It's a problem. Natter and Bitches are for many people where the community actually lives. The show threads are where the show discussion takes place, but a lot of us got to know each other in Natter.

I think this is the heart of it, on some level. We started or came here because of Buffy and many stayed for other reasons.

On the other hand, if it's a question of Natter or massive closure and consolidation of everything else not very directly show-related?

Do you mean upper or lower-case natter?

Other "solutions" designed to thin the herd:
1. Even/Odd Posting days. Justl like filling the car tank. You got an even user #, you get three days. You got an odd user #, you get three days. And then there is a day of rest.

2. The Elitist Solution. People with numbers over 500 are cutoff.

3. The next person who numbersluts is summarily shot.

Um. Those were all I had.

But if the eliminate Natter and/or Bitches is serious, then I would propose people pick one to save or kill both of them.

massive xpost

We do need to preserve as much culture as possible, because what's the point of saving a board no one enjoys, i agree.

However, we may not have a culture to preserve. We want to talk about Angel, we want to Natter, we want to Bitch.

But it's like this.

We're in a restaurant in the middle of the desert. There's no place else to get a meal.

There's a thousand of us, all at individual tables (computer) . We all have an individual waitress (connection) 250 want meatloaf (Natter), 250 want fried chicken (Bitches) 30 want the veggie plate (Smallville), 70 want scrambled eggs (Angel), 20 want quiche (fic), 20 want creamed spinach (Atlantic canadians) 20 want shrimp (Spoilers) 10 want imitation crabmeat on a roll (spoilers lite), 30 want coffee (Firefly) and so on. The rest is a hodgepodge of blue plate specials (Sang Sacre, Due South, PPO).

The problem is, there's only one cook in the kitchen, and while he can make one huge mutherfucking meatloaf and a few side dishes, he can't keep up with all the orders at once. He's going to have a fucking heart attack and then we'll all starve. So, we need to cut down on the menu items so that we'll not go hungry.

Some people will venture out into the desert in search of creme broulee.

Others will learn to like meatloaf.

me:

On the other hand, if it's a question of Natter or massive closure and consolidation of everything else not very directly show-related?

Kat:

Do you mean upper or lower-case natter?

I meant uppercase, the thread Natter.

If keeping Natter and Bitches alive means we have to kill other threads, the other threads with the highest traffic are the show threads.

I'm totally in agreement that Natter and Bitches are extremely important to the community. But the community came together about the shows, and I'm not sure that any of us is ready to give up the show-specific discussion just so we can keep Natter and Bitches going. And I'm not sure it would be fair to the many other members of the community who find Natter and Bitches too fast, too scary, or irrelevant.

I'm not proposing this, but at this stage I don't want us to assume that any potential solutions are verboten. Let's keep brainstorming this; eventually we'll find something that works. I hope.

I'd go from the bottom up, starting with non-show/natter threads with the least amount of posts.

Well since we're in voting, we better be DAMN specific that the discussion isn't about euthanizing the Natter and Bitches threads - at least not without some SERIOUS board-wide discussion/explanation.

'Suela, I was just clarifiying for my own edification.

I guess I just see this

On the other hand, if it's a question of Natter or massive closure and consolidation of everything else not very directly show-related?

More as a question of Natter/Bitches and not just Natter. Or even natter in general. Especially because, as Sean pointed out earlier today in Bureau because Bitches is currently carrying more or equivalent traffic to Natter.

But the community came together about the shows, and I'm not sure that any of us is ready to give up the show-specific discussion just so we can keep Natter and Bitches going.

I totally agree. I could foresee a board without Natter and Bitches. I'm also intrigued that should it not get renewed as seems distincly possible, given the WBs lack of promo and perceived enthusiasm for Angel, we may be having another discussion like this one next year reexamining with a "now what?" eye towards reinstating nattery threads.

That is if we don't go down in a flame of dispair first.

Ken, I think those threads, along with Mutant Enemy related threads, are part of board culture, and erasing the board culture doesn't make sense. I would be against such a proposal, and I don't think it'd get the prequisite secondsies. The resulting discussion alone would drown us.

Huh. I'm guessing if we shut down Natter and Bitches, they'd crop up elsewhere--we'd take them to PeoplesForum or wherever. And I, for one, would probably spend almost all my time in the Natter Diaspora and almost never come here. And maybe that's the idea. But it wouldn't seem like Buffistas anymore.

Eliminating Natter would, largely, serve to disconnect the Americans and Unamericans, wouldn't it?

What if we eliminated (for example, really) Movies, Music, Literary, etc. and those discussions returned to Natter? It would a) potentially reduce number of posts (with that whole dirty counter analogy) and b) if Natter were denser there might be less refreshing.

Oh, this is where the talk is.

Feck.

I don't want people to panic RIGHT NOW. Let's give it a few days, and if the quotes abolishment, on top of the rapid closing makes no difference, let's panic then. We can go all out.

I'm going to take some time and put together stats.

It's pretty easy to gank hits/bandwidth.

• June
• July
• August

And, to give an idea of the people that stop by that we know nothing of, top 30 of 40 countries:

#HitsFilesKBytesCountry 142616237.56%25317734.41%413314434.04%Network 238109033.59%26200135.61%397565032.75%US Commercial 313554811.95%7695110.46%149838412.34%Unresolved/Unknown 4798787.04%577717.85%10524038.67%US Educational 5225691.99%187242.54%3210662.64%Canada 6217001.91%150182.04%2765192.28%Australia 7216951.91%170202.31%2812242.32%US Government 8136211.20%96531.31%1834971.51%United Kingdom 9118351.04%101071.37%1588661.31%Non-Profit Organization 1075170.66%70150.95%1244221.02%Israel 1167950.60%46150.63%678650.56%New Zealand (Aotearoa) 1219610.17%5730.08%88240.07%United States 1311170.10%9750.13%203320.17%Netherlands 1410130.09%8840.12%112740.09%Switzerland 156000.05%3310.04%113010.09%Germany 163790.03%3440.05%54870.05%Norway 172720.02%1790.02%26670.02%Ireland 182300.02%1050.01%15110.01%Russian Federation 192020.02%680.01%14700.01%Singapore 201610.01%1610.02%21410.02%Japan 21650.01%570.01%7810.01%Argentina 22360.00%330.00%3370.00%Denmark 23230.00%230.00%3000.00%US Military 24160.00%160.00%1630.00%Belgium 25130.00%40.00%460.00%Brazil 26120.00%120.00%1030.00%Mexico 27100.00%100.00%680.00%Finland 28100.00%100.00%1280.00%Niue 2990.00%90.00%990.00%Italy 3080.00%80.00%690.00%Austria