need some modicum of organization, or my head explodes.

Allyson speaks for me on this, except her metaphor about the junk drawer is better than anything I would've come up with.

What about Nilly-fying TV discussions as they happen in various random other threads? NOT asking Nilly to do this, but while I don't mind skipping TV-related discussion (whitefont or not) in threads I read, I've also missed TV-related discussions I would've liked to read, because they happened in places I don't go.

Or, we just let the dueSouth thread evolve, the way the JossverseOther thread has become the comics thread.

This is what I think, not necessarily in any order:

I think we need a clearly labeled thread or threads to talk about other TV shows, so people who are interested can find the discussion. I don't think this means you can never talk about TV in Natter or Bitches, or other shows in the Farscape and Smallville threads or whatever, just that substantial conversation should be in one place.

I think getting the approval to open a separate thread for every TV show we watch would be a headache that no one wants to deal with, especially since that's likely to change without notice -- Tru Calling could get cancelled really quickly, or we could all end up immersed in some show no one thought about until the day it aired (see: "The OC."). I have nothing against threads grouping shows together, but the difficulty there will be deciding where a show goes. It also doesn't help the spoilage thing, if (say) I want to talk about Due South, but it's in the HoYay thread with Smallville and I haven't seen the new Smallville yet.

I think the spoilage thing could be either a major stumbling block, or nothing at all. Posters in the Movies thread have stuck only losely to our spoilage guidelines, and as far as I know no one's ever complained about being spoiled there. On the other hand, there are more TV shows people are watching at any one time than movies, so there's more to be spoiled about.

And I agree that we should figure out thread consolidation first, before we make a new thread. But I don't want to put this conversation off for six months while we do that.

Re: the resource draining issue

It just occurred to me that if we're using to many SQL connections during the off season, how are we ever going to keep from breaking the board once Angel starts up again?

It just occurred to me that if we're using to many SQL connections during the off season, how are we ever going to keep from breaking the board once Angel starts up again?

Eep.

Hence the root of Kristen's worry, I'm guessing. So the SQL connections are a-number-of-individuals posting issue and not a number-of-threads-open issue?

So the SQL connections are a-number-of-individuals posting issue and not a number-of-threads-open issue?

Number of posts made or read. A thread with no traffic is a minimal drain on resources.

Because of the SQL resources issue, I'm getting more and more anti myself, in spite of the fact that I'm kind of the person who brought it up. If we're crashing servers in the off-season, adding a TV thread at this time of year is starting to sound like an incredibly bad idea.

As much as I like the idea of a general TV thread, I'm very worried about the issues Kristen raised. As Buffistas in a world without new Buffy, we also really need to take time to figure out where we want to go. So I'd like to toss out the following draft discussion proposal:

(1) Table the current proposal until October 20 (or such other date as technical issues are resolved).

(2) Meanwhile, leave Lightbulbs open (or discuss in Bureaucracy) where we want to go. What threads can we do without? What threads do we want? IOW, full housecleaning.

(3) Develop a group proposal once the technical issues are resolved.

While I was in favor of the idea of a general TV thread, I definitely don't want to drain any more resources on the board if it endagers its existence. Maybe those interested in discussing specific shows could set up forum(s) elsewhere and mention it here.

I second the proposal to table it until tech issues are resolved or 10/20/03 whichever comes first. That way it won't be moratoriumed on a tech technicality.

This is just a random thing, but it seems to me that Natter is a bit slower in the past couple of months than it used to be [Edit: and I am taking into account the latest technical difficulties. There are, on average, less Natter posts for me to skip catch up on when I log on in (my) morning]. I'm not saying that there's less natter, only that somewhat less of it happens in the Natter thread of late, IMHO. I guess there are very many reasons for that, both inside that thread and outside of it, and I have no idea which ones are speedier as a counter-balance (though I'm pretty sure there is some sort of balance), but I just thought I'd point it out.

I think it's Bitches that's absorbed a lot of the natter, actually. Anyway, they seem to be turning over threads at approximately the same rate.

If Kristen's concerned about the technical/resource impact of another thread, and thinks we ought to sit tight until we know how the fall will affect us, I think we ought to go with that. I mean, what's the point in having someone who'll actually communicate with us if we aren't going to listen to her, right?