I understand this concern, but have we actually seen this happen in any existing threads? I'm not challenging the statement -- I'm honestly curious.

It happened with Firefly, and again (to a lesser extent) with Wonderfalls/Minearverse.

And it doesn't have to be a *huge* influx of new members to have an effect - to continue my example above, say poster A invites his/her friends B, C, and D to join because they are just massive underwater basketweaving fans. Then C invites E, F, and G, and so on. There's nothing at all wrong with any of that except gradually we've got a thread where a substantial portion of the posters are newbies who never venture out of that thread. And that changes the shape of the community at large.

And to repeat myself for the umpteenth time, that may not be a bad thing. (More likely, it will be a bad thing for some people and a good thing for others.) But it is worth acknowledging.

3. I think that people who, in general, want threads are trying to, in some ways, recreate us having an essential thing tying us together, and nothing really catches.

4. I think that people, in general, who don't want threads created, also want to tie us together, by keeping us close.

I think these are both true and important points.

Okay, so...the Final Wording of the proposal:

I propose the creation of a Gaming Thread (clever title to come later), in which people could discuss games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof. All would be welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort. This thread could also be used for coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL and could serve as a cooperative resource for people playing games.

For most of my thoughts on all of this, I'm just going to do the point-and-not what-Billytea-said. I have very few cents, and my work internet is screwy this morning.

I do want to address the problem of underwater basketweavers from across the internets, though: The thing that brought out the Firefly explosions (and a few similar smaller things) was Tim, That Magnificent Bastard. We had goodies that other boards didn't have and that random (then-)strangers out there wanted. In the case of a gaming thread, it's almost exactly the opposite. There are a million other places out there to talk gaming; the thing they don't have is Buffistas, and honestly, we're a lot less likely to get slashdotted. I honestly don't see any influx in this case at all -- the other underwater basketweavers out there really don't care.

And, as I said back at the beginning of this, before I inconveniently disappeared for the rest of the discussion, y'all know that I'm normally wildly anti-proliferation. I'm not proposing any willy-nillyness, or indeed any kind of nilly other than the one we already have. But this is a case where we do have a group of people who are already part of the community who want to have the discussion.

I do want to address the problem of underwater basketweavers from across the internets, though

THANK YOU. That's really all I was asking. And I think your points are good ones.

I understand this concern, but have we actually seen this happen in any existing threads? I'm not challenging the statement -- I'm honestly curious.

It happened with Firefly, and again (to a lesser extent) with Wonderfalls/Minearverse.

And it's likely to happen with Dollhouse, too.

But I think amych makes a good point that, when it comes to non-Joss/non-Tim stuff like a gaming thread, or an I Like Cats thread, etc., it probably won't bring in new people who join only to participate in those threads.

MM, does your proposal want to address a spoiler policy? I seem to recall that being a concern?

MM, does your proposal want to address a spoiler policy? I seem to recall that being a concern?

Hrm. Yeah, I guess...

...what was the concern again? Spoilers for VGs?

No idea. I remember being surprised that there were spoiler issues, that's why I remember it, I think. As a spoiler nazi, I must speak up for the spoiler averse, wherever they are.

Final Final Wording:

I propose the creation of a Gaming Thread (clever title to come later), in which people could discuss games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof. All would be welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort. This thread could also be used for coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL and could serve as a cooperative resource for people playing games.

PLEASE TO WHITEFONT SPOILERS for video games, RPG modules or anything for which foreknowledge of events might lessen one's enjoyment of whatever gaming experience.