For those who wanted Vamp!Dawn, TV Guide has a photo for you from last Halloween.

[link]

And yet still more was to come. An unfamiliar, nerdy voice came from the second line of questioners. "Liz and Sarah, are you single?" And it was Joss, undercover, with his partner in crime Nathan Fillion right behind him.

I heard this with the voice effects at a wedding (the one where the bach. party had been a trip to comicon), and MAN, funny ass shit right there.

Also from the IGN comicon recap, Joss:

"When we go to websites we're looking for a general feeling of what's not playing, what are people really passionate about and what are they debating and where are we getting it right and where are we getting it wrong? If you see something four weeks after it comes out on your website, that means we've been working on it about eight weeks before that, at least."

So where do you think the obvious examples were of the writers responding to the boards? I think that they probably became conscious that all of Buffy's speechifying in S7 was falling flat and wound up mocking that. I think they ultimately moved away from the addiction metaphor for Willow in S6, and wound up re-emphasizing her own responsibility. I wonder if board complaints had an effect on moving Dawn away from her whininess.

Draco as Xander AND Spike AND Buffy? None of them works.

Some things I liked: replacing the swordstuck demon with Dobby ("He’s not even half the boy he -- Naughty Dobby! To speak ill of the great Harry Potter! [bashes head against wall] -- ow!"), the stage directions in the scene where Hermione sings Tara's love song to Harry, and the interjections from the S&P man during "Let me fly in peace."

I think that they probably became conscious that all of Buffy's speechifying in S7 was falling flat and wound up mocking that.

So you don't think that was a character note, that instead they'd intended them to be good? That's some appalling writing.

Laura scanned a JM interview with a section about Joss pushing Willow/Tara on the network. I can't paste it cuz it's not text, but it's a third of the way down the right column.

He gives good interview. And, Go, Joss!(probably easier to decide when you're descended from TV "royalty" and not Jo Schmuck like me, but still cool.)

They read boards for general feel, like "Dawn is bugging people" but not for specific plot choices as the lead time is too long to allow for it--plus, playing "what if" in story meetingsis one of the most fun parts of the job and everyone wants their own ideas in there.

Plus, may I say the commentary for the Veruca episode, which I watched last night, is fabulous and much much fun.

Fandom tends to have such a diverse set of opinions on any given character or plot point, I'm amazed that the writers can sift through and get a sense of what general audience response is. I mean, there were people out there who thought Ben was a great character.

Plus, giving fans what they (say they) want = bad idea, in general.