Separate skiing forums by region or state? (#2)

[Greg]

We discussed this last Fall and the consensus was to leave it the way it is. We've had many new members join during last season and I think the skiing forum is (or will be this coming season) busy enough to at least reconsider this. Please vote and share your comments in this thread.

[Greg]

Another options is sort of a combined state and regional approach, i.e.:

Maine Skiing Discussion
New Hampshire Skiing Discussion
Vermont Skiing Discussion
Southern New England Skiing Discussion
New York Skiing Discussion

I would envision keeping the general skiing and a TR forums as is.

[bvibert]

I'm not sure there's enough traffic to warrant it yet... That may change come December though, its hard to say. I'm not gonna vote until I think about it a little more...

What are you trying to achieve by doing this? Less clutter in the general skiig & boarding forum?

[JimG.]

I voted no. I ski in all those places and I like having all the info in one forum.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by bvibert

What are you trying to achieve by doing this? Less clutter in the general skiig & boarding forum?

Yes, that's one goal. Here are the pros/cons as I see them:

Pros

• This should result in more focused regional discussions and less clutter. I recall during last season that if you didn't check the forum for a few days, the first few pages may be lit up. This may help members quickly identify topics that are of interest to them.
• I think this may actually stimulate growth. Some members (the RSN exiles, for example) liked having a resort-specific forum. This is a bit closer to that.
• Perhaps we can invite a few new moderators to be involved with these particular forums. Getting more members involved at a higher level always stimulates growth.
• Search engines will focus on the forum names such as "Vermont Skiing Message Board" and that should bring in more traffic.

Cons

• Separate forums may segregate the members too much.
• The narrow focus may result in chatty/cliquey conversations. Some folks prefer that. Personally, I don't.
• Some of the forums may start out slowly and appear "dead" at the outset.

Addressing the cons I listed above, I think the gereral skiing forum and the T&E forum will maintain the community feel a bit. I also think the forums will take off pretty quickly so I don't think we'll need to worry about "priming the pumps" too much. We can also move topics from General to the respective regional/state forum to instantly suggest activity. Finally, we can always revert back to the old approach if it doesn't work out.

Please keep the feedback coming. It really helps and as always, I'll go with the majority.

[teachski]

You might want to think of adding a ski area trivia and history section.
In this section each post could be numbered.
I'd encourage each new area to be seperate. The current Guess this area is a great post, but it would be a lot easier to manage if there were several small posts rather than one with 100's of areas, especially where some areas are put on before the one before them are answered.

[bvibert]

Originally Posted by JimG.

I voted no. I ski in all those places and I like having all the info in one forum.

My initial reaction was the same as Jim's, but then I think of how many messages there were to sort through on a Monday morning after a weekend of skiing... It might be easier to pick what to read or not it the messages are sorted by area...

[pepperdawg]

All one place..its bad enuff a 2nd browser had to open to read THIS thread....JMHO

[Greg]

Originally Posted by pepperdawg

its bad enuff a 2nd browser had to open to read THIS thread....JMHO

The 2nd browser window didn't have to open. You probably just accessed it through the link on the skiing forum versus coming to the feedback forum directly. All posted links in the forums, whether internal or external, open in a new window.

[pepperdawg]

correct sir....skiing forum is what I have bookmarked.....me no care about any other forums