Ahh OK. I must have missed it numerous times.
Bureaucracy 4: Like Job. No, really, just like Job
A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: Jon B, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych, msbelle, shrift, Dana, Laura
Stompy Emerita: ita, DXMachina
Sorry, sorry, I meant numerous times in the history of the proliferation discussion going back at least 5 years - not since you asked the question. That totally came out wrong.
I may be a bit late with this, but I wanted to address this comment:
I think the difference is that there is no new way to frame the argument. People who feel strongly one way or the other shall never be swayed.
I disagree. It seems to me that the pro/antipro argument is slightly different for each new thread under discussion. Sure, it's the same issues at bottom, but they affect each new proposed thread in different ways, depending on the proposed topic, how closely it relates to the "mission" of the board, whether or not it already gets some discussion in other threads, how much discussion, etc.
What I mean by that is, let's say I propose a thread to discuss what we're all eating for lunch today. The antipro argument would be that people already discuss that topic in Natter quite often, and thus taking that discussion out of Natter and giving it its own thread would contribute quite significantly to community fragmentation. The pros could argue that sometimes people just want to talk about what they're eating for lunch, without having to wade through discussions about cats and kids and whatever else.
If I proposed a thread to discuss, say, product recalls, the antipro people could again argue that the topic already gets discussed in Natter, and sometimes mentioned in Press as well, and thus another thread would simply contribute to more community fragmentation. But the pro side might argue that discussion of product recalls is less central to the overall tone and content of Natter, and people who skim or don't read Natter might benefit from having information on product recalls in a separate, smaller thread.
Same argument at base, but the specifics of each case are different enough that there's still plenty to discuss on each side.
Have we had any totally inappropriate thread proposals?
I thought Bitches was the Totally Inappropriate thread.
I have a random question: Do we still need Meijaville in the right hand threads?
I mean, I guess it's not really taking up lots of space or anything, but...
Perhaps someone will volunteer to pick up the torch for Dollhouse?
Numerous times, and it's always an unequivocal yes.
Every time someone argues against a new thread based on server resources I claim that adding a thread, unless it draws a lot more active posters, will have no measurable effect on server load.
Am I right? I don't know. You'd really have to measure load on the server per thread to know for sure.
I think at one point we were much closer to the technical limit of server load or whatever than we are now -- but I don't know if that's actually true. People who know stuff?
People who know stuff?
Wait, I know this one. They're the luckiest people in the world, right?
billytea made me choke on my tea. Heh.