remember that a thread is not just it's original purpose in creation. To the extent there may have been minor drift

The point of Beep Me and Press is no drift.

I expect any moment to see someone post in there about stepping out for a manicure, or about their neighbor's brother getting a dog.

I'm going light grey for five minutes while I have my coffee break!

To be fair, though, there's been drift of the other direction in that thread, too. At least, my recollection is that there were initially a lot of "away for the weekend, see you on Monday" posts that don't come up so much now.

The point of Beep Me and Press is no drift.

I think perhaps mission creep is a more accurate term for what we're discussing here, since drift does seem to relate more to conversation in our general usage, which indeed is stomped pretty effectively.

Where the DM posts started pinging people, I think, was the repetition. That makes them, to me, a separate issue from other kinds of mission creep that people are perceiving. (FTR, I found them useful but I don't mind the loss since it did seem to be aggravating some folks.)

I do think Press posts were initially seen as items with a little more urgency to them than some of what we're currently seeing, and I wouldn't be averse to trying to encourage people to consider whether Natter or Beep Me or somewhere else might be a better option.

There's nothing that says the announcements have to be related to board business, or that the announcement would have to be relevant to every single person on the board. It seems to me that the deathmatch start-ups and all the stuff on Gar's list fall under what's appropriate.

The deathmatches come closest, the rest of it, no.

If Press ends up with 40 posts per day, we have a problem in that people are placing too much importance on trivia. And what is trivial is so subjective, that I'm not sure how one regulates it.

Occasional coughing sounds and furrowed brows when it starts to slide that way? A reminder to use your best judgement added to the slug?

I do think Press posts were initially seen as items with a little more urgency to them than some of what we're currently seeing, and I wouldn't be averse to trying to encourage people to consider whether Natter or Beep Me or somewhere else might be a better option.

Yes, this.

Occasional coughing sounds and furrowed brows when it starts to slide that way? A reminder to use your best judgement added to the slug?

This will result in Big Damn Drama and paw licking.

A reminder to use your best judgement added to the slug?

Perhaps judiciousness in what a poster thinks people want to hear, rather than what the poster wants to say. It's for news, not advertising.

I guess I'm weighing in on the discussion.

"Beep Me" seems to strike me as a thread for the online equivelent of polite notes when someone leaves the room Sort of like saying 'If anybody needs me I'll be away for a while" to people at the office.

Also, "beep Me" doubles as a place for if someone is having, had or thanking people for helping, personal moments of pain or joy. (Dark, going, out of the area, etc.)

"Press" always impressed me as a place where people announced inside or outside events, activities or occurances which would otherwise be buried in any one specific forum like "natter," or which appealed to a wider audience than one specific thread.

*shrug*

and the current thread blurb says:

Know something that we all really need to know? Announce it!

Hmmm. The definition of "something we all REALLY need to know" obviously differs from person to person. Because I just don't think posts about "hey, a new TV show is premiering," or "hey, a TV show is having a marathon this weekend," or "this is the anniversary of when a show I liked got cancelled" is something that we all REALLY need to know. I think those are best suited to Natter.

I check Press and Beep Me daily. There are whole weeks when I don't have enough time to poke my head into Natter. I appreciate Deathmatch notices, because I may actually have ten minutes right then to participate. Or I may have intended to tape two episodes of a marathon, but had forgotten it was on.

In Natter I'd have skipped it, or found it days--or weeks--later. I think Press is operating just the way it was intended, and just fine the way it's being used. I emphatically don't think it's being misused at the moment, and as a matter of fact, I didn't feel it was being misused when the LAistas were managing their plans in Press. It's a quick-read short thread. A bulletin board. You check the board when you get the chance, if the message doesn't pertain to you, or you're not interested, skip to the ones that matter to you.

Is there a way to resolve this in which all parties will feel equally heard and counted and that will lead to resolution? The conversation is starting up for, I think, the third time in about a month, but I don't sense any persuasion happening.

Do a quick poll to see if the issue is of interest to enough people to address (I don't know if there are agreed upon numbers about this kind of thing anywhere)?

The only resolution that makes any sense (to me, right now) is one Press thread for messages of import. Import to be determined and posted by the people who are complaining about misuse. And a bulletin board thread for the people who need to leave a quick note of something they think others might be interested in.