I dont know where Rescue Me and the like came from.

I floated it to see whether people wanted to stick to a tight thread definition or a broader one.

I'm specifically talking about HBO/Showtime. That is all the proposal covers and I'm not expanding on that at all.

Ultimately this comes to compromises between the impulse to not proliferate and the urge to have focused chatter.

Pushing the HBO/Showtime shows together is one clear, bright line grouping of TV shows. It doesn't include all the shows that people are interested in, but it does include several shows which potentially could support sustained interest.

So, reverse engineering the way things have worked around here, I'd say What We Have Done is to (a) give separate threads to shows (or movies, cf. LoTR) which generate heavy volume that disrupts Natter (from this we've given VM and Lost their own separate threads); (b) created a space for Tim's projects; (c) created a group thread for sf/fantasy TV shows. I'd say we'd probably also create a thread for any Jossiverse project that came back to TV without too much dissension. (Also a Spoilers thread on said topic.)

So we don't hand out individual TV threads that are separate from the Jossverse or Tim projects. But like Jefferson, who built the paths after people had worn them in, we have made allowances for shows which have generated high volume. And we have created a group space for genre shows.

So it does seem logical (at least within our culture) to make a space for this grouping of shows.

Potentially, you could also make group threads for Reality Shows or Adult Swim. TAR and Project Runway seem to generate enough interest to sustain a Reality show thread. And I could always huddle with Teppy, bon, Scola, Tommyrot and Theo about new Venture Brothers.

But I'm not proposing those. Just using them as examples.

Damn, DavidS is cute when he gets all categorical.

I am marking that as a "yeah!" for Allyson's thing.

Thank you, Gus. I thought you'd like that. And it fits, too, as we wouldn't be disrupting the movie-going citizens anymore and they could have their corner back.

(c) created a group thread for sf/fantasy TV shows.

Which was originally three separate threads (for shows that are now no longer discussed in the thread originally named after them).

No, I don't have a point. Just trying to keep things accurate.

I'm against this proposal for a variety of reasons, many of which have clarified for me over the course of this discussion, but I don't think anyone wants to hear another antiproliferationista rant from me, so I'll stay (mostly) quiet until it's time to vote.

What Jessica said, about the history of Boxed Set. It was a squishing-together of 3 threads that didn't really consider themselves alike, due to board issues. (The idea was it would reduce volume.)

Today, Boxed Set is the Media Fandom thread, which is why non-sci fi shows like MI-5/Spooks pop up there now and then. (To say nothing of pairing portmanteau discussion.) Boxed Set became the Media Fandom thread because that was the one thing that the Farscape, Smallville, and Due South/Stargate crowds all had in common. And, as these things go, media fandom isn't going away, so the likelihood that Boxed Set will continue to thrive are high.

I don't have that sense of groundswell support for HBO/SHO. Actually, I am looking at other recent new threads, and wondering how long Lost will continue. That show seems to have fallen off sharply, while Veronica Mars has fallen a bit but continues to generate a reasonably steady volume of discussion.

Okay, maybe it just the terms "Boxed Set". If it is about medium, make it about medium.

Just because it plays on a TV tube doesn't make it the same medium.

I am looking at other recent new threads, and wondering how long Lost will continue. That show seems to have fallen off sharply, while Veronica Mars has fallen a bit but continues to generate a reasonably steady volume of discussion.

The shows or the threads?

If it is the threads you are referring to, is it because it's summer and there aren't new eps right now? I don't watch either, so I don't know.

Okay, maybe it just the terms "Boxed Set". If it is about medium, make it about medium.

Well, "media fandom" is a set of cultural practices, not "we are fans of televisions and radios" kind of media fandom. I think of Boxed Set as a broader-topic sister-thread to the Fanfic thread, rather than as a TV thread at all. This is my pet theory of Boxed Set, not the official rationale of the thread by any means, but the tenor and topics of the discussion in that thread are inevitably one or at most two steps behind the general fannish-blog pulse.

(Also, I think 'Boxed Set' made much more sense when we first coined the phrase for boxing together three shows, because sci-fi TV shows were just then all coming out with boxed sets -- because the companies realized they would sell, a la Firefly. Little did we realize that every Tom, Dick and M*A*S*H would end up with its own boxed sets!!)

Yes. Broadcast, Cable, Premium, DVD, 'Net, Theatre, Live Theatre... (Print)

These are the mediums.

Boxed Set has different aims and Natter, despite the search function, doesn't really work (especially because going forward and backward makes the search time out and you end up having to re-search between every post you read). Taking away our right to talk about HBO in Movies and saying no to a new thread is essentially saying that those of us interested in talking about Deadwood and The Wire and the like should have no voice here. I don't see any other way to read it.