Well, the last Lightbulbs discussion didn't come to a vote, yet. We decided we wanted to talk more. Actually I thought we were taking a rest before talking more, but I was apparently mistaken.

good grief, I read press all the time, and I missed that! I've been looking for the thread for almost 2 weeks.

Askye hits it, for me. I--and others--have been proceeding on the assumption that Natter, Bitches, possibly Music and Other Media, as well as a tv thread or two is the core Buffista experience.

What if that's not the majority experience? What if only 60-70 people--very vocal people--use the board that way, and there are a couple hundred who check in every day to monitor Minearverse or Boxed Set, mostly lurk, may occasionally post in those threads, and go nowhere else on the board? They never interact outside the threads that interest them, and have no wish to. Their experience is the discussion of a couple of narrow points of focus, not a broad range of people and subject.

• If* that's the case then it suggests to me that it doesn't matter to the majority of posters not the majority of posters in Bureaucracy, but the majority of people actually using the board, that the "community" we've been so proud of and so careful of damaging isn't that important. That we are, in reality, just another tv board, so we can get on with a thread for every show and let go of the "community" aspect of the board.

I think it's premature to get worked up over that possibility. We should see what the majority says and hold the concern unless and until the results seem skewed from the prevalent opinions among the long-time community members. I feel I should point out that even the long-time community members seem to be far from consensus about what the board is and should be.

I'm fairly opposed to changing the user experience here to fit a possibly larger group of casual users (non bureaucrats and nonvoters). In fact this suggestion is making me kind of ill, but I don't want to be passive aggressive about it. Also I know this tension has been expressed uncounted times here. I find this Clay Shirky article fairly persuasive, though I'm not sure how persuasive others will: [link]

If we want to alienate the users that make this community, allowing casual users to trump is a good way to go about it.

I am compiling some of the posts about polls from 7/30 evening until now.

The economist in me also says that a question that we appear to be missing is whether the poster contributes funds to b.org and if so, how much and how often. I don't think we should institute any sort of merit system based on pay, but I do think that even with the disparate incomes of posters here, we would probably find that the more invested community members tend to contribute more and more often.

Askye hits it, for me. I--and others--have been proceeding on the assumption that Natter, Bitches, possibly Music and Other Media, as well as a tv thread or two is the core Buffista experience.

What if that's not the majority experience? What if only 60-70 people--very vocal people--use the board that way, and there are a couple hundred who check in every day to monitor Minearverse or Boxed Set, mostly lurk, may occasionally post in those threads, and go nowhere else on the board? They never interact outside the threads that interest them, and have no wish to. Their experience is the discussion of a couple of narrow points of focus, not a broad range of people and subject.

Okay, no offense to any lurkers, but if that's the case I say who the hell cares? I'm far more concerned with the experience of the 60-70.

Okay, no offense to any lurkers, but if that's the case I say who the hell cares? I'm far more concerned with the experience of the 60-70.

me, too. I mean, I care about the lurkers and everything, but if they don't contribute significantly or make their preferences known, why should we bend over backwards to include them in this decision?

that's the case then it suggests to me that it doesn't matter to the majority of posters not the majority of posters in Bureaucracy, but the majority of people actually using the board, that the "community" we've been so proud of and so careful of damaging isn't that important. That we are, in reality, just another tv board, so we can get on with a thread for every show and let go of the "community" aspect of the board.

I agree that it is premature to think that there are thousands of lurkers listening to us talk about TV. . I do think that there are a number of non-lurker users (myself included) who have seen more TV threads as a way to experience community, because we want to talk about TV with these particular people. This particular thread was the first time I have felt that spinning out was dangerous to community.