SNL live posts?

May 21, 2017 5:55 AM

The U.S. politics megaposts on the Blue get gummed up with live discussion of "Saturday Night Live" whenever it's new. Should we start treating these as Special Events, pre-posting them and directing traffic over here?

SNL is done for the season, so I figure this is a good time with some room to discuss the possibility.

posted by Etrigan (6 comments total)

I agree, and SNL posts should go up at start time.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:16 AM on May 21, 2017

Live blog = commenting in real time, not necessarily "live blogging" every word.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:18 AM on May 21, 2017

I was just thinking about this last night. I agree wholeheartedly.
posted by Ruki at 4:19 PM on May 21, 2017

I almost did this last week, but I didn't know if it was kosher with the PTB.
posted by rhizome at 1:53 PM on May 22, 2017

As the mod who's always on duty when SNL airs ... We (the community) talked about this a little bit in the politics threads themselves, and at the time decided to have people keep commenting in the threads. So who knows if SNL will still be quite such event TV come fall, but if it is, here are the pros and cons I see to a live event SNL:

Pro:
*Much more commenting in the SNL threads, more vigorous discussion
*Less "omg reaction!!!" comments in the unwieldy politics threads
*SNL is now airing at the same time across the four main US timezones (and I think will be next year?) so there's not a weird East Coast/West Coast time zone thing for a live event

Cons:
*Tons of comments in the politics threads of people going, "OMG you guys the cold open!" "Dude, SNL is in fanfare now" "Take it over ----> here" "wait I thought we could discuss SNL in the politics threads?", the annoyance of which may outweigh the annoyance of people liveblogging their SNL reactions in a main politics thread
*Politics in fanfare, which may make cortex cry
*Having to moderate political fights in fanfare, which may make me cry

I'm open to the idea (especially if SNL is as hot and important in the fall as it has been this season) and interesting in discussing it, but I'm torn on whether it would be better to have "live SNL FanFare" or "SNL in the politics threads."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:31 PM on May 22, 2017

I've got my fingers crossed that this will be less of an issue come September, but if not, and we're still doing the ever-present POTUS threads, I think a live SNL thread would be a good pressure valve. SNL is also unique in now being shown live across all US time zones (and I know of a number of live streaming sites for those outside the US) so it's something a number of members can enjoy together in real time. I've absolutely posted SNL comments in POTUS threads, because it was the only place and it's been tangentially related, but I'd rather post in a live thread. I follow several shows in Fanfare, and I wouldn't argue for a live thread for any of the others. There's really something different about SNL.
posted by Ruki at 6:26 PM on May 24, 2017