I share some of your concerns about Discussion clutter and fragmentation the open threads, and think we will understand the tradeoffs better if we have a prototype in front of us.
I fear the thread will wither and die before Friday.
What do you mean?
The previous open thread had 330 comments in its lifetime. The latest open thread had 156 comments on its first day. By 'withering', I mean an open thread half spent on its first day.
The latest open thread had 156 comments on its first day.
For the record I guess that one of the main reasons for this is that some posters wait in order to make threads on the first day so they can get more exposure.
This week's open thread is less than a day old, and has already accumulated more comments than the 15 latest non-open-thread posts combined. I fear the thread will wither and die before Friday.
Going from monthly to weekly open threads was a big hit. Should we ratchet up open thread frequency even more? Should we add more outlets for comments, or will comments inevitably expand to fill the available room?
Proposal for discussion: We follow a regimen of weekly blather threads for the next two weeks, then reassess.
Addendum
I posted a Links on Friday and a Stupid Questions on Monday. In the 5 post-days that they've been up, they've accumulated 32 comments. Based on these numbers, it seems unlikely that these topical open threads will relieve pressure on the main Open Thread and so I've stopped the experiment.