Maybe it's the Bronzer in me, but I don't understand why you feel you can't pull a meara and reply to posts about a show three days later. If you have something new and interesting to say that wasn't said days ago, then why not just post it? I don't think there's an expiration date on how many hours/days/weeks a discussion is viable for response.

For me, it's more about the fact that I have a really hard time keeping up with Natter. Oftentimes I have to skip a couple of thousand posts if I want to jump in. But if I want to discuss a show, I need to know what others have already said about it. It's similar to the argument used for the Book Club. Discussions are easier if there's a thread dedicated to it.

That doesn't mean we should have a thread for everything. But that's why Lyra tabled her proposal while we conduct a non-binding poll. She wants to find out how much interest there is in setting up threads for a variety of shows. Using that info, she'll make a formal proposal to open threads for some of them, or maybe drop the proposal altogether.

I've seen a few people say that they don't feel we should start new threads until discussion about the topics overwhelms Natter; the problem with that is, almost by definition, nothing is going to overwhelm Natter.

I don't know if this will help, but I did a Nilly of the Natter Lost discussion yesterday:

Polter-Cow "Spike's Bitches 18: A Whole Different Vibe." Oct 6, 2004 8:17:10 am PDT

It's up to the individual to decide whether the pattern of discussion constitutes "overwhelming" or not.

That doesn't mean we should have a thread for everything. But that's why Lyra tabled her proposal while we conduct a non-binding poll. She wants to find out how much interest there is in setting up threads for a variety of shows

Exactly. Which was my intention when this all started, because there seemed to be support for that in Bureau. It seemed to me that the only way to get that to happen was to put up a proposal, and if I was proposing anyhow I decided to propose one vote instead of a poll and then a vote. It didn't work, so it's back to the poll.

Which, Jon, could I email the poll language to you?

Furthermore, I feel fairly strongly that the ME/Jossverse/Minearverse is essentially still our charter.

And really they should recognize this and immediately broadcast a new series or 3 for us to obsess over. IJS

That those things that got us started are gone. While I think we need to keep threads going for them, because there will always be discussion, it's a type of obsolescence to be unwilling to move on from that. Either that, or freakishness a la old school Trekkies.

Move on from what? You state that we should keep those threads going because there will always be discussion, but that it's obsolescense to be unwilling...I'm confused, again.

Firefly was canceled, but there were tens of thousands of posts about it. Movie is coming out.

Tim has a new show coming out this Winter.

We are like Trekkies, we're dedicated to obsessive discussions of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. That obsessive nature is Trekkie like. I'm certainly no embarassed by it, those threads aren't really as active as Natter or Bitches by a long shot, where we talk about life outside television, mostly. Adding a half a dozen teevee threads just moves us closer to TWoPness. That's not our charter.

Which, Jon, could I email the poll language to you?

Yes. Profile addy is fine.

Lyra, I am glad you tabled the proposal, in favor of taking the poll. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't ever choose between "0" "1" and "2", when I didn't even know what shows were going to either be shut down, or fill those slots. Thank you.

Allyson, I see this as a rather backasswards way of doing this, but I still think it will be useful. This conversation has come up a few times. It'll be nice to see, in a non-binding way, what most Buffistas (who care to vote) think. Only a handful of us ever participate in the conversation.

Insent, Jon.

Cindy, thanks. I think I made it more backasswards than it needed to be -- I was trying to simplify, and ended up complicating, as often happens.

Allyson, I don't know how to argue with you. To me, there's a whole moving-or-dead shark analogy here -- we can add new threads to reflect new obsessions, or we can stagnate. I understand you don't feel new, non-ME show threads are necessary; if most people agree, the poll results will reflect that, and I'll shut up about this whole thing.

we can add new threads to reflect new obsessions, or we can stagnate

You really think it's that clear cut and binary? Are we stagnating now? What are the signs?

Cindy, thanks. I think I made it more backasswards than it needed to be -- I was trying to simplify, and ended up complicating, as often happens.

Well, given some of the decisions we've made in our usual assforewards way, I'm not sure backasswards (which I meant to type as "bassackwards" because it's less of a judgment, to me, anyhow) is a bad approach for us, right now. The topic keeps coming up. The topic keeps dying (and I think that's because even the Buffistas who might want a new thread for any given show agree we don't want to become TWoP). It'll be good to find out, if how we're doing things now is what most people who'll vote want, or not.