Its the great Buffista census.

So, like what:

what current threads do you post in (list of all threads with tickyboxes)(or does this even matter?)

what current tv shows would you like to discuss (open text box, seperate shows by commas)

do you watch any shows on time delay? (yes/no) over half of your shows? (yes/no)

Do you want tv threads at all? (yes/no) DO you have concerns? (open text box)

if yes, do you have a preference of single show threads or bucket? (single/bucket) IS your answer not that simple? (open text box)

.....

I think the poll will be very misleading to the extent that people will seek their short term preferences without considering the larger collective goal.

So let's figure out where the middle is.

About 37 licks of a Tootsie Pop?

smaller buckets (grouped by genre or network or night of the week)

I like the thought of single show threads and smaller buckets. One of the ways smaller buckets could also be grouped could be by parent series. Something like all the CSI shows in one thread, all the L&O shows in one thread (outside of the procedural/cop show, etc.) If they do run a GA spinoff (has that actually been decided yet?), those two could be put together. I don't know if this is something we need to articulate precisely in a poll, but it gives food for thought as to how many shows we might want in a bucket.

but if the majority of people have the same short term prefernces....

thing is - from just reading this thread the past day or so, it doesn't seem like there is a strong majority for any particular path. it does feel (like so many other times until voting!) like we are just talking in circles.

This is us not talking, huh?

Anyway. I know I supported the idea of a handful of bucket threads around a certain kind of show--ie what Vortex restated upthread--because I felt it would be of a consistent higher posting volume (which I find important because it indicates a level of interest and involvement in the thread), I thought it would serve the interest of cross-pollination (which is a net positive for me from Boxed Set), I thought it would be accessible to people looking to talk about television, while still retaining that unique Buffistaness that I see as important to the creation of any thread.

However, at this point, I do think a poll would be helpful. Even if it isn't perfect, it would still give us some kind of data which which to proceed onwards with, either to refine our questions or at least to give us a rough number of those involved in this discussion, vocal or not.

Did we even have any bucket threads before Farscape, Smallville and Due South got smooshed together?

I think they were each their own bucket thread in a way, with shows discussed outside of the main thread show, but that was determined implicitly by the thread participants, and sort of casual.

Then they all got smooshed into Boxed Set, which has ever since been the most bizarre, poorly defined thread in the history of everything, and I suddenly find myself wondering how much of the hubbub lately has been because of exactly this.

We kind of needed to do it at the time, I guess. Although actually, I seem to remember that most participants in the three individual threads were against the merger, but were unable to muster enough votes to prevent it from happening.

Actually, I think maybe what we really need to come to grips with as a board is that our usage and membership level pretty much dictates our current dedicated server setup, and that means there's a higher price tag that has to come out of our own pockets or nowhere. So far, we seem capable as a group of generating the funds to continue our weird little Internet paradise. The day we cease ponying up is really the day we cease collectively being Buffistas.

Or else the board will shrink to whatever form it can afford to exist in, and whatever happens to the community from there happens.

If that's really what it comes down to, and that our current configuration can support the thread proliferation we were unable to support at Host Rocket or wherever else, then making or not making any damned threads we want is only a matter of numbers in the vote proposal. We can create connie's bucket thread for all network drama, and a smaller bucket thread for three or four specific network dramas, and we can create single show threads for those exact same three or four shows, provided each thread in question garners the votes to pass.

And provided each and every time Jesse comes in here and says we need X dollars to continue operating for the next Y interval, we produce said funds.

I think the poll will be very misleading to the extent that people will seek their short term preferences without considering the larger collective goal.

I think we need to articulate the larger collective goal. I think polls will help us do that.

I'm not so interested in what people want. We can always add or subtract stuff later. That process is in place.

I would rather the polls addressed why people post here. What show thread environment is interesting to them. How they see the board. How they think it works best. Not just for them but for everybody.

I need a better sense of where the commons is before I think we can invest energy into it.

Where is the middle of our Venn diagram. We can't accomodate all outliers, but we can say, this stuff is us, this is the stuff we maintain. We stretch this far but no farther because that wrecks the middle

That's what I'm trying to get a sense of.

For me, I don't believe that there isn't a place to discuss it. I've always been fine with talking about a show in Natter until such time as it feels that a show can support a thread of its own.

I get that. I was addressing my point more to the people that have already expressed that Natter doesn't work for them as far as tv talk goes, but still have issues with having to wait to go into a bucket thread.

I'm kind of confused now. I see people stating that what the majority of people may or may not want isn't necessarily what's best for the board. But who gets to decide what's best for the board if not the majority?

I mean, regardless of what's polled and discussed , unless Connie withdraws her proposal, isn't whether or not we have a new Network Drama thread going to be decided by a vote on August 11th-13th? Isn't the only thing this discussion can change perhaps the way people decide to vote on the issue? Or am I missing a step here?