Brenda--OT, but did you get my email about vids? I haven't heard back, just wondering.

But, IMO, the only single-show threads that have been successful for more than one season are threads for Jossverse shows. I don't think there's really a critical mass for other shows.

I think this is at the heart of my reluctance to partition shows out of Boxed Set. I wasn't in favor of a Heroes thread. I didn't say so, because most of the people who were discussing Heroes seemed to want it so I just went with the majority on that one. I miss Heroes discussion in Boxed Set. If I'm short on time and need to skip reading, Heroes is one of the first to go, because I *know* what's in there, and who's posting. There's little to no potential for discovery, for new POVs, and for me, that's part of the fun. Plus, with no new episodes, it's just sort of sitting there all empty and forlorn, and it feels wasteful for me to carry a non-administrative thread that isn't active for part of the year.

I guess I like the bazaar atmosphere, the jostle and the cross-talk of having multiple shows in a single thread (okay, bucket. There, I said it. It's not an attractive term). That seems to be the way our board culture has evolved.

I'm gathering from the discussion that some people are as opposed to the jostle and flow as I and others am disposed to it. So there's no right or wrong, here, there's only evolving culture. And I think at least more discussion is merited, certainly on a weekday, to let as many who care to weigh in with their opinions on the subject, although it's certainly Amy's choice whether or not to table the discussion short of voting.

I do think SPN, given the intensity of feeling, the combination of both serious discussion and squeeage, and the fact that it's not just posting tied to new eps running, is closer to a Jossverse show in people's relationship to it than any we've seen in recent years

Really? More than Lost or Veronica Mars or Heroes?

I ask because I do agree with bon bon that it seems like we are slowly building threads one at a time to either corral conversation members of the collective we are tired of skimming around or because people of a smaller "we" are interested in a separate space.

I think Beverly totally nails my concern on the head. Do I care about a SPN thread one way or another? Nope. Do I see a tendency towards creating single show threads that ulitimately become smaller enclaves that are not as fruitful for inclusive discussion? yes.

Really? More than Lost or Veronica Mars or Heroes?

It seems that way to me, mostly because of the duration of the squeeage. But that's just my perception, and from someone who only watched one of those three.

I was asking because I remember people saying at the time for each of those shows that it was like a jossverse show because of arc or mythology or whatever.

What I'm seeing with SPN that I didn't see with Lost (don't know about VM or Heroes) is an invesment in the characters and the characters' well-being that seems as strong as anything I ever saw with BtVS.

I do think that SPN could support a show of its own, but as to whether or not it should? I'm torn. I honestly don't know how I'd vote if we went to a vote today.

Do I see a tendency towards creating single show threads that ulitimately become smaller enclaves that are not as fruitful for inclusive discussion? yes.

Me too.

Part of cross-pollination, to me, is discussing shows *in relation to, and in comparison to or with, each other*.

How much of this is really happening though? Are people discussing SPN in comparison with SGA or BSG, because I really haven't noticed much of that outside of occasional comparisons with Buffy, which isn't one of the shows in the thread. However, I do skip most of the SPN talk so I may have totally missed it.

Do I see a tendency towards creating single show threads that ulitimately become smaller enclaves that are not as fruitful for inclusive discussion? yes.

The flip side to this question is what do we do when a show so overwhelms a bucket thread that the other shows get short shrift? SPN really has developed a momentum in the thread over the last few months. Last year there wasn't a lot of SPN talk out of season. This week there were almost 250 posts of W&P and analysis for a rerun. That's a lot of material to have to skim. By comparison, the season premiere of Eureka had only about half that many posts.

Amy, I hope you know I wasn't trying to pressure you into anything. I hope I didn't make you feel that way.

Not at all. I was off seeing OotP with the family.

I'm not sure what I feel like doing yet. I think the discussion is certainly valuable, although it does seem very familiar after the discussions about the TV bucket threads. There seem to be a few ways at looking at TV threads and discussion of same in here, and there's clearly not one way that's going to satisfy everyone, or even most people.

I also think I'm not familiar enough with board history and culture to really be in a position to judge this, because all I really want to do is to keep discussing SPN (with squeeing and flailing) somewhere and not intrude on others' space.

That said, I think the discussion should continue for a while and then I'll make a call about tabling it or not.

FWIW, I don't really want this question resolved in the sense that future decisions are predicated on some principle we extract here.

I think sometimes bucket threads are better and sometimes single show threads are better and we have to revisit this question when the pressure arises.

Boxed Set is kind of Fandomville, but that means different things to different people. I will note that Squeeage can be alienating and feel exclusive if you're on the outside of it. Whereas other types of discussion are more likely to have the cross-pollinating effect that people like about bucket threads.

OTOH, Squeeage is very reinforcing when you're in on it. It's the shared excitement and appreciation and sense of mutual culture that's really exciting about fandom.

Everybody typing "Giles!" after "I'd like to test that theory" is that kind of Squeeage.

I share Nutty's concern about losing the original thread feel, because I'm offa my lawn like that, and also for weird and somewhat gendered reasons such as have been discussed in depth over at Henry Jenkins' place. Which, I own, is a me issue.

How much of this is really happening though? Are people discussing SPN in comparison with SGA or BSG, because I really haven't noticed much of that outside of occasional comparisons with Buffy, which isn't one of the shows in the thread.

There's not a lot of that. There is digression into other genre TV work by the various actors (SPN segues into our Periodic Dark Angel Discussions). But it's not the same kind of genre show as BSG or SGA, being neither ensemble nor in space. There's some, I think, discussion about it as related to X-Files, which is a more logical leap to make (shared staffing, two main characters vs. the world, the truth is out there), though that may have been limited to discussion in the fic thread.