OT needs to be bigger, not smaller. Activity generates more activity. Sub forums like S&T, History, and A&E only create barriers that keep people from posting.
OT is big enough, thank you. And I knew this would happen if anyone brought up merging. The holier-than-thou people who never use these subforums (and therefore aren't actually interested in those topics) think they should get to make claims like this.
@Birdjaguar, if you want to talk about writing, publishing, follow or discuss DYOS with the guys, talk about Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars, etc., there's absolutely nothing stopping you from doing that in A&E.
However, I have trouble believing that you really care about what's best for the writing enthusiasts here. After all, the last time you were involved in a writing thread (at least that I know of offhand), you threw a very ungracious tantrum about a contest you had agreed to enter (and yes, you knew the rules beforehand), and revealed part of the contents of a private message. I hardly think you have the higher moral ground here to say what's best for A&E.
Is it a "barrier" that keeps Civ gaming stuff in the Civ forums? Is it a "barrier" that keeps Site Feedback issues in Site Feedback? Or do we just post whatever we want, wherever we want?
Maybe I should start posting NaNoWriMo threads wherever I want. After all, Kyriakos gets to post "look at me" threads in OT, even though there's a perfectly good forum for them.
Categories and sub-forums exist for a reason - to organize the site. The writing threads would be overwhelmed and lost in OT. In A&E they're there, easy to find when needed, and no sifting among dozens of serial threads and US politics threads is necessary.