I'll stop in as soon as I get to work, and try to explain that it was an inspired, but utterly idiotic idea.

The different between Fan Fiction and the other threads is that no fic is actually posted there. That makes it work safe, and it means that no one has to page through posts and posts of fic in order to get to discussion. I know this comes up every time, and most people don't post in any of those threads, but Fan Fiction was opened for a different purpose.

I'm sorry, Dana. I did think of that having to page through posts, but thought that most of us will have to do that in combined show threads, or to talk about show X in Natter, so that didn't sway me. However, I didn't think of the work-safe issue. Certainly, the content of a lot of fic isn't going to be work safe, so KAT - please disregard that section of my suggestion, and adjust my total from 10 to 9.

eta... I struck "Fan Fiction" from that suggestion and adjusted the totals in the earlier post. Thanks for the heads up, Dana.

Kristen, I don't think anyone's panicking.

No, that's not right: I feel like the very possibility of closing two high-volume threads has caused a bit of an overreaction so that few people are hearing what I'm saying.

Nobody really believed Sean and I were proposing closing Natter and Bitches, right? But it was put out there because it's necessary to put all options on the table for consolidation in order to identify which ones won't work.

And the idea then resulted in Cindy's comprehensive list of options in post 3132. Yay, Cindy!

If we want to get serious about cutting, start with the stuff that seems extraneous. But it looks to me like folks aren't willing to even lose that.

Burrell, that's manifestly not what I said. Or it should have been manifest if it wasn't. I'm more than happy to cut what's extraneous, particularly if it will make a difference.

But -- and I'm sorry to keep beating this equine (it's not dead yet, I think) -- just because those of us who are in here talking think Natter and Bitches are the most important part of the board doesn't make it necessarily so for the 980 other members of the board. I don't think it's fair to them to categorically state that any thread is off-limits for closure at this stage. We should be open to all options until we find one that works best for the entire community, not just the vocal posters in the Natter and Bitches threads.

And, since I don't want to be misunderstood on this: I don't want to close either thread. I just believe it's important to keep all our options open while we figure out how to keep things moving come October 1.

And now I'm gonna shut up and get some work done. Days like this it's clear this place is gonna make me crazy.

Why do we think Oct. 1 is doomsday? Just b/c it's the Angel premiere and [casting addition] factor?

t edit That's a serious question, not sarcastic. Because it doesn't seem like the Angel premiere will blow us out of the water, especially with no more Buffy and, therefore, the loss of high-volume posting in that thread.

Just b/c it's the Angel premiere and [casting addition] factor?

I think that's the reason, yes. The post-premiere posting levels are pretty much guaranteed to be the highest they've been since we moved to Fangeek.

Because a) Kristen said so, and she's in charge of panic and b) yeah -- presumed uptick in traffic when there's a show actually on the air.

If we're honestly talking worst case scenarios, why not toss out just shutting the whole thing down? It seems only marginally more extreme than shutting down the core threads, but I don't think it's been brought up yet.

Or switching the code to something completely different, or rewriting it from the ground up?

There's lots of not!panic that's not been mentioned.

But we always handled an Angel thread before AND a Buffy thread.

I honestly don't think that the Angel S5 thread will be higher-volume than last season's Angel and Buffy combined.

Or am I really naive?

Because a) Kristen said so, and she's in charge of panic

And respectfully, it's all well and good to tell people not to panic, but when our (does she have an official title? webhost liason? official server goddess) panics, it's the kind of thing that tends to be contagious.

I'd be happy if we could just combine the various discussions into one thread at this point. Is there any way we can get everyone over here?

But we always handled an Angel thread before AND a Buffy thread.

We didn't always handle this many people.

And if we've already managed to quadruple the allowed connections with no new episodes, I think it's fair to consider we may do even more than that when there are.

Responding to Cindy's post:

Ditch the idea of having any Previously thread.

I totally agree, but I got a bit pissed on when I suggested it earlier. Still, nice to know someone else thinks so too.

Ditch All Quotables Threads

Agree as well, but I’d wait until the Death Matches are over.

Close all spoilers lite threads

Agree here too. Mild spoilerphobes like myself can take our inquiries offline. Honestly, if we are worried about bandwidth, let’s contain our discussion of the shows to a single NAFDA thread and keep the UnAm thread (Atlantic Canadians will have to suss out for themselves whether it’s worth it or not to keep their own thread).

I think these kinds of housekeeping changes can be made in addition to the ones Kat has already suggested.

I see no reason at this point to get rid of Movies, Music, and Literary, etc.