People arrived at this site for different reasons, and for some of those people it will have been Firefly.

People may have arrived for different reasons, but the board was created for only one: The Buffyverse. There's nothing to vote on there, no variant opinions to be considered. Future is one thing. Past is immutable.

If the thread is still being used and enjoyed by people, even if it isn't that many, why close it? I don't see a compelling reason to do it. If Firefly fit with Buffy and Angel, I could see folding it into that thread, but it doesn't.

When we've closed threads in the past, it was either with the approval of the folks who used the thread, or because we as a group thought reducing the number of threads would solve the system problems we were having at the time. Neither one of those seems to apply in this case.

maybe the vote should include a "doesn't matter either way" type of choice.

That's the purpose behind including the No Preference option, isn't it?

Of course, if that gets the most votes, then what do we do?

Again, there's precedent here. Even if more people vote for No Preference than vote for either Yes or No, we go with the majority of Yeses or Noes.

I don't remember now what the vote is going to be for. Is it for closing the thread or not opening a new one when the current thread reaches its end?

I think the wording of the proposal is:

I propose we close the dedicated Firefly thread and let conversation happen where it will.

Aimée "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Oct 25, 2007 8:48:21 am PDT

Though I have been assuming that not opening a new thread is what we're talking about.

Aimee's latest proposal was to "close" the thread, but I'd suggest amending it to say "not opening a new thread when the current thread is finished."

But I'm with DX. When the community using a thread wants to keep it open, I don't see a pressing reason to close it.

I realize how ridiculous this is, but I don't think the Firefly community will ever agree to closing the thread, even if it goes without posts for ten years. It's this weird "you can't take the sky from me!" mentality.

It's solely my elephant in the room. And maybe it's okay to open a new thread for the occassional fandom wank, but it doesn't seem (to me) like a good reason to open a new thread.

It seems like the thing keeping the thread moving for so long was a dead sock puppet, random rumors about sequels, and of course, news about crazy!fans.

If there was never a Firefly thread, would we open one just for those purposes?

It seems like the thing keeping the thread moving for so long was a dead sock puppet, random rumors about sequels, and of course, news about crazy!fans.

If there was never a Firefly thread, would we open one just for those purposes?

If it were proposed and enough people voted for it, sure.

It seems to me that when Thread N reaches it 10,000 post limit, creation of Thread N+1 should be automatic.

To put it another way, I see the creation of Thread N+1 as a continuation of Thread N, and different from the opening of a new thread with a new topic for discussion.

Proposals to close a thread can be made, discussed, and put to a vote at any time.

Proposals to re-open an old thread or create any new thread can be made, discussed, and put to a vote at any time.

Is this a good time to close the Firefly thread? Possibly. I can see the arguments for both sides. But my own preference would be to see Firefly 5 created and then a vote to close the thread. Merely reaching the 10,000 post limit is not enough for me to vote to close the thread.

In fairness though, Allyson, I don't think there's that much of the wider Firefly community here. A majority of the people debating this one are long term Buffistas members, and the vote will very likely reflect that.

I still don't know which way I'm gonna vote. To me, in my mind, Buffy/Angel/Firefly had all gone hand-in-hand here as part of the community, so for that reason I would always have said 'Keep it'. I think I was wrong, as is so often hilariously the case.

Proposals to close a thread can be made, discussed, and put to a vote at any time.

Right, which is why I'm not concerned with the "if not now, then when?" question. If the vote results preserve the thread, after the six-month moratorium anyone who thinks that the amount of discussion isn't sustaining the thread suffficiently can propose closing. And if no one does that, there would seem to be no problem.