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?

Katuie, I certainly think Kristen's concerns and input is important. What I wonder is if, by consolidating some threads and archiving others, we could effectively "cancel out" the impact a new thread would have on the database.

Katuie, I certainly think Kristen's concerns and input is important. What I wonder is if, by consolidating some threads and archiving others, we could effectively "cancel out" the impact a new thread would have on the database.

We'd have to figure out how much traffic we'd actually be eliminating - look at the topics, figure out how many posts per week, yada yada. My instinct is that none of the topics we'd end up consolidating or archiving are very high-volume, but I could be wrong.

That's probably true, Katie.

I admit, I just feel like since May (in fact, since we knew there would be no S8), we've been saying "we have to redo the thread hierarchy now that Buffy's off the air," and since May, it's been put off until August. Now we're saying that for technical reasons, it should wait until October. Who's to say that in October, we won't feel like we have equally compelling reasons to put it off? I don't think having dead threads or unclear thread titles is the worst thing in the world, but I do think that if it can be done relatively painlessly (both technically and socially), we may as well do it now.

This is probably my impatient side talking, isn't it?

What I wonder is if, by consolidating some threads and archiving others, we could effectively "cancel out" the impact a new thread would have on the database.

Not really. Threads we're likely to want to close/consolidate/archive are going to be the lowest-traffic ones. (Buffy Spoilage Lite, for example -- sure, we could close it, but that wouldn't affect our server usage since people aren't reading or posting in it.) New threads will increase posting volume, and tax the server even more than we're doing now.

So unless we're archiving threads and replacing them with lower-volume ones, no, consolidating threads won't offset the traffic increase from adding new ones.

Oh, I wouldn't mind going ahead and consolidating at least now, whether or not it had any effect on our resource drain. I already said I think Quotables should close with Elena's post of the One True Buffy Quote. Buffy Spoilers Light can obviously go. Then we just have to decide whether to dump Previously or the main topic - I'd vote Previously. That'd be satisfying on a cleaning-up-the-house level, at least.

We'd have to do another proposal, though.

A lot of natter moved from Natter to Bitches in the last few months, particularly when there was a lot of interpersonal disruption. That said, I don't think the overall level of natterish posting has gone down in any way. There's a ton of natter going on in Lit, F2F, and sundry other threads.

It does begin to sound to me like we need a dedicated server, and that's a sizeable piece of change to drum up. We need a sugar daddy.