One suggestion I would make to both of these points is for BB editors to take more ownership / be more involved in the threads for the topics they post. From my personal experience, I’ve contributed in the comments to the evolution of the narratives initially broken by BB editors, or asked questions of specific editors (including @-mentions thinking that would aid in the song of summoning), and have had hardly any replys/interactions with the editor/poster. And my likes received exceed my post count, so I know I’m not posting total crap. Frankly, it seems easier to get their attention on twitter than via BBS.
If you want to engender greater richness in the discussions, I would encourage the editors to help foster the positive discussions that result from their provocations, which are plenty, by participating more in their threads. At a minimum, to help curtail tangents or flaming, but ideally to engage with the readership.
I understand this suggestion doesn’t scale well, but community building and tending has never been a terribly scalable endeavor. Perhaps, given how BB has grown, each editor could have their own intern, to help sift through the responses and surface interesting discussions for the editors.
BB has great curators, who have great natural voices that pull for dialogue, so it’s natural for regular readers to want to converse with them on the BBS.
