Yes, but you're not really comparing apples to apples on posting volume. The original Previously thread started on WX the same day as syndication.
I'm not sure you're comparing apples to apples though, either. Certainly, there are people who haven't seen all Angel episodes and will want to do some catching up, but not at the levels of catching up that was needed for Buffy.
Remember that a large number of people haven't seen the older episodes of Angel in awhile, and will probably want to talk about them when syndication starts.
Your "awhile" is key here. Part of the reason the Buffy syndicated reruns made such a splash is that lot more of the fandom missed out on early seasons of Buffy - because it was new and unique. It wasn't just a matter of not seeing the episodes enough times to feel sated. People hadn't seen two to three (+) years worth of episodes at all. Hell, Angel already has DVDs on the US market. That didn't happen in the US for Buffy until after season 5. Look at the Buffy thread this week. Look at how many conversion stories start in seasons 3 and 4.
Those Buff early-adopters who didn't miss out, were still new fans in a new fandom, and some hadn't been enraptured by a cult TV show before, didn't think - right away at least - to tape Buffy episodes. As is the nature of a spin-off, more people knew about Angel from the buzz it got from Buffy. There's a huge overlap between Buffy and Angel fans. There are some fans who only watch Angel, but even some of those were originally Buffy fans who turned off Buffy for whatever reason. Many/most Angel fans knew about Angel from the get-go, because they watched Buffy and knew of the spin-off. Most Buffy-watching Angel viewers knew enough to give it a chance and watch. Most Buffy-taping Angel viewers knew they were probably going to want to tape it from the start. Angel starts out with fewer people needing to catch up. No. I don't have actual proof of this. But the WB doesn't just not rerun Angel episodes because the WB sucks (which is actually not in dispute :).
There were 1079 posts during the first two weeks of syndication, and about 3900 in the first three months.
Regardless, the UnAm, Angel, and Buffy threads are all moderate volume (in comparison to the slow threads, and in comparison to the crack demon threads of Natter and Bitches - may they live and reign forever and ever). It's not as if these threads are going to go faster than any Buffista thread has ever gone before, because Angel is in reruns. Angel will be in syndication for what - five or six weeks before season 5 premieres in the US? It'll be in syndication for months and months, before season 5 premieres in Australia. There's that 1079, right there, and then some. Your stats make me think not that the thread is needed, but that we thought it would be needed, gave it a shot, but it only served a temporary purpose.
I've yet to see a specific need that
Previously
fills that isn't already filled in other existing threads. It's niche posting in a time we've been advised to streamline, for a show that has a total of 6 forums clearly open to it, and for a group of episodes safe to openly discuss in any thread on this board, save Press and Beep Me.
It's bad to panic, Dana. Thespis can smell fear.
Yay! That was my tagline on Table Talk for quite a while, and I think it's the one I left up for posterity. Thespis is one of my favorite episodes ever.
When the season 1 Angel disks came out - - was discussion in the Angel thread?
I thought people didn't want new threads because duplicate conversations were going to happen in the same place. It doesn't make sense to create a situation where there's two places to talk about previous Angel episodes when we are trying to keep down traffic on the board.
askye - I am really confused by almost all of your posts on this. I am sure it's just a communication breakdown. I am in favor of not having two threads (in other words not having both an Angel main thread and an any sort of previously thread, but instead, just the Angel main thread).
In response to that, people are saying if we have no Previously, we have no where to discuss past Angel seasons with UnAms. I am saying we already have 6 threads in which Angel is fair game, and at least 2-3 are safe for UnAms, and so a Previously for Angel is unnecessary.
If we don't have a Previously thread of any kind and only have an Angel thread when Season 5 starts where are we going to talk about past seasons of Angel so that everyone on the board--Americans & UnAmericans--can discuss them?
all the above are UnAm safe.
Okay, yeah I am confused because I thought we were trying to cut down on places where duplicate conversations might happen.
We are! Right now, people do/can talk about old episodes of Angel in Buffy, Angel, Bitches, UnAm, Natter and Previously.
The proposal is suggesting that rather than expand the definition of Previously to make it an old-episode-of-Angel-thread, we eliminate the thread. That doesn't add a thread. It takes it away.
I am saying we already have 6 threads in which Angel is fair game, and at least 2-3 are safe for UnAms, and so a Previously for Angel is unnecessary.
A conversation is much richer if it happens all in one place. A happy place where Americans and Unamericans can hold hands and sing the joys of their reruns. A conversation spread over six threads? NSM.
We are! Right now, people do/can talk about old episodes of Angel in Buffy, Angel, Bitches, UnAm, Natter and Previously.
Cindy, I've read all your posts on this and I understand your point, but I respectfully disagree. To say that there are six threads to discuss Angel previouslies so let's get rid of one of them is unfair.
First of all the Angel thread is NAFDA discussion of all things Angel so it leaves out UnAmericans as well as people who are new to Angel and have decided to catch up in syndication before going into the Angel thread to discuss current episodes. That leaves us with five threads.
The Buffy thread is a thread for discussion of Buffy. It is not a previously on Angel thread, it was never meant to be that thread, and if there's one thread on this board that I don't want multipurposed it's the Buffy thread. That leaves four threads.
Natter and Bitches are for nattering. Your argument that previously on Angel discussion should go on there can be made for every NonNAFDA thread on this board, and would be equally inapplicable. Two threads left.
UnAmericans as the new previously on Angel thread? I don't spend any time in UnAmericans but my understanding was that it's become a subcommunity for nattering similar to Bitches. Is it fair to multipurpose that thread for previouslies?
If you want to avoid repetitive conversation we we could technically have three threads on this board: NAFDA, Non-NAFDA, and Spoilers. There's such a thing as over-streamlining, and if previously got over 3000 posts in the first 3 months of Buffy syndication I think that we need to give the thread a chance to exist for the beginning of Angel syndication.
Now there are threads that can obviously go - Buffy Spoilers/Spoilage Lite, Buffy Quotables (after deathmatch), Firefly Spoilers/Quotables - and some that can probably go - F2F (open as needed), Buffista Corp.
But I don't see why we're slashing any thread we can. If nobody posts in it, it doesn't use resources, and if people post in it, then by definition it's a useful thread. Heck, the Minear thread has gotten barely any posts past the initial new thread smell posts, and nobody's suggesting we get rid of that one. Because it makes us feel good that we have a Minear thread. And it makes us feel good that we have UnAm, and Bitches, and Natter, and Buffy and Angel, and we don't want to repurpose those threads. So we need the Previously.
Heck, the Minear thread has gotten barely any posts past the initial new thread smell posts, and nobody's suggesting we get rid of that one.
I suggested it, and Jessica agreed, IIRC.
I'm all for removing threads that don't get much play. Every. Little. Bit. HELPS. Better to chop from the bottom, up, and find that the five threads we killed and 8 we consolidated made such an improvement that we don't have to have a discussion about killing a core thread.
