Who?

Who's on third.

Huh is all I had to say after reading some 400+ messages in this thread. I was being laconic.

No, who's on first. I don't know's on third.

(ETA: And Huh is in right field.)

And I prefer the informal "waive the special community" argument. Because we have two competing values here. Limit on resources is a very real concern, for all the reasons that I won't repeat because others have ably argued them above.

The other value is to have a board that meets our needs. Those needs change over time, and we need a board that's flexible enough to change with our needs.

At this point, I lean toward a book club thread but am persuadeable.

Final version.

Proposal:

To have a Book Club thread wherein a specific book would be discussed, Buffista style, on a specific time rotation. The initial basic structure for the Book Club thread (subject to unrestricted modification as contained below) will be:

1) One book a month. The first 3 books will be chosen at the beginning of the thread by participants in the thread with at least a month of lead time for the first book, and every book thereafter. The method of choosing will be suggestions from participants, narrowed down by consensus and, if necessary, a Mr. Poll. Literary diversity will be encouraged. Only books that are readily available at your public library will be eligible.

2) Book discussions will not be officially moderated. "Benign" moderation in the form of discussion points, questions and suggestions from readers well-versed in the text will be welcome.

3) All the details of the book club operation (including method of book selection, number of books per rotation, length of rotation, and length of discussion period) are flexible and subject to change to suit the preferences of the thread denizens.

The purpose of the thread is to accomodate an expressed desire by a number of Buffistas to have such a thread to allow focused and uninhibited discussion on a particular text as well as providing us with an opportunity and excuse to read and discuss books that may be outside our usual genre. And to have fun doing all that!

END PROPOSAL

Vote early and enjoy the weekend, everyone!

As I said above, I'll have a ballot up later this evening.

Thanks you, Wolfram and Jon.

This will be an interesting vote.

This will be an interesting vote.

Hopefully not in the Chinese sense.

I just want to bring up one point that I haven't seen addressed.

There are those who have asked why book club devotees can't hold the book club in Literary, and just skip and skim past the posts that are unrelated to the club. I get the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that those asking this question don't see this as much of an inconvenience.

The analogy that comes to my mind is the "MARCIE" user filter. If it's not much of an inconvenience for the book club, then surely it's even less of an inconvenience to skip and skim past posters that annoy you. And yet, few people have said we shouldn't code the user filter because of that. But it's a lot easier to ID and skip past a post by someone you don't like, than to ID and skip past a post with content you don't like.

It's a minor point, but hopefully it will help us understand each other a little better. {{{group hug}}}

The analogy that comes to my mind is the "MARCIE" user filter. If it's not much of an inconvenience for the book club, then surely it's even less of an inconvenience to skip and skim past posters that annoy you.

I, for one, am not a proponent of the MARCIE filter. I often skip and skim past posters who annoy me and don't find it an inconvenience at all.

IJS.

And I respect your consistancy! ;^)