I still miss Boxed Set and feel exiled there, if we're counting lingering reactions: as I tend to talk talk talk when passionate about stuff, to the point of being annoying, I skipped Boxed Set entirely during my SCC binge. (And then I got busy, and have still not caught up.)

Well, Sean, if you took the quoted lines as insulting and inflammatory, I'm sorry, because they were not intended that way. However, that's not a very good reason to become intentionally nasty in response.

Passionate argument is only persuasive inasmuch as the passion serves the argument.

I still miss Boxed Set and feel exiled there

I still miss you -- all of you -- in Boxed Set. It feels like there's a huge chunk of the board that went off to form their own board (and I'm deliberately leaving aside any talk of how that happened; I don't want to revisit it in this discussion because, again, it's a very different case in my mind). It's a giant fucking hole, even if the talk of a show I don't watch was sometimes a lot for me to skip-n-skim.

But I do like this one, because it's a convo I've been wanting to have, specifically with Buffistas -- OMG HAVE YOU SEEN OTHER GAME BOARDS?! I spend a lot of hours playing games, and thinking games, and reading game blogs, and I can't have that talk with the people I love.

All of which is to say: this isn't proliferationista or anti-proliferationista for me. It's about the specific discussions that are or aren't happening.

But I do like this one, because it's a convo I've been wanting to have, specifically with Buffistas -- OMG HAVE YOU SEEN OTHER GAME BOARDS?! I spend a lot of hours playing games, and thinking games, and reading game blogs, and I can't have that talk with the people I love.

I've seen one really cool one that is fairly heavily modded that a friend of mine frequents. Darned if I can remember the name, though.

Okay, well. I don't feel I was ever intentionally nasty. I also feel I've been making quite a concerted effort since to bring my discussion down to a rational level, and have been called emotional for my troubles. In fact, it feels to me that you've been deliberately trying to ratchet things up, too, but whatevs. Clearly I'm the only one being unreasonable here.

I don't feel I have been ad hominem, or outright ranty. I'm a little surprised that I've been taken that way, though I certainly acknowledge I was being melodramatic, primarily for effect.

I still miss Boxed Set and feel exiled there, if we're counting lingering reactions

In this, I am Plei. I think the SPN thread-creation is still a touchy subject for a lot of people, and one I do not wish to revisit any time soon.

It's not just that they suck potential conversations out of threads, it's that they seem to, and again, this is just my position/opinion encourage by their very nature small, insular groups who talk amongst themselves wherever they are.

But do you see the benefit of them? I do see your point, but...in my case, for instance, I am not a part of any sort of "Premium Cable" community, but I am very glad the thread exists so that I can share my Deadwood experience with Buffista Deadwood fans who are being very kind not to spoil me. It's something I wouldn't be able to do in Natter.

I definitely agree that threads can create new subcommunities. There are people I only see in the Music thread, for instance, or the group of bibliophiles in Literary. But I feel like b.org is a pretty strong community where the majority of people post in multiple threads, and the people who confine themselves to threads about specific topics probably wouldn't be actively posting in Natter (In a perfect anti-proliferationista world, would all discussion happen in Natter? I'm not sure how we define the strength of the community) because it would be too difficult what they wanted to talk about with all the other conversations going on.

I think the subcommunities foster connections between posters that carry over into the general community threads and thus end up strengthening the community as a whole.

Aaaaaand I just re-read the part I quoted, and the last dependent clause is the salient point that I have not addressed. And have in fact probably supported. Oops.

It was a big enough step for me to say anything at all, so I'm going to stop here and regroup.

Sean, one of the things I love about you (and share with you) is the high level of drama and passion. One of the drawbacks to that most theatrical trait is having a debating style that clashes with the relentlessly logical types. waves gaily to Nutty, among others

We've got a few days to hash this out - perhaps taking a step back would be a good idea?

While I can actually see where the concern over creating small, insular groups is valid, I submit that in this particular case, it is unwarranted.

Consider the people who have said they would (or might) participate in a gaming thread:

Me, Miracleman, NoiseDesign, amych, billytea, connie neil, laga, among others.

Is there actually concern that any of us are going to isolate ourselves into a gaming thread and never appear anywhere else?

I really am calm! But yeah, I'll step away now. For realz this time.