Catching up from long day at work.

if we do decide to open the next thread, it might be fun to start with a group rewatch of the show or movie. That would give the thread a nice jump start and get it past the initial low numbers so it doesn't feel so sad to others.

I don't understand the logic here. It's reaching 10,000 posts because people have been using it. There are other threads that will never reach 10,000 because they are rarely used. Using 10,000 as the decision point ensures that you will kill off threads that get modest use long before you kill off threads that get almost no use. Why is that a good idea?

Yes this too! If we hit that magic mark, doesn't that show activity? Sure Bitches has more activity on a sunny weekend, but 1,000 posts/year is an average of 3 per day. That is some activity. It might not be the race horse it once was, but it sure seems like the old trail riding horse that lets you enjoy the sunny day in the countryside. A nice place for shiny thoughts.

What if we instead say, if it doesn't hit 500 new posts by summer solstice, then talk of closing, rather than closing it just because it came to the end of the 10,000 thread limit.

To me, stopping at a number that was created for technical reasons seems a lot less organic than stopping when the people who are participating actually want to do so.

What I was trying to say is that picking an arbitrary number and saying if it isn't reached in some arbitrary period of time we will kill the thread, that process is what feels wrong to me. If we don't close it now, I would prefer that we either decide to keep a Firefly thread forever or leave the question of when to close it open and just say not now.

Reaching 10,000 forces us to make a decision. I think that decision should be based on current circumstances, not hypothetical future circumstances and I strongly feel that the actions we take should be takeable immediately, not some sort of decision making cascade triggered by conditions that we pull out of the air.

some sort of decision making cascade triggered by conditions that we pull out of the air.

I think this might be needed in the b.org masthead.

Yeah--I just don't see how the next criterion will be less fake than this one.

I think this might be needed in the b.org masthead.

Only if we change "the air" to "our asses".

To me, stopping at a number that was created for technical reasons seems a lot less organic than stopping when the people who are participating actually want to do so.

Yes, this.

I realize face space had been keeping me away from the board a lot lately, but I still keep up on the Firefly thread. As others have mentioned, it's one of the rare places on the internets to discuss the show without having to deal with the craxier parts of the fandom.

The thread is still being used. Maybe not a whole lot, but there's a still a group of people who participate and enjoy its presence. I'm not sure how that presence negatively impacts those who do not participate to the point where it needs to be done away with.

I'm not sure how that presence negatively impacts those who do not participate to the point where it needs to be done away with.

Because, for people who are opposed to thread proliferation, the Firefly thread is an excellent example of needless thread proliferation.

Why?

Yes, there are other threads that are just as slow as Firefly, but their topics (Other Media, Fic, whatever) have ongoing, NEW content about which discussion can be generated.

Firefly really doesn't. I'm sorry to be so unsentimental about it, but there's nothing new to say about Firefly, and I think that fact more than anything demonstrates that a new thread is not warranted. Why have a new thread for 3 posts a day -- or 300 a day -- that talk about craxyfen or some interview where a Firefly actor isn't talking about Firefly?

If there's new Firefly content (movie sequel, etc.), then I'd say a new thread is warranted. But I don't see any compelling reason -- other than sentiment -- to make a new thread when this one dies.

if we do decide to open the next thread, it might be fun to start with a group rewatch of the show or movie. That would give the thread a nice jump start and get it past the initial low numbers so it doesn't feel so sad to others.

Ooo yes! love that idea.

This is me.

Sentiment is the only reason I'm interested in a new Firefly thread. The show brought me to b.org in the first place. And I came long after the substantive conversations about the episodes was over, so doing a rewatch would be great for me.

Also, I enjoy hearing about what the cast is doing on other projects and would probably miss those links if they appeared in faster moving threads.

I'm not a fan of thread proliferation, simply because I can't keep up. But eliminating Firefly doesn't feel right when there are those of us diehards who still might use it.

(from the Firefly thread)

I wish I could understand why this thread is marked for death but I just don't get why a low volume thread for a cancelled show bothers so many Buffistas so much.

For my own part, it's not that having the thread bothers me, it's that this seems like a fine time to stop having it.

You may or may not be aware of the massive amounts of agita that have been caused by basically every new thread, and the desire on the part of some people to keep the total number of threads lower rather than higher.

some sort of decision making cascade triggered by conditions that we pull out of the air.

The only way to make sensible business decision is to pluck numbers out of the air, call them assumptions, and calculate the net present value.

Of course, you have to use the right discount rate or else it's meaningless.