I think that there are a lot of assumptions being made about how the board is used and those assumptions are based on the posters experiences.

Which is why I think we really need to see some hard data on how people use the board so we can stop using vague terms like majorities and minorites and core users and start saying things like:

300 people actively use the board. Of those 100 use Natter, 100 uses Bitches and 60 use both threads. The rest don't use Bitches/Natter at all.

I edited this becuase I realize my math is wrong.

And maybe we can ask how many people vote on issues so we can say something like out of 300 regular active users 90 vote on polls. Then we'd know that 210 people don't vote and that only 90 people are making these decisions.

We have had votes won by 50 votes and we've had voter turn out around 80.

Maybe we have 100 active users and so 80 is still a good voter turn out but not as small if we had 300 active uers.

But right now, we don't have any kind of numbers so it's hard to gauge any of this.

The one difference in the way I see that statement is that we were created to talk really about one fandom since day one, and often we digressed.

I disagree, because I think we were created to talk about television, and the creation of the thread enabled the fandom to develop. But it's possible that I'm arguing semantics, and the point of where we came from isn't as important to me as where we are now.

And the question of being a general TV board,

Mmm, I still don't understand this. In what way would the creation of new threads about/for television make us a television board? We're a culture board, who happens to talk television a lot. But to me there doesn't seem to be any more inclination to talk television than Harry Potter or theremins or fanfiction. The only difference to me is that we're changing the way in which we talk television here. It's not changing the entire tenor of the board to do so, because it was already there! Along with a bunch of other stuff that we talk about.

Having a nonfic thread is not the same thing, to me, at all, from having a "survivor dvds" thread

We have a Veronica Mars DVD thread. We still have a Firefly thread. Nevertheless, the hypo is not about the types of thread that get voted in, it's how we might have a lot of threads even if we ultimately want to preserve a large thread like natter.

Um. Obviously I am very interested in this discussion. I've not had much to say that Beverly hasn't said (bless her for wading in when I was too tired of Discussion). But I wanted to raise my voice in agreement with the polling, and maybe request that we shut the heck up for a day or so once the poll results are announced? Just to give everyone time to digest and whatnot? Because we are incapable of shutting up if it's not clearly stated that we will shut up, and this is a huge issue in a lot of people's minds, one that takes a while to process, even if certain people are good at thinking on their feet.

So, to sum up my hugely ungrammatical post: Poll Good. Shutting up for a specified amount of time after poll Very Good. Accommodating the "core" over the casual users also Very Good.

But to me there doesn't seem to be any more inclination to talk television than Harry Potter or theremins or fanfiction.

If that were true, then there would not be a push to have multiple TV threads.

I am willing to go offline with a few other folk to form the poll questions (FOR A GENERAL BOARD USAGE POLL - NO GD ?S ON TV THREADS YET) from what has been suggested if such people will volunteer.

I would be available to IM/skype with folk after 8 or 9 pm ET.

Well, we have numbers from votes we've taken. Can we look and that and at least get a range of the number of people who are voting, even no pref, on everything? I'd be happy to go back and tally the numbers but I can't do it until tonight.

That gives us something, anyway.

Other thoughts - we used to be able to run scripts to list frequent posters in the various threads. I think ita used to do it, but I don't know if other stompies can. Maybe we can pull the numbers and someone (again, I'm happy to do some of the heavy lifting) can throw them in excel and actually find out some of this stuff. It won't pick up threads someone reads but doesn't post, but we do have some information available if we can figure out the best way to compile it.

If that were true, then there would not be a push to have multiple TV threads.

I disagree. Mostly because I think the wish for multiple television threads stems for accessibility, not more talking for the sake of more talking.

msbelle I'll volutneer.

Mostly because I think the wish for multiple television threads stems for accessibility, not more talking for the sake of more talking.

I'm confused. Because this seems to say that plethora of TV threads are about allowing smaller and smaller discussions to take place... places where there isn't more talking? So the threads become increasingly less inclusive and more select because it isn't about creating a place where there "is more talking" but just a thread where X people want to talk?

Actually, nevermind. It doesn't actually matter.

I am still thinking that we need to eliminate no preference in voting.

I'm not sure how the poll will work to actually compile the info everyone desires, since it seems we all want different info. But I suspect that I'm like whomever posted upthread about wanting to know where my posting habits are in relation to others... sort of trying to figure out what is normative behavior.