From how I understood the discussion last night, it was so when people are looking for stuff in the future, and know they posted or read it in "thread X" - thread X is still the same.

I agree, in this instance, it's not a big deal. I also think, if we're trying to be consistent, then we just should be. What's the point in setting up a process only to have as many exceptions as not?

I think it's for archiving purposes. If I have a thread that has been combined to include Smallville and Due South, and one gets closed/archived and the other becomes something new, how would I know where to look? If we close both threads and archive then open a new thread that combines them, if I'm looking for a past discussion of Smallville, I know where it is.

May not be an issue for Previously.

But it would be for spoilers.

I'm not sure Farscape belongs with the other two; Due South and Smallville could become the Hoyay thread easily enough, but I think Farscape is a distinct cause.

FWIW, as someone who posts in both Farscape and Due South I think they'd settle in together fine. The Due South thread tends to go in spurts of, oh, five to fifteen posts about a particular show at a time; Farscape isn't much more active than that, really. On the other hand, that would require people who were only interested in Farscape to see a bunch of posts about other shows that they weren't interested in, which I sympathize with even if it probably wouldn't affect my vote.

See, this is what I'm wondering--what the purpose of closing and reopening threads is.

Because if a thread changes topics midway through, if someone wants to download the archived version, they're effectively having to download two threads.

What I don't see is how this applies to Previously at all, since we're not proposing any change to the content or purpose of the thread.The current slug is not accurate.

FWIW, as someone who posts in both Farscape and Due South I think they'd settle in together fine.

Would they, thematically?

FWIW, as someone who posts in both Farscape and Due South I think they'd settle in together fine.

Might depend on how the new thread was categorized. If it were, say, the HoYay! thread, then things would fit together fine. If there were desire for a separate SciFi! thread, then Farscape and Stargate might fit better in that. I say all this as someone who is pretty much indifferent to how things turn out.

Would they, thematically?

Well, they fit together in my head. For all the description of Due South as a HoYay thread, it's really not so much. I mean, yeah, that comes up, but it's not a main focus of discussion.

I don't know if other people who read both would feel the same way, of course.

I read Smallville, Due South, and Farscape, and have no aversion to their combination. I suspect Smallville-only readers may, though.

I'd be okay with combining them all, but I do think there's something of a different feel in the Farscape thread from the others.

I get the archiving thing now--but topically, would Previously and Spoilers change that much? In Spoilers, there's been both Angel and Buffy discussion, and once we completely shift to Angel discussion (which we have been doing) I don't think it'll throw anyone for a loop to look for what they've posted about Angel in the spoiler thread as long as they know it's the spoiler thread.

Maybe we should see if any of them can be brought out of the woodwork. I'll put a mention in DS that this conversation is happening - does someone who hangs out there want to do Farscape and Smallville.