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

[Greg]

...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...

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

FYI. This is what they're talking about:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/search.php?search_id=newposts

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I like the state option. It would be simple enough to move to other state threads. Most people in the Northeast ski in more then one state a year or want to find out more about areas in certain states they don't have much experience in. This way they would know exactly what thread to go to. Also, it's not like there would have to be alot of state threads for the Northeast, NY, VT, NH, Maine, Mass, Conn. Plus, you could still have your general skiing discussion thread that everyone would frequent. I spend about 75% of my ski days at Whiteface and Gore. I'd still go to the general skiing discussion thread, but it would be nice to be able to go to a NY thread as well.

 

[Greg]

Also, it's not like there would have to be alot of state threads for the Northeast, NY, VT, NH, Maine, Mass, Conn.

And we can reduce your list by one is we merge CT and MA into "Southern New England"...

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Also, it's not like there would have to be alot of state threads for the Northeast, NY, VT, NH, Maine, Mass, Conn.

And we can reduce your list by one is we merge CT and MA into "Southern New England"...

Good point Greg, but most people in my neck of the woods think of Stratton, Bromly, and Magic as Southern New England as well. You might have to set up some sort of region guideline.

 

[riverc0il]

one other factor to consider is some skiers would only view northern new england ski areas (if not for viewing all new posts, i would be one of those folks). in other words, if threads were started in regards to NY, CT, RI, or MA, i likely would never see them if i was a posted that only viewed certain forums. so this style of forum breakup may limit participation based on region whereas now we have a large selection of folks digging into threads of ski areas they may more currently ski and getting exposed to new ideas or locations.

RSN forum is a good example of a forum split up by specialized forums. one thing to note about RSN forums was that certain forums were busy (bush) while others had one post a year (black mtn).

 

[awf170]

why dont we just split it up northern and southern NE at first and if it gets even busier split it up more...

 

[kickstand]

not sure if this has been suggested, but I think within NH and VT you might be able to break it into more precise regions. Maybe Eastern Whites (or MWV), Western Whites, Mad River Valley, Southern VT, etc.

Not that state-based threads wouldn't accomplish essentially the same thing, but I know I really don't have much interest in what is going on, say, over at Tenney, as I'm sure people at Ragged don't care much about what is happening at Wildcat. However, I can see people at Wildcat being interested in things pertaining to other MWV areas.

on the con side would be, where do you list each resort? Some are easier than others. The VT ones would puzzle me, if there were too many categories.

states like ME and NY that only have a handful or two of places could just be listed by state.

 

[JimG.]

states like ME and NY that only have a handful or two of places could just be listed by state.

Did you know that NY has more active ski areas than any other state in the union?

 

[Greg]

states like ME and NY that only have a handful or two of places could just be listed by state.

Did you know that NY has more active ski areas than any other state in the union?

The man is correct.

 

[awf170]

states like ME and NY that only have a handful or two of places could just be listed by state.

Did you know that NY has more active ski areas than any other state in the union?

dang you beat me to it :wink:

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Out of all the people who use AZ only 26 have answered Greg's poll since 7/20. Come on everybody, let's give our boy some run here.

 

[Sparky]

I hav not been a part of this for long, but i like it just the way it is. It's nice to have all the east coast info in one place.

 

[bvibert]

Out of all the people who use AZ only 26 have answered Greg's poll since 7/20. Come on everybody, let's give our boy some run here.

Thanks highpeaksdrifter, three more since you post... Everybody weigh in, you don't have to post if you don't want to, just vote!

 

[snowsprite]

I like it this way. I'm learning a lot about different places I have not gone yet. It's also nice because it encourages interaction between members who ski at different areas.

Sprite

 

[Paul]

Leave it as is. Especially those of us in the Southern areas who ski the small areas nearby out of necessity, but make trips North for the love of it. Being in CT, I like to know what's happening down the road at Mohawk or Sundown, but am still interested in what's up at Magic, or Cannon, Loon, Okemo, etc..... cos I may want to road-trip...

 

[awf170]

i didnt like this idea really at first but how busy the forum has been lately, look at today for instance there were 20 active thread in the skiing forum. By the time ski seasons rolls around i bet we could see a whole page for just one day, which IMO could help to be split up. I bet you could get rid of about half of it because it is about a specific region. I still think you should wait to about oct. though to see how popular it gets

 

[Greg]

i didnt like this idea really at first but how busy the forum has been lately, look at today for instance there were 20 active thread in the skiing forum. By the time ski seasons rolls around i bet we could see a whole page for just one day, which IMO could help to be split up. I bet you could get rid of about half of it because it is about a specific region. I still think you should wait to about oct. though to see how popular it gets

Thanks austin. I do think the skiing forums will be busier than ever this season. Want some data? In July 2004, 897 visitors visited the forums on an average day. July 2005? 2,441! We are still at the activity level we saw this past December/January. I don't have really detailed subdomain statistics prior to July 2004, but the forums "felt" much busier during the 2004-05 ski season than they did during 2003-04 which was our first busy season on the skiing side. I don't think 5K visitors per day to the forums alone this season is out of the question.

 

[awf170]

just some stats, last summer we had 2 pages of archives in the skiing forum(start of april to early sep.)

http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewforum.php?f=2&topicdays=0&start=1100

http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewforum.php?f=2&topicdays=0&start=1150

This summer we already have 5! may to now(aug 23) and 7 for april to now.

So according to this we more than tripled use since last summer. So if we get more than triple the use this winter vs. last winter that will be a ton of posts!

 

[thetrailboss]

Yes, we have had a lot of traffic this summer so far!

 

[Greg]

just some stats, last summer we had 2 pages of archives in the skiing forum(start of april to early sep.)

http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewforum.php?f=2&topicdays=0&start=1100

http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewforum.php?f=2&topicdays=0&start=1150

This summer we already have 5! may to now(aug 23) and 7 for april to now.

So according to this we more than tripled use since last summer. So if we get more than triple the use this winter vs. last winter that will be a ton of posts!

Interesting observation, Austin. It's pretty much inline with the (almost) tripling of daily visits too. Thanks to everyone that has contributed to AZ's success!