MediaFilter

This is a space to detail the various suggestions and ideas in the March 2014 MefiTV MetaTalk thread, which mathowie said that this sort of TV/media discussion sub-site was "an idea we've been kicking around for a couple years, the hardest part of it is defining what it is and what it does and what it won't do, and how that fits into everything else on MeFi" and later said "continue talking about features you want to see, etc. ... I'll step away for the weekend and pick it up on Monday to see if any other ideas come up."

Issues/Options

The discussion started with the questions and suggestions posed by viggorlijah, and the ideas flowed from there.

Original suggestions and questions:

• Program champions make a FPP with a simple round-up of recaps from the web and then to let a thread flourish
• Alternate spoiler-free and spoiler-filled threads
• Start with a few specific shows as a trial of the new subsite, expand later

Subsequent questions and ideas:

• Only new/currently airing shows, or also old shows?
• How many episodes per post?
• How long should a post stay open?
• When should a new post go up? After the first airing of an episode, or wait until most regions run the episode?
  • How do you deal with significant delays between countries, such as BBC programs that air months later in the US and Canada, or when a program gets picked up years later?
• What rules should there be that aren't present on MetaFilter currently?
  • Most notably, how do you deal with spoilers, especially with significant air-date delays/rebroadcasts?
• How should posts be structured? Should there be some posting template (built or suggested) to help navigate posts?
• How much might this new site be different, on the programming end?
• How much time would this require for moderation?

Comments from Moderators

Early in the discussion, mathowie wrote

It's an interesting idea that we've thought about. If we ever did something, it wouldn't be as structured as TWOP with only certain shows and show sub-areas, as that was an artifact of discussion forum software needing "rooms" and topic threads that could be arranged for every episode.

He later wrote that this was an idea that had been discussed by mods in years past, and "the hardest part of it is defining what it is and what it does and what it won't do, and how that fits into everything else on MeFi." He later noted that previous suggestions to start new sites because they were "something we weren't equipped/interested in doing (politics/news/sports/etc)," while "I think this is something we can start small and grow with onsite instead of offsite."

jessamyn wrote that [TV/MediaFilter] "is a thing we're actively talking about putting together, but with an uncertain time window." She went on to note that moderation shouldn't be so difficult where people just want to talk about something they enjoy, and that community norms probably won't have to be laid down in advance.

cortex added some thoughts on the possible structure of the subsite:

part of the appeal of the new subsite is that there could be structural room for both General Thread About The Show ... and Thread About Ongoing Developments In The Show, e.g. per-season or per-episode, esp. for currently airing much-watched stuff....

...

Right now on mefi we don't really have that sense of distinction; a thread about x is generally the thread about x....

Some of these comments were in regards to people asking the question "why do you like this show?" and "help me understand/ appreciate/ enjoy this show," which can be good discussions, as long as they aren't "your favorite show sucks" comment bombs.