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

Greg · Jul 20, 2005

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 · Jul 20, 2005

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 · Jul 20, 2005

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. · Jul 20, 2005

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

Greg · Jul 20, 2005

bvibert said:
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 · Jul 20, 2005

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 · Jul 20, 2005

JimG. said:
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 · Jul 20, 2005

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

Greg · Jul 20, 2005

pepperdawg said:
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 · Jul 20, 2005

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

BeanoNYC · Jul 20, 2005

I'll keep this short and simple. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I voted an emphatic no.

riverc0il · Jul 20, 2005

what beanBYC wrote. i think spliting forums by region or state would be a bad idea. i can not think of any other major skiing forum that has done this including epic, SJ, FTO, TGR, etc. and some of those forums have more state coverage. FTO is a slight exception as that forum breaks up eastern US, western US, and the rest of the world. but with a trip report focus, i think that is appropriate as east/west cross over is fairly minimal. any ways, just my two cents.

riverc0il · Jul 20, 2005

also, fwiw, i have never found that there are too many threads to dig through but i bring up the new posts page as a book mark which includes all forums and new threads. i pick and choose what i want to read from there.

bvibert · Jul 20, 2005

riverc0il said:
...but i bring up the new posts page as a book mark which includes all forums and new threads...

Never checked out that feature before, pretty neat. I'll have to try to remember to use it...

BeanoNYC · Jul 21, 2005

bvibert said:
riverc0il said:

...but i bring up the new posts page as a book mark which includes all forums and new threads...

Click to expand...

Never checked out that feature before, pretty neat. I'll have to try to remember to use it...

Ditto.....I'm using it as well now. It's a good way to keep up with hot threads.

Greg · Jul 21, 2005

riverc0il said:
i can not think of any other major skiing forum that has done this including epic, SJ, FTO, TGR, etc. and some of those forums have more state coverage.

Well, I don't necessarily think this should be a reason not to try this. Who says we need to be like all the other forums? In fact, we're much different anyway in that those sites are national for the most part. I think that's part of what's lead to AZ's success - i.e. we're a very focused niche site. I still feel breaking it up would actually stimulate growth, rather than hinder it. With a single general ski forum, I feel there is a point where you reach critical mass and it becomes saturated. Based on the feedback here though, perhaps we haven't reached that point yet. I guess I'm in the minority here, but I'll do what you all feel is best. I feel strongly that it's important to allow the members shape the direction here a bit.

BeanoNYC · Jul 21, 2005

Greg said:
Based on the feedback here though, perhaps we haven't reached that point yet. I guess I'm in the minority here, but I'll do what you all feel is best. I feel strongly that it's important to allow the members shape the direction here a bit.

That's very cool of you to value our feedback on upgrades and such, Greg. The fact of the matter is that utimately this site is your baby. You've worked hard to mold this site into what it is today. I don't know $hit from Shinola about running a website and I'll always stand by your decisions. Don't let a bunch of old farts like us stop you from nuturing this site. I trust your gut and if this is what you feel is good for the site (and utimately it's users) .... go for it.

Rich

Greg · Jul 21, 2005

Thanks for the vote of confidence, bean. However, I've had a lot of success by simply following member feedback. It's pretty clear cut so far that members like it best the way it is. Perhaps I'll revisit this next summer...

Joshua B · Jul 21, 2005

I voted No, leave it the way it is because I love New England-based discussion and AZ has a whole heap a that.

Stephen · Jul 21, 2005

I know Greg's propensity to have fewer rather than more foums. As such, I feel there are better ways to divide forums. The current simple approach suffices, I believe. Big no to this one.

-Stephen

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

Should we create separate skiing forums based on region or state?

Yes, by region.

Yes, by state.

No. Leave it the way it is.

Not sure.

I have another idea (post below).

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