A few things.

First of all, as we start the season, please take the opportunity to read over the FAQ if you haven't in a while. Among other things, please do make an effort to think about spelling and punctuation in your posts, and don't forget the shift key. It is your friend.

Second, something I just want to mention, based on other seasons of other shows, and not on this season of this show (so don't try to figure out what I'm talking about, because you won't be successful, because it's not anything from this season). If you are reading spoilers, do NOT go into the speculation thread and speculate based on the spoilers you are reading, trying to make yourself look brilliant. That is incredibly tacky, and don't think you're fooling me. I have also seen it happen in past seasons on other shows that all of a sudden, the speculation mysteriously turns toward a particular outcome, and it becomes TOTALLY OBVIOUS that that must be what all the spoilers suggest, in effect spoiling people who are trying to remain unspoiled. I haven't seen this for All-Star yet, but if it happens, the offending "speculation" posts will be deleted. Don't get cute.

It's not an absolute rule that you shouldn't be in the spec thread if you're reading spoilers, but . . . it's damn close. If you read spoilers, DO NOT SPECULATE in any way that is influenced by them, either in the spec thread or in contestant threads or anywhere else. As I said, it's extremely lame and tacky to try to make it look like you're just a brilliant guesser, and it stands to spoil others even if you never explicitly admit it's a spoiler.

Another spoiler post.

We are having some big problems with major untagged spoilers. Please watch for this. Even if it feels to you like "everyone knows" something, if it's a spoiler, it's a spoiler.

Please try to watch for it -- I know it's a very easy mistake to make, but that's why you need to be vigilant. Thanks.

Regarding "I don't get the hate":

One very common form of violating the rule against discussing other people's opinions rather than the show is the "I don't get the hate" post. The "I don't get the hate" post masquerades as one that is about the show, but really, is just a way of calling other people's opinions ridiculous. If other people hate a contestant and you like him/her, the way to tell people that is to say, "I disagree that he is rude/loud/ugly/a jerk." Or to say, "I like her, and here's why." Or even to respond to a particular post and say, "I didn't interpret that comment this way at all. I interpreted it this other way blah blah blah."

When you say "I don't get the hate," you simultaneously (1) make it sound like other people are irrationally foaming at the mouth; (2) make the issue other people's opinions rather than the topic itself; and (3) make it sound like other people have to justify their opinions to you, WHICH THEY DON'T.

The "I don't get the hate" post is off-topic, and from here on out, will be deleted or edited to remove the hate-not-getting. Note that I'm not talking about all posts that disagree with an opinion that's negative. I'm talking about the specific use, over and over and over again, of the expression, "I don't get the [blank] hate." Or "I don't get the hate of [blank]." I've seen it at least five times already this season. It bugs. It's both rude and off-topic. Don't do it.

I have moved the "Rank the" threads to Creative Quests, because they were cluttering up GenGab. Please don't create an unlimited number of these. I think we have enough of them. Thanks.

Just so y'all know, the Exile Island area is open for business, and if one of you would like to populate it with contestant threads, you're more than welcome to. Thanks!

I am working on getting the Race Wars -- I mean, "Cook Islands" -- section of the forums up, and when it's up, you can populate it with all the contestant threads your hearts desire, and I'll move all the stuff in Exile Island to Past Seasons. If that makes sense.

Okay, you can hit it on the Cook Islands section; go ahead and create all the contestant threads you like. Thanks for your patience; my apologies that it took me so long to get the section going.

This is just a note of appreciation for the fact that I am floored at how well the boards have gone this week, and what an awesome job y'all have done not getting into spats and throwdowns, when there certainly was plenty of material. I saw things go by that I know some of you wanted to respond to and didn't, and I am seriously so grateful.

I was practically getting sympathy cards, it seemed so obvious that the season was going to invite board problems, and for whatever reason, this section has needed less moderating in its first week than practically any other one I've ever worked on. I know that some of you have chosen to take the generous rather than the ungenerous interpretation of other people's comments, and for that, I just really wanted to commend you.

Hello, Survivor!

I don't know if I'll be your permanent moderator when the next season starts up, but I'm here for now.

...okay, that's all I have. Off you go!

Welcome Dietrich!

And now I'm not your moderator anymore, as I've been transferred to a different show to keep everyone's moderator load balanced. Your new moderator should be here shortly.

Goodbye, Survivor forums. I'll always treasure the time we had together. Or something.

...And here I am! The great moderator shuffle of '07 is over, and I'll be your new moderator. Please notice your emergency exits located at the front and rear of the forums.

But seriously, I don't anticipate that you will even notice the differences. All the same rules are in effect; feel free to PM me or post here if you have any questions. I've watched every season of this show and am looking forward to China!

Aww, we'll miss you, Dietrich! See you elsewhere!

Hi, Pembleton! Welcome to the Survivor forums (or shall I say, welcome back)!

Quick question: given that the season starts one week from Thursday, when would be a good time to start the character threads? Thanks in advance.

Edited for tags and other stuff

You can start them now, as far as I'm concerned. I'll move them once the China section is created.

Hey Pembleton! This is where you took off to! Do you watch Survivor as a fan or were just assigned this show?

Both -- I've watched every season but just happened to be assigned the show. I remember posting on these forums during S1, debating the merits of Richard's strategy.

What was your previous screen name here? Is there a listing somewhere of the Mod's current and previous names?

It's the mod's choice whether or not to reveal -- I'm Kim.

Welcome! Will you be our recapper, too?

Nope -- recappers generally stay the same. I am recapping some other shows (actually weecapping).

Welcome Pembleton. You did the Rescue Me recaps didn't you?

Yep. I have recapped (copying from my staff bio page, because I don't even remember half these shows):

The Bachelor, Bones, The Book Of Daniel, Boot Camp, Dancing with the Stars, Dark Angel, The Dead Zone, Ed, ER, Fastlane, Felicity, Freakylinks, Gideon's Crossing, The Hills, Invasion, Joe Millionaire, John Doe, Karen Sisco, Life As We Know It, Love Cruise, The Lyon's Den, The Mole, My Name is Earl, The Nine, Oz, Party of Five, The Real World, Rescue Me, The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, The Simple Life, The Sopranos, Summerland, Tough Enough, Trading Spaces, and WWF Smackdown

Geez, I've never even seen any of those shows other than Rescue Me, Dancing With the Stars and Trading Spaces. Will you be doing the Dancing With the Stars recaps when it starts up again?

Yep. Currently active shows are DWTS, The Hills, and My Name is Earl. And I realized I left one more new one off the list: Scrubs. All weecaps, not recaps.

Thanks (and nice to see you)!

I hope this is the right spot for this. Is the weecap (vs. full recap) the new standard for Survivor? It's just that Miss Alli's recaps are really the main reason I watch, and any less of her hilarity is really quite sad news for me.

Yes, it is the standard. I'm not a Head of Programming, so I can't tell you all of the reasons for the decision (and they generally don't either), but I can tell you that A) Miss Alli's weecaps are only a page or two shorter than your average recap and B) as she said herself in the weecap, the only part she didn't go into detail about was the challenge.

I understand your disappointment, because I also enjoy Miss Alli's writing. But look on the bright side! Now you can read Miss Alli's thoughts the next day instead of waiting up to a week.

True, true. OK, thanks for explaining.

Maybe all the reality & sitcoms are weecaps now and the dramas are recaps? That seems to be the case for the ones I read.

Welcome Pembleton.

Not all the reality shows are weecaps -- Kid Nation and ANTM are two off the top of my head that are recaps. But you are correct that all of the sitcoms are weecaps. As I said, the HoP have a sort of private formula that they use to make these decisions -- the reason they don't want to reveal it, I believe, is that they don't want a small number of dedicated posters gaming the system to keep a show on the site, if you catch my drift.

Thanks for the explenation Pembleton, I was just looking for that.

Recently I was looking for the Survivor Live thread and Survivors Strike Back Blog thread in General Gabbery and realized they've been moved to the China section. Is there a particular reason why? They've been around for multiple seasons, so I would assume they belong in GG.

I just figured people who want to talk about the current season would go to the China section, so all threads where people are talking about the current season should go there. I was trying to think like someone new to the forums.

I do see your point about threads that span multiple seasons; the thread about Probst would be another example. I will move them back, because if that's where they've always been, that's where returning posters will look for them.

I don't know about everyone else, that just made more sense to me. Now that Survivor Live is gone, it's not such a huge deal, but since President Beefcake has been coming around, the blog thread has been pretty popular. It's first page most of the time.

Thanks!

Actually, I just created the Survivors Strike Back thread last season for Fiji. Not that I disagree that it should be in General Gabbery; it just may take a bit of getting used to.

Is TWOP not recapping "Survivor" anymore? There doesn't seem to be a weecap of last week's episode.

It's right here.

If you missed it on the front page, you can always hit the link at the top of every forum page that says "Recaps." That will take you to a list of all the recaps/weecaps for the show, and the most recent one will be at the top.

Can we discuss the previews in Contestant threads? I know most shows don;t have previews as spoilers but I thought it best to ask first.

Yes, you can discuss the previews or any CBS-created promotional materials anywhere on the forums without spoiler tags. As long as anyone can view it, it's not a spoiler. Thanks for asking.

Yay, back to full recaps!

I want to echo the cheer for the return to full recaps; because Miss Alli's "Wee-caps" were turning out to be full re-caps anyway and I thought she should get credit for full recaps. (And where is the thread where we give kudos to Miss Alli?)

And Miss Alli: I really, really wouldn't mind if you continued to skim over the uninteresting/unfunny details of those multitask challenges.

ETA: Never mind. It's been taken care of.

There used to be a thread in (Survivor) General Gabbery entitled "Propping Miss Alli."

All the "props to moderator" threads were removed a while back, maybe a couple years ago.

Roark13579 is correct.

The new Micronesia F vs F section has been created and I moved the existing threads there. I'm in the process of moving the existing Favorites threads in there -- if anyone wants to start the threads for the Fans, go ahead. If no one's done it by Tuesday or so, I'll do it.

A couple of thoughts for Miss Alli about Survivor. I do love your recaps. But just to be clear, you not enjoying the season does not mean it sucks. Last week was rich with twists and subplots and suballiances and the stuff we live for on that show. The only thing anyone who really loves the show wants to see changed is bringing better players on. That's what you get with all-star (or "favorites") seasons. Say what you want about Penner, he gets it. So does Cirie. I don't like how she did it. But getting Yau Man out was the right move.

Miss Alli's not the moderator. You should post responses to her opinions expressed in the recaps in the episode thread.

Is SaraM the recapper forever now?

I honestly have no idea -- maybe Miss Alli will swing by and let us know.

Sara M has graciously taken these two recaps. I expect to recap next week's episode.