How do we feel in here? We've all had our say?

If one is VM indifferent, there is really very little to say.

I find myself feeling a bit guilty about my "Sure, why not proliferate?" opinions. I'm still a baby, new to the party, so of course I don't feel as strongly about the sanctity of the board's roots as those of you who have put so much more of your time and effort into the creation of the community I've been kindly allowed to join (or at least lurk in).

I feel bad about the resigned sense of impending doom I get from Kristen and Liese and ita, the feeling that me and other children-on-your-lawn have come in and are slowly taking your flowers away from you, stealing them one by one and replanting your garden with rhododendrons when you love daisies.

In an ideal world, the fact that I care for Veronica Mars nearly as much as ever I did Buffy would lead me to create or find a community of Marsistas, a separate internet world that, while perhaps sharing some members with the Buffistas, would be otherwise unaffiliated. A caring, friendly, intelligent group of people who joined together to discuss Veronica Mars, but found themselves connecting on a level far more important, far more lovely. If this community could use software as beautiful and well-thought-out as Phoenix, so much the better.

Unfortunately, such things are hard to create from scratch. It took years for Buffistas to become what it is, and I can't help but think that there was some luck in the process. I think if you had intended it to happen from the beginning, something would have gone wrong somewhere - this type of place can only spring up organically.

So, yes, I would like to take advantage of what you've already done, springboard off your success at community building to provide a forum for intelligent Veronica Mars discussion that I don't have to search through hundreds of "OMG Veronica and Logan are so hott in this episode SQUEEEE!" posts to find and, more importantly, a forum where the people posting these thoughts are people I've gotten (or can get) to know personally, a little bit, through tales of cats, and hospitals, and muffaletta ingredients.

But I don't think I'll vote for it. I'll probably abstain. Whether this community is prepared to continue adding threads is, I think, not a decision for me to make, as a lurker (primarily) and newcomer. I'm too much in awe of what my precursors have made to do anything that they think might risk lessening its greatness.

I like more threads. I can home in on certain ones and actually stand a chance of keeping on on them.

I'm sort of with Gris, except I wouldn't want to a) find a Marsistas board, nor b) start from scratch with new people. I want to talk with the people here about stuff, including VM. But, where I agree is that I don't want to ruin anyone's garden. Besides, I have a hard enough time keeping up with the threads I already follow, so I really don't need another, even if it sounds fun. Because of these conflicted feelings, I will probably also abstain. I'm just totally kicking myself about my Lost vote last fall. I should have cast it for VM. 20/20 hindsight.

Won't be the first time I've voted in the minority.

I actually think the minority on this vote will be surprisingly large. I'm against a VM thread, and will vote so. Don't really care about the show, don't watch it, and continued comparisons and correlations between VM and Buffy don't seem to sway me much. Don't quite know what the hubbub is all about.

It seems to me the fundamental question is: What is the criteria for a separate thread to be created rather than have a show share Boxed Set?

Clearly at some point in the past this criteria was met for Buffy, Angel and Firefly. Is the criteria "spawned by Joss" or "the volume of posts [and how is this quantified?] regarding one particular show is drowning out all other discussion and thus needs its own thread"?

"To VM or not VM" is just a symptom of the problem. If this criteria can be determined, then the vote in question is academic.

Eddie, I don't usually do this, but you might want to read the FAQ for some board history. We started as one Buffy thread on the Table Talk boards back in ... what, 1997? And grew from there.

I'm going to vote for the thread, even though I'm still somewhat neutral on the show itself. Ideologically, I'm pro-proliferation (deadhorse deadhorse deadhose). In practical terms, I don't like the idea of having to wait until late February to discuss this again or create a thread, as we would have to should the vote fail. In my ideal world, I would want to wait on the vote until after the season premiere just in case the show sucks this season, but I didn't make the proposal.

I'm perfectly happy to register my discontent via the voting system (which I registered discontent about). Won't be the first time I've voted in the minority.

Me too.

At some point, I just grew tired of the sound of my own voice on this matter. I dislike thread proliferation. I will vote as such. If anyone newish to the board is interested in the longer version, feel free to search this thread (and B'craxxy 1) for the word "proliferation."

I'm actually not anti-proliferation, but I have come to feel that new threads, even when warranted, should be few and far between. Frankly, it seems that almost all the new thread suggestions (with one or two possible exceptions) are OOH, SHINY NEW SHOW!

I think a lot of those are going to fall by the wayside, and I say that as one who has succumbed to that very instinct.

In fact, I think I have a proposal to make in B'cracy.

Eddie, I don't usually do this, but you might want to read the FAQ for some board history. We started as one Buffy thread on the Table Talk boards back in ... what, 1997? And grew from there.

Yes, I read all suggested material when I decided I wanted to be a part of this community; I am aware of the published history. Granted, the Buffy thread in my example may not have been the most pertinent, but the creation of the Angel and Firefly threads support my point. Which is that someone at sometime decided that those two shows deserved their own thread based on some sort of justification (which I suspect was simply "Joss created it"). If that justification can be quantified, then we have a long term solution.

I see that Sean K understands where I'm coming from Sean K "Bureaucracy 3: Oh, so now you want to be part of the SOLUTION?" Aug 20, 2005 8:38:11 am PDT

All I'm suggesting is that if we establish a threshold such as what Sean K is proposing we won't have to go through all of this discussion in the future for new shows. If the threshold is achieved, a new thread is created, end of story. Otherwise, the show will have to share Boxed Set.