Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!
We open it up, we talks the talk, we votes, we shuts it down. This thread is to free up Bureaucracy for daily details as we hammer out the Big Issues towards a vote. Open only when a proposal has been made and seconded according to Buffista policy (Which we voted on!). If this thread is closed, hie thee to Bureaucracy instead!
It's honest in that it's probably what would satisfy the people who watch those shows.
I don't actually think so. I think in most cases those threads would stagnate and die.
And frankly for people who want focused discussion, that's a much more simple approach because it cuts down all of the non-specific-show chatter. It also avoids something like SPN/Boxed Set from happening where people suddenly neither want a new thread but feel like they can't discuss comfortably in the thread they were in.
Okay, this happened once, and it was unfortunate. But our history of dealing with things when we can see there's a critical mass forming is better, overall. Natter spun out of Buffy. So did Bitches. Due South out of Bitches. (Possibly Smallville and Farscape too, I disremember.) We could see a tidal wave of LOTR coming, so we were able to shunt that out of Natter/Movies ahead of time. Etc.
It also means for people like ND and Kristin who don't want to be spoiled for other things they watch, they can avoid it.
That's the tougher bit, and I'm not sure the best way to handle. But I don't see overlapping Natter and Ded-Thread discussions as a bad thing, personally.
there is greater fragmentation of the community and also a sort of bizarre "me and my 5 friends have our own special place" vibe. The last part, in my opinion, is shitty and it changes the way the community socializes but perhaps that is the way the community feels now: hunker down and give me my thread.
I agree with most of what Kat said. To the above, I think that even if me and my 5 friends had a special thread to talk about, say, Dresden Files (I won't let it go), those of us who wanted to have wider discussions with the community would also be in Natter or Bitches, and probably other threads too. And those of us who didn't wouldn't be in the other threads anyway.
I'm not advocating single-show threads so much as thinking that I don't see how moving tv tak anywhere will necessarily impact the community discussions in Natter and Bitches. Except for removing the issues that apparently keep some people from posting in Natter/Bitches who would if they weren't worried about getting spoiled.
Eh. I'd really like a poll done to find out how many people avoid which threads and why. Is spoilers the problem? Is it whitefont, the annoyance or the lack of it? Is it the fragmentation of discussion? Is it the pace of the posts? Voting is intended to give us the will of the majority, but until we get an idea of how the people as a whole feel, we may not be putting the "right" issues to the vote.
Does that make sense? I mean, we keep voting on this thread and that thread, and we keep having exactly the same arguments/discussions/points made every time. It's solving things for people who want specific threads, but it isn't solving the overall question. Whatever the overall question actually is. I think it's "How do we want our community to be organized, now that the central thing we were organized around is gone?"
Network Drama thread with no whitefont at all
Here we have a point to work from. How about Network Drama with 24 hour whitefont? It can certainly be an option to vote on.
Voting is intended to give us the will of the majority, but until we get an idea of how the people as a whole feel, we may not be putting the "right" issues to the vote.
This is how I feel.
Except for removing the issues that apparently keep some people from posting in Natter/Bitches who would if they weren't worried about getting spoiled.
To be clear, I've never worried about being spoiled in Natter or Bitches. Whitefont makes that a non-issue for me. I generally don't talk TV in those threads just because the conversation has moved on by the time I want to talk about it, but that's my issue, not the board's.
The only current thread that I don't go into because of worries about being spoiled is Boxed Set, and, as I've said, I accepted that that thread as it's configured isn't for me anyway. I wouldn't want to take Boxed Set away from those who love it; TV just isn't worth this level of contention to me.
It also means for people like ND and Kristin who don't want to be spoiled for other things they watch, they can avoid it.
That's the tougher bit, and I'm not sure the best way to handle. But I don't see overlapping Natter and Ded-Thread discussions as a bad thing, personally.
I appreciate that my voice is being heard, but it's so difficult to know how many people want what, and I'm wary about becoming a spokesperson for anyone else. I agree that single threads would be accessible to more people, but I also recognize that single-threads are a dealbreaker for others who I care about here.
Maybe it's just that I have other things on my mind, but I'm just not up for the level of discussion it would take to make substantial changes one way or the other right now. Yes, I'm being conflict-avoidant, which will doubtless frustrate ND, but...I guess I just agree with whomever it was who said that it would be nice to have a bit of a breather from this discussion so close on the heels of the SPN debate.
Not sure if any of that is helpful. Just throwing it out there since my name came up.
Yeah, the timing is bad. The new season is coming up, so this was going to happen around now. I'm just sorry Supernatural spilled over when it did, but that was an organic development, I guess.
For that matter, I'm kind of sorry cable drama came up before network - again, start of new seasons dictated, or at least led - because I think it's contributing to the "new thread mania" feeling some are perceiving with one coming up after another.
Gah. I don't know. I liked the experimental thread. I like fast Natter. I do think there was more conversation, about more shows, with the separate thread. I also think the fear that OMG every show will get a thread - or even every show will be discussed in a thread - is way overblown.
As a "read new" user, I don't see a huge amount of splintering, because I flip from one to another. ymmv.
Frankly, I think the "foldering" on the main page is more splintering - when everything was on one page, I'd click on to the site and see "hey, lots of posts in [whatev], must be something going on" and check out threads I wasn't subbed to, for whatever reason. Now, tv/movie/media threads I'm not subbed to might as well not exist, mostly, for all they impinge on my consciousness.
I think the "foldering" on the main page is more splintering
There are a lot of different ways to use the site. The foldering wouldn't further splinter Nutty's experience, for instance, since she never uses the first page.
Other people use the first page, but don't read past whatever their browser's fold is.
Some use subscriptions and the home pages, some read the whole page...it's a mixed lot.
Even when I'm Reading New, threads feel different to me. I miss the Supernatural energy in Boxed Set, even though I didn't read all of it (and am so not going to chase it to another thread). So even if threads pop up automatically for me, how I read and how I post is dictated by the feel I get off that particular thread.
Even when I'm Reading New, threads feel different to me.
Yeah, I should clarify. It's not like Read New means all one thread. They feel different, for sure. And I'll post differently, depending. But I don't feel a disconnect, exactly.
My inclination is to put the brakes on thread creation.
As a go-go pro proliferationist that's a shift for me.
Natter's not my main thread, but for the people who do use it that way, it does seem clear that the bleeding of volume they feared with show thread creation has happened.
There's a certain tipping point where the volume is not unlike blood volume. You need a certain level to maintain consciousness.
Then again, that's easy for me to say since I don't watch
Grey's Anatomy.
But I am used to seeing its whitefont in Natter (and scrolling past).
I'm still trying to think about how to structure a whitefont bucket thread that would accommodate people who were spoiler avoidant. But that's just another pressure bleed on Natter.
My inclination though is to not treat the Experimental threads as successful experiments that need to be permanently enshrined, but to Slow Down and see what the subdivisions do to the community before we create more.
I realize that the new season is coming in September(ish), but my gut is saying we could afford to let Network drama be in Natter for that long and just see how things have been changed.
Though I'm not as invested in Network Drama, I would like a Comedy thread (for HIMYM and The Office), and I would still advocate holding off.
I think we have already started one kind of experiment and we don't have any meaningful conclusions yet.
Due South out of Bitches. (Possibly Smallville and Farscape too, I disremember.)
Smallville spun out of Bitches, Due South out of Smallville. Both at WX.
There's been a sort of sea change in the board culture since then, partly due to platform shift, partly in response to Buffy being off the air, and the real shift to Natter and Bitches as the true cores of the community, and I think splintering now has more of an adverse effect than it did then.
