The board as a whole. as in makes it run slower.

Oh! Gotchya. I guess that would be a question for ita. Although, I believe earlier she said it wouldn't be appreciably slower. Is that right, ita?

I'm still the nicest one here.

Well, that will never change. There are some constants on B.org. Jesse will always be a cowgirl, ita can always kill people with her pinky even when she has a migraine, billytea will always like animals, tommyrot will continue his bizarre fascination with hairless cats, and msbelle will always be the nicest.

With a bucket as huge as the proposed Broadcast Drama thread, even if someone in a non-Eastern time zone watches these programs as they air (not tape or DVR delayed), they still need to exit the thread every day when prime time starts on the East Coast and can't return until prime time is over in their time zone.

I've been doing this for years. Heaven knows the number of evenings I've watched the post counts go up in the Angel thread until after it aired in the Mountain Time Zone. It's the same with House and Bones now. I've learned to cope with the great burden that is waiting two hours to go back into a single thread on the board.

You have to pay SOME price for your gorgeous weather! :)

connie, I wish that, when you chose to quote me, you quoted all of what I said since I specifically remarked:

When you have a single show thread (or even a small bucket), it's not a big deal to avoid a thread for a few hours a week. When you have to avoid the same thread for 4-6 hours every day, I question its usefulness.

It wouldn't be two hours for many of us. It would be more like six hours per day, every day. Except Saturday.

I have to say that I don't have a good idea of how many people actively post or read the board on a regular basis.

I mentioned this before, but is there some way we could take a "census" just to see how many active posters or lurkers (active lurkers being those who read the board on a regular basis but don't post) we have compared to the number of people who are voting.

We keep talking about majority and minority opinions and decisions and I'd feel better with some solid numbers to see what kind of difference between these opinions are.

With a single show thread it is only a three hour wait, but with something like friday nights on boxed set, there have been three shows back to back, so it's not just about waiting for the three hour time shift, it's waiting for, at times, a six hour time shift.

With a single show thread it is only a three hour wait, but with something like friday nights on boxed set, there have been three shows back to back, so it's not just about waiting for the three hour time shift, it's waiting for, at times, a six hour time shift.

But if a bucket thread is generating conversation that really didn't exist before aren't you comparing having to wait six hours versus having to wait indefinitely becuse there's no place to discuss it?

I really like the idea David suggested of polling to find out the ways everybody uses the board. I wouldn't be surprised if there are quite a few dedicated lurkers, who follow their chosen threads faithfully, but just haven't gotten up the courage to post, and may never do.

If we could make the polls somehow so that voters would remain anonymous, and then put announcements in almost every thread so that one-thread posters and lurkers could see it and urge everybody to take the poll, we might have some idea of how to tailor functionality to suit the majority, across (you should excuse the expression) the board.

I suspect it's going to shake out with several--perhaps many--single-show threads, several smaller bucket show threads, with some tv natter allowed in Natter for those folks who don't feel comfortable in either buckets or show threads.

I have no real stake in steering the board in one direction or another. I just would like to have the most comprehensive idea what changes are wanted, and which ones will make the board better serve the greater number of people before we make irreversible ones.

Thanks, Bev, I do think polling would help.

I will note that I'm not necessarily driven by a what-the-most-people-want result. For example if it was clear that thread splintering not only drained volume from Natter, but that a slower Natter was decreasing overall board viability then I think we would need to back up and say, "Let's make a smaller circle and maintain that."

I do think there is some merit to that notion. But I do think it would help to understand what maintains the core of the community before we let majority votes spread us thin.

I think a poll is a really good idea to at least get a sense of where some of the less vocal people stand. It might help to direct the conversation because right now it feels to me like we're talking in circles.