been noticed before

Which communities were those? I mean, is it possible for a community to exist with no one knowing?

As for compromise, I don't think a bucket thread is a compromise that serves people who'd work better with single show threads--it doesn't help them any more (and in fact, may help them less) that leaving the TV talk in Natter.

ita, I didn't want to bring up The Office yet again. But that's the example I keep coming back to. I saw virtually no discussion of the show until the experimental comedy thread was set up. At least for me, it was like the Buffy experience all over again -- watching the show in the evening, then coming in to discuss (even deconstruct) the next morning.

I think the term community doesn't apply there, so much as a shared interest.

But that might be nothing but semantics.

SWF, Buffista, Bitch (large and small b), but who enjoys flirting with Natterites. Some of my interests are movies and literature. I enjoy most genre TV shows of which my favorite shows are Lost, Heroes and Supernatural. I have recently succumbed to the reality TV craze and am proud of it. I enjoy travelling and spend considerable time making plans to see friends F2F whenever I can.

As for compromise, I don't think a bucket thread is a compromise that serves people who'd work better with single show threads--it doesn't help them any more (and in fact, may help them less) that leaving the TV talk in Natter.

This is important. While I understand that the bucket threads might be intended to help and be a compromise, the reality for me is that they really aren't.

I can't think of a way to say this without sounding shitty, so I'm just gonna say it. This is not aimed at anyone in particular, and a few people have said it or made allusions to it. I think that we may need to take DVR/Tivo issues out of consideration. If we tried to accomodate everyone's needs who wasn't watching real time, we'd be in a never ending mobius loop of white font and delays.

There are a lot of people (myself included), who have other obligations or don't have time to watch in real time. When that happens to me, I avoid the thread until I watch. Which, frankly, often encourages me to watch sooner than later.

Of course, there is the issue of two shows that come on at the same time, which seems to be kind of unfair to "punish" those who choose to watch one show over the other.

I guess I'm just saying that the idea that we shouldn't have bucket threads because people haven't watched it yet shouldn't be the reason why we don't do it.

I agree with that Vortex, but bucket threads compound the problem for time shifters. In a thread with a small number of shows if I'm behind on one then I do exactly that, avoid the thread until I'm caught up. However, the more shows in the bucket, the less likely that I'll ever be caught up to enough to use the thread. With a single show thread it's easy to wait until I'm caught up.

I mean, is it possible for a community to exist with no one knowing?

So is it still a community when it's empty? Does the community...the thing... have purpose? Or do we.... what's the word?

Imbue.