Would Rafmun naming specific people or incidents be anything but inflamatory in the extreme?

No less inflammatory than the comments already made. Since most people posting don't seem to be persuaded, it needs to be brought to that level. I don't think names need to be named, but I DO think we need at least one example of a change forced by the GO14 that is bad for the board as a whole. Because without that, the whole argument fails.

My point is Buffy at TT/WX and b.org used to be about discussion of shows. Now that they are ending there is more and more debate about the goings on on the board.

We started nattering before we even left TT. By the time we got to WX, my experience was that the show threads were not the essential portion of my experience among Buffistas. And again, I've been deeply active in Bureaucracy discussions since back at WX when we were trying create b.org.

Which is not to discount your experience, Megan, just that for me, the show threads haven't been the core of my experience here since TT.

She is the only one that can decide to change it.

Stompys can change taglines too. IJS. But you'd have to send me a lifetime supply of cookies.

My point is Buffy at TT/WX and b.org used to be about discussion of shows. Now that they are ending there is more and more debate about the goings on on the board.

With all due respect to Megan, I don't see this at all. At least not since b.org started. These board discussions come in waves, but I haven't noticed them arising with greater frequency or ferver than in the past.

What Shawn Said.

Someone a while back posted that they thought we should close the Atlantic Canadians thread when Buffy ended. No one thought to even ask the posters there if suggesting this would be ok.

I understand why that would be upsetting. I'm not sure if this is what you're thinking of, but a few months back the board was having major bandwidth/connectivity problems (a techie could put it better), and every low-volume thread was on the chopping block. We ended up losing Spoilers Lite and combined a bunch of TV threads and fic threads; IIRC, it was made pretty clear pretty fast that "Atlantic Canadians" is sacred.

But any thread additions or deletions do need to go to a Press-announced (and Lightbulb-debated) vote, so it's not something that could happen without the Atlantic Canadians getting any notice. Still, you're right that it could have been brought to the threads involved sooner.

Someone a while back posted that they thought we should close the Atlantic Canadians thread when Buffy ended. No one thought to even ask the posters there if suggesting this would be ok.

That's probably because someone immediately posted saying that it was a bad idea because the thread had developed its own subcommunity. I don't remember "defensive" responses; I remember people telling you not to worry because by the time you posted, the idea had been dropped.

Caveat: My memory may be faulty, but that's honestly how I recall things went down.

t edited for clarity

it was made pretty clear pretty fast that "Atlantic Canadians" is sacred.

Yes. As a matter of fact, as soon as you guys who post in the thread spoke up, my recollection is that it was immediately taken off the chopping block, whereas the three TV threads were combined into one despite some objections from the various residents.

I guess I've just missed your point. Were you trying to show how the people who post in Bureau run over the rest of the board? If so, I can certainly see how it would have been disconcerting to suddenly hear that a thread you post in was being considered for deletion, but as Lyra said, we don't do anything these days without announcing it in Press. Sometimes more than once.

Here's my example. Someone a while back posted that they thought we should close the Atlantic Canadians thread when Buffy ended. No one thought to even ask the posters there if suggesting this would be ok. Someone had to email me and draw my attention to the posts in this thread to let me know that the thread I post most in was being considered for closure. I spoke up here and everyone got very defensive.

Megan, you were not the only one who spoke up for the AC thread. I'll find you the cites but I remember many people saying that the AC thread was a subcommunity and should certainly not be closed. There's nothing wrong with someone suggesting it, and there's nothing wrong with a bunch of people protesting it. What matters is, it was not closed.

(Unlike the Spoilers lite thread. Crazy thread closers.)

Someone a while back posted that they thought we should close the Atlantic Canadians thread when Buffy ended. No one thought to even ask the posters there if suggesting this would be ok. Someone had to email me and draw my attention to the posts in this thread to let me know that the thread I post most in was being considered for closure. I spoke up here and everyone got very defensive.

Did it get defensive? I kind of dismissed that notion of closing the Canadian thread because I was conscious of what a rooted community that represented here. I would have fought vigorously against it because I'd feel like the lot of you would've been disenfranchised.

We've had to deal with a lot of issues related to thread-closure, but on the whole I think there's been respect for the idea that certain threads have their own vibe and that needs to be respected. I thought it was a huge deal with the Smallville and Farscape threads merged. Those were very distinct cultures with their own history. I appreciated the sacrifice made by the people who allowed it for the good of the entire board. Of course, now it's a Stargate thread, but that's another topic.

And this is how pile-ons happen. Crazy x-posts.