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.

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.

I wasn't referring to you necessarily, Suela. In fact, you are one of the people who said they were willing to see their baby go (Farscape). But several others *have* made a big deal about not wanting to lose a particular personally-beloved thread, whatever that may be.

I do think that it is counter productive to suggest getting rid of Natter and Bitches and then go on to say that you were either a) not serious or b) didn't want it to happen. I think that the discussion would benefit more from serious suggestions and reasoned compromises.

Okay, but the suggestion was made because people were talking about cutting loose tiny threads that don't see much activity, which is going to have zero effect on our problem, so the suggestion was half serious.

when I made the suggestion I had less of an understanding of the problem and how bad it was than I do now. Last night, I thought we were much worse off than we are.

Kristen and ita have made clear what was not clear last night - that we're not that bad off yet, so I have backed off the idea.

So, while maybe you were not trying to scold me or anyone else specifically, Burrell, it does feel a little like you're scolding us. Though I'm probably reading you wrong, as I have done so in the past.

I'm not scolding anyone, Sean, just offering my opinion, which as it happens runs counter to something that you said. Please try to not take our differences of opinion quite so personally, and I think you'll see that my comments are aimed towards the general discussion, not you.