I can't really add any more to what other people have said, but agree that it has all gotten very annoying.

I've already stopped responding to the polls in the episode threads because they're incoherent, and seemingly pointless - too frequently posted by people too incompetent to keep the poll options consistent, even with their own incorrect format, let alone the more regular five-options we're accustomed to! With all of this nonsense involving endless fake and spoof threads (which stopped being funny very, very quickly) taking up all the comment space, I feel inclined to already stay away from episode threads altogether now. Of course that's no loss to anyone else, but I used to enjoy posting here... and for how trivial doing so is in the grander scheme of things, it's a shame that the attitudes and ridiculous behaviour are what make up the bulk of things now. An added shame that I actually enjoy reading what other members have to write about the show, including a few regular/long-term members who I can remember and follow their views on the show over the years - a reflection of how long I've been here and enjoyed the forum myself.

When a poll was put up a good number of weeks back, I voted in favour of episode threads going up about five days early - so that the most recently aired episode could be discussed and speculated upon over the weekend, with the idea that the speculation and the following teasers/posters/trailers would all be posted in the following week in a new episode thread. If I recall correctly, there was a majority viewpoint that episode threads should actually only go up a day before or even on the day of an episode. I've absolutely no problem with that at all as it was the wishes of the majority, but it's a wish that hasn't been realised and so it does get frustrating.

It's a little bit late where Series 9 is concerned, but following a somewhat patronising comment from the moderators, maybe everyone should actually come to some kind of agreement in future - and a compromise to the wishes of the forum collective.

It's entirely possible to have more than one pinned thread. In future series, perhaps we should request having the 'Next Episode' and the 'Most Recent Episode' threads both pinned (so for example, right now we'd have both the threads for Heaven Sent and Hell Bent pinned). This would eliminate threads for upcoming episodes falling down the forum and resulting in multiple threads for the same episodes - even if that thread is barely used until the episode is nearly airing, it'd at least provide a routine (with all threads shifting through the 'Next Episode' to 'Most Recent Episode' pattern routinely on Saturday evenings) and means all we'd have to figure out is who posts those threads. Personally I don't care who does it...I'd happily do it myself if asked, if it helps to have someone a bit more bothered with consistency... I think if we were to stick to the 'Excellent, Good, Average, Poor, Very Poor' five-option poll that until recently has always been the go-to structure then it again wouldn't matter who posted these polls. If the mods insist that it's a responsibility the online community has to deal with (which they have), then maybe it is best to keep the posting of these threads to regular posters - who each week would have to DM other regular members and agree who was posting for the following week (unless that's all too formal?) making sure they were around to post the poll correctly on the Saturday night, and post the whole thing correctly and on time. They could even post who had agreed to post the following thread or something. Again, not sure if all of that would be too formal, but I'd happily involve some formality if it got the forum back to a little bit like what it used to be like - a genuinely enjoyable place to talk about the show.

Nicely put

As to your first point, Series 10 does not as yet exist. It is due to start filming some time next year, but this has not yet happened, and any number of circumstances might conspire to prevent it. So, to start an official thread for any of its episodes would indicate a lack of connexion to first reality.

THoRS, on the other hand, is (as far as I'm aware) complete and ready for broadcast on Christmas Day. It is, therefore, reasonable to expect an "official thread" on this forum in which to discuss it. Bej has provided us with such a thread. It may well have started earlier than you would like, but do you seriously think that there is anything actually gained by getting the mods to "abolish" this thread, in order to set up an identical thread a few days later? I honestly cannot comprehend what you suppose you will gain by this.

The thread has been started. You are not obliged to visit it or contribute to it, but if you feel the urge, it is there. The only possible problem with it is that the OP might not have enough posts to his credit to enable him to set up a poll on the day, but this is hardly an insuperable objection with some 3 weeks still to go. [The low current number of postings indicates that Bej is a relative newcomer to the forum: should we not be welcoming to newcomers?]

I am aware that this season has seen a number of regular FMs becoming increasingly incensed at unusual and inconsistent patterns of posting the "official" threads. I think there is a good case for passing the responsibility for these to the moderators in order to pacify those whom it upsets. But we should try to be as cheerful and tolerant of each other as possible, and always be prepared to give ground when a fellow-enthusiast offers something we actually want, if not in the precise form we would have preferred it.

Can we start talking about the episode yet?

Ah, I was not aware of that (so many threads, so little time). Obviously, then, this thread fails to meet the established criteria and will have to be replaced. Which is a shame, but rules is rules...

The really ridiculous thing is that we are still discussing this on the day before the final episode of the series airs, meaning it's been a whole series of arguing about how the forum should go about starting the episode threads. And the solution is apparently still none the clearer in time for the Christmas episode. Why is this so hard to figure out?

Here's an idea then! Use this rather pointless thread to nominate members who you think would be able and willing to run the official episode threads at an agreed pace. The top ten that are nominated and agree can then be voted for in an official "Vote For The Official Episode Thread Starters" thread, and then the top two or three members with the highest number of votes can split the responsibility between them, so that only they have to be available for polls and the like.

That a workable plan?

I've requested this thread be locked. No offense to the thread starter, but you can't create the poll so this can't be the thread for it.

I presume this thread will get locked or similar but anyway...


Exactly. This is why this thread doesn't work. There is little to discuss and what there is to discuss can be done in other threads.


The post at the top of the page from Abomination (and others too) sums it all up. The point above about nominating people to take control of things is reasonable. But it won't work if people keep trolling. I think the idea from Abomination that the mods should pin the last and next episodes is the only way it will work. If that happens it will be easier to ignore needless duplicate threads.

Btw I had a good laugh with all the jokey episode threads.

But that was also due to the clear nonsense of what has been happening. There are already threads to discuss the Christmas episode and an episode specific thread has been closed. It's not Time Lord science!

With Christmas beginning earlier every pissin' year, I'd say this thread is late if anything...

I think the fact it's the only way it'll work is why it's a reasonable compromise to perhaps consider. Before this thread gets likely locked as well, I can at least say a few of us had some constructive posts chucked in that might actually mean less locked threads of this nature in future...which is always a good thing.

But yes, I think two pinned episode threads - the most recently broadcast and the next to broadcast - is the best solution (exceptions made for Specials episodes - maybe sticking to the week-before structure to post them just to keep the official threads routine...it doesn't stop the creation of other threads to talk about Special episodes in advance). The transistion can ideally happen any time on a Saturday evening around the time the show is on, and being at the top for a full week would mean a lesser chance of duplicate threads. Yes, it means that the episode threads sit there largely stagnant for a good few days, or it can mean that a thread amasses several pages before the episode has even aired. But in the grander scheme, that's still a lot tidier than what we have right now. And in all honesty, how many people read through the whole thread? How many people actually revisit episode threads from series gone by? Having to press an extra button to skip the pre-episode smalltalk in an episode thread is surely a decent price to pay to keep things more coherent and to prevent people necessarily rushing to get their thread posted fastest as if it's some kind of popularity contest.

I think routine is fundamentally what is needed. Not a formal rule or instruction per se, but something consistent to break the cycle we're currently in. Two pinned threads for episodes makes the structure obvious to newer members, and whilst I'll leave the technicalities of who posts threads to someone else if it were left to reliable, longer-term members who could honestly say whether or not they were able to post/add the poll on any particular week then we might all just spare ourselves another Threadgate.