What Jon Said. We're a pop culture board, which happens to love to talk about other interests we have in common. We're not TT reborn. We're the TT-TV Buffy Thread, extended and expanded. I don't think we can or should expand into areas too far afield of that.

Plus, a dose of What Shawn Said. Politics happens, because we're all people with strongly-held opinions about a lot of things (and I wouldn't be here if we weren't); things can get tense when it does, because, well, it's politics. But for the sake of the overall civility of the board, we're better off keeping those discussions in a place where there's both social pressure to keep things civil and something else to talk about so that conflict isn't the only focus of the conversation.

Think of it as the difference between the political crank in your family (who drives you nuts when he gets going, but on the other hand has some great stories on other subjects and has always been there for you) and the political crank on FOX news (who drives you nuts, period). Segregating the controversial stuff from the rest of the family dinner means that you get all the acrimony with none of the laughs.

I like the scattered talk. Of course, I'm guilty of it, but hey. I like the fact that threads of conversation pop up wherever we are. It adds to the feel of community, for me, where I'm feeling more and more that the thread spread has, in concert with increased numbers of people and speed of posting, lead to the everyone's alone in a crowd feel. Plus, seems people do more picking and sticking with threads, so that they become not so much subcultures, but completely independent cultures.

This to me is a very convincing argument.

Let me counter it by noting, that while I acknowledge the value of scattered talk - the shows I would be interested in discussing, don't have a focused thread. Folks can drop into the Smallville/due South/Farscape and chat about the most recent Stargate and there will be seven or eight people to pick up on that conversation over a course of days. If I wanted to talk about Adult Swim, it can really only happen in Natter, and really only if I'm there and Shawn and Teppy are there at the same time, which is unlikely considering the time difference. Then Natter sweeps it away and I'm out of the discussion. Because the spread of threads is both arbitrary and not enforced, it's bug-making.

Now, it's not so bug-making to generate real resentment, but I do think it's problematic.

Also, the virtue of focused threads discussion (from my experience) is not that I don't see people in other interest areas, but rather I only get to regularly interact with certain people because of the focused nature of the thread. I only really get to see Jon and joe boucher in the Music thread. I only get to see candy and le nubian in Spoilers. Lately, I only got to see Victor in the deathmatchs.

So instead of dividing off the community, it has enhanced my contact with people with like interests.

As Nutty noted (to her dismay) the board is already too big to not be somewhat subdivided. It's not been a negative. I can't maintain a relationship with 1200 people.

I'm moving towards the fence now with all these pop-culture arguments. Because we really aren't a board for everything. I'm going to give this some thought over the weekend.

I do think that if this board were to have a politics thread it would probably be much more civil and less heated then some people think. Remember - it's the snarky, fun-loving, compassionate buffistas posting in this hypothetical thread - not issue-clinging, one-note, political talky-heads.

Anyway, have a good weekend and Passover all.

Damn. Now I want a General TeeVee thread, which was not the point of Aimee's proposal.

And a goose that lays golden eggs. t /Veruca Salt

I think that a Politics thread is potentially a big change for this board. We've always been about pop culture.

Jon makes excellent points. I think I would rather see us become an all-purpose pop culture board (with plenty of natter in-thread and not), not an all-purpose all-purpose board.

I can't believe I think the teevee thread will be more controversial than the politics thread.

But I'm restraining myself-- with great effort!-- because that's for another day.

Politics happens, because we're all people with strongly-held opinions about a lot of things (and I wouldn't be here if we weren't); things can get tense when it does, because, well, it's politics. But for the sake of the overall civility of the board, we're better off keeping those discussions in a place where there's both social pressure to keep things civil and something else to talk about so that conflict isn't the only focus of the conversation.

I'm not sure why the social pressure to keep things civil is automatically assumed to be absent in this proposed thread. Basic rules of civility should still apply and I'm pretty certain that any Buffista who engaged in discussions in a Politics thread would be just as likely to say "Whoa there, hoss...THAT was out of line" should things look like getting ugly. Just as they would in Natter or Bitches.

Think of it as the difference between the political crank in your family (who drives you nuts when he gets going, but on the other hand has some great stories on other subjects and has always been there for you) and the political crank on FOX news (who drives you nuts, period). Segregating the controversial stuff from the rest of the family dinner means that you get all the acrimony with none of the laughs.

There's nothing to support a view that a Politics thread would necessarily segregate the controversial stuff from other threads, or segregate laughter from the Politics thread. We're Buffistas, not the McLaughlin Group or anything. I'm sure there'd still be political talk in Natter and laughter in Politics. I'm not seeing why these should be mutually exclusive.

You can politely excuse yourself from the political crank in your family, and you can turn off your TV. Just as easily, you can scroll past the political talk or unsub from a thread.

There seems to be a point of view that a Politics thread is "concentrated evil...don't touch it!" and I just don't understand that. What's so scary? We don't need politics to get all het up...evidently we just need a shift in the wind or Mercury in retrograde, or a collective wild hair up everyone's asses. Witness Byou'reallcrazy recently.

I say "What the hell, let's give it a shot" for the Politics thread.

As Nutty noted (to her dismay) the board is already too big to not be somewhat subdivided. It's not been a negative.

I feel it has been a negative *for the board as a whole* even if it hasn't been a negative for you, David S, or for me, P.M. Marcontell.

Kick me, and I'll expand later. Or, you know, someone smarter than me can do it if they feel the same way, and I'll say "what he/she said" because I'm lazy like that.

Jon makes excellent points. I think I would rather see us become an all-purpose pop culture board (with plenty of natter in-thread and not), not an all-purpose all-purpose board.

Yeah, that would be my preferred direction for the board. If we continue to feed pop culture into the maw, we'll always have something to spin off conversation.

Kick me, and I'll expand later.

Wouldn't it be easier to just feed you Red Bull and vodka? You're pretty expansive under those conditions.

Hmmm, I wonder if that would work as the Signature Drink?