Is there any kind of tool that can tell how often lurkers pull us up? I've begun wondering how many lurkers vote and whether we're just a big soap opera to someone out there who could care less what happens so long as we're entertaining. I've also wondered how many of our approximately 1500 members are actual accounts that check in on a weekly/monthly basis and how many are never used.

I'm not sure it's relevant to polling or voting, but it would be interesting to get a closer gauge of our actual population base.

The only thing, Sean, is that even with us paying more now, there is always an upper limit to our resources. What has been proven is that if we thread it, we will talk. Increasing the number of threads has never resulted in fewer overall posts. So it's not an infinite number of threads we can support, technically or practically.

I do get that, Liese. But it does feel a little like the level we're currently paying for can support more threads than our community-ness would be able to generate (though I admit I may be wrong about that). And that's also where the anti-proliferation and anti-single-show-thread-for-everything arguments are starting to convince me -- what we can sustain, and what we can afford, and how much traffic we generate changes as we draw in more people, and I think the more we dedicate single threads to single shows, the more we risk innundating ourselves with random googlers and growing beyond what even our current service levels can support.

Yeah, I'm starting to see how what threads we create and why can have a serious impact on where we go, and there's likely no way to predict what thread is going to bring in a flood of people.

We really have been having the same debate for some time now without a resolution.

Do I laugh or cry now? I really can't tell which.

And I certainly don't regret the creation of Box Set which fostered lots of spicy discussion.

Oddly enough, I think I'm still a little bitter about Boxed Set.

But just a little.

I was bitter for a while, but then I stopped watching Smallville, so I had no reason to be bitter. Not that I've ever really needed a reason, but this time it was fine.

Not that I've ever really need a reason

One of the many reasons I love you.

Also, despite David's protestations that we weren't ready to hash this all out back in 2004, I think the realization that we've already been having this discussion for three years has just disabused me of any notion that we're going to finally settle this once and for all. I'm starting to think it's our favorite subject.

Still, willing to give it a go.

Oh the wheels of the board go round and round, round and round, round and round.

You know what I want to do some day? A lurker survey. I am so unbelievably curious about the whys and wherefores of our lurkers! Purely for fun.

And on topic, I like the idea of a poll. I'm not sure whether it will end up being all that practically useful, but again, I have the curiosity. Oh! Can we have a ticky box for "I am a lurker" "I am a poster"? It'd just be interesting to see how many lurkers are interested enough to do the survey. Or does that just make the phrasing for the rest of the poll more complicated? Eh. Either way. Just a thought.

But they're lurkers -- would they respond?

I dunno - but maybe with the anonymity they would. I might, were I a lurker. I wish I could ask them. You see the problem...