Vanishing forums?

[kstrong]

What's up with deleting some of the forums? Is this part of a reorganization which will better classify these (and other) topics, or are they doomed to be lumped under the "General Discussion" header? Personally, I prefer seeing things sorted by particular topics. It makes it much easier to find information you may be looking for.

Later,

K

[Capt Bob Johnson]

I had to go back and see what you were talking about! Look at the numbers man, they weren't getting all that much play! Categories that little used were eating up computer space, administrator time, and other supporting resources; for what???

I think that they were given a very fair and extended trial period and failed to generate enough hits and postings, so Kaput.

[FJ and G]

why aren't pull-out plan forum deleted? Not too many visit there.

[kstrong]

I'd agree, except the Battery/RC forum and the Pull-Out plans forum have even less traffic. Why keep those at the expense of others? And certainly it would make logical sense for a "Garden Railways" forum to have one header devoted to gardening, regardless of the amount of traffic.

As for "eating up computer space," these topics will eat up just as much space when lumped under a "General" heading. Administration would actually be less. I'm a moderator on another forum; one of the topics I moderate is very rarely posted to. I look, see that there's nothing new, and know that I can skip over to the next topic. Less time out of my day, actually.

To my thinking--and this is just that, my thinking--it makes far better sense to keep things broken out into clear subjects to allow interested parties the ability to better be able to find the specific information they are looking for. If I've got a question about a specific plant, I'm going to want to post it under a gardening header, so that (a) it reaches its best, most responsive audience, and (b) doesn't get lost in a haze of 50 other "active" topics that may or may not be remotely related. Once a topic drops off the first page in any one given forum, it's largely forgotten, and not likely to be answered at all. Who benefits from that?

If you look at the numbers on this site, everything but the General Discussions forum is pretty inactive. The closest two are "Railway Design and Construction" and "Scratchbuilding..." which both generate less than 10% of the traffic of the "General..." forum. All the other forums sit around 3% traffic when compared to the General forum. From my thinking, that tells me it's perhaps time not to close down random inactive topics, but to examine the General forum, to see if we can't better classify things within that subject.

For instance--in the past week, there have been three or four separate topics on couplers--a subject that has seen frequent--and repetitive--discussion over the years here. Perhaps if there was an "Equipment and maintenance" or some such forum, these threads would be asked within there, making it easier for the newcomer to search and find the answers before asking it again.

We could have a topic called "Scale and Gauge," that when you click on it, all the words on the screen immediately get jumbled up. [:P]

Later,

K

[Camaro1967]

Wait, this is the Garden Railways Magazine forum, and you are deleting the railroad gardening forum. Hello? What's wrong with this picture.
Paul

[FJ and G]

Here's a quick fix to circumvent the upcoming forum categories deletions.

Title a post Gardening and add all your replies to that. Same for live-steam, etc.

Heck, over on sister CTT, I even created a blogg within a forum.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=60920[:D]

[smcgill]

Are they going to change the name of the mag. ?
Are they going to just show trains in the pics and no plants?

[FJ and G]

OK, so as a tradeoff to vanashing forums, we get 6 additonal GRR mags per year.

I'll vote for that!

[Rene Schweitzer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Capt Bob Johnson

I had to go back and see what you were talking about! Look at the numbers man, they weren't getting all that much play! Categories that little used were eating up computer space, administrator time, and other supporting resources; for what???

I think that they were given a very fair and extended trial period and failed to generate enough hits and postings, so Kaput.

Ahh, I was waiting for a thread like this to appear today. Capt. is right on. Our small group was divided even further and as a result, these forums were hardly used. As I said, you are welcome to discuss these topics here.

To F&G about the pullout plans, I thought long and hard about deleting that, but decided against it. Phil Creer has gone to great lengths to help folks with scratchbuilding series there, complete with step-by-step photos. Lots of good information there, even if there aren't as many posts.

[Camaro1967]

Lots of good information in the gardening forum too, even if there aren't many posts. ITS BEEN WINTER!!! Plants go dormant in the winter. Probably so do the plant people. Nothing for them to do or talk about until spring. Cutting off the gardening forum just as spring starts is not cool. The secret to making this forum USEFUL to the readers, is to have categories so someone can know where there will be discussion on a specific topic.
I got a better idea, just have one forum, "General" and we (not me) can spend hours sifting through it looking for something we (not me) might be interested in. Also, why don't you change the name of the magazine to aaaah TRAINS. No that name is taken.
Thanks, but no thanks, I will stick with forums where there the discussion is organized under topics.
Paul

[tangerine-jack]

Now I'm bummed. I've been working for weeks organizing and writing up the gardening aspect of the DDSL rebuild so when spring gets here and all my planting is done I have a ready made post. Now all my planting maps, correct latin names for plants, care instructions, soil, light, water, etc etc etc will be buried in the general discussion thread, good for a day then never seen again. For a GARDEN railway, the GARDEN is our scenery. This is like the MR forum deleting the "layout construction" thread, after all, who wants to read about a bunch of plaster scenery on an HO railroad anyway? Sure the hits are low, but gardening forum is better off on it's own topic where those interested in a GARDEN railway can go for information and inspiration. Now I'll have to go to Better Homes and GARDENS forums to get my gardening info.

Perhaps a rename to "Non-standardized Miniature Railways Magazine" is in order. After all, we don't want to offend.

[pimanjc]

I will miss the "Treasures" Forum.
JimC.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Here's a quick fix to circumvent the upcoming forum categories deletions.

Title a post Gardening and add all your replies to that. Same for live-steam, etc.

Heck, over on sister CTT, I even created a blogg within a forum.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=60920[:D]

What I do on my blog is simples...I title it twice, once with a general subject and then the actual specitif title.

Example...

(Garden Railroad) Two Trees, Texas, a short story

or for an unrelated story...

(Politics) What are the rights of Men and Women?

and then for this sort of thing...

(News) Civil Air Patrol Cadets visit Flight Simulator

At a glance I would know what subject I was discussing and could make sure people coudl get a flashy more specific title.

Just a suggestion.

Major Carrales

[Camaro1967]

t-jack. Excellent title for the magazine. I was hoping someone could come up with one, since TRAINS is taken.
Paul

[kstrong]

Well, I can't say I agree in any respect with that decision, but it's not my decision. All I can do is voice my opinion.

As for double-naming your posts in the General forum, JUST KEEP THE SEPARATE FORUMS AND ELIMINATE THE NEED!!!

Sorry, but from a forum user's perspective, I see nothing broken, so I have to wonder why the need to "fix" it. Who cares if the topics are lightly traveled... They're still traveled. We may as well dump all the separate topics, and just have one open "Discuss Everything Garden Railroading" forum instead.

Later,

K

[Ray Dunakin]

I agree with Kevin. Eliminating those forums doesn't make much sense.

[Anonymous]

Ok since this is gonna happen I am not gonna wine, but make a sugestion. Rene I hope you read this: how about meld forums. I dont like it all going to General, so how about: R/C with live steam, generally most live steamers use R/C, just retitle that to include both. Railway design and construction with Railway gardening, since when designing & constructing a layout one is also figuring out which plants and where. Unlikely treasures with Scratchbuilding and kitbashing, since this is a source for kitbashing. By combined forums the remaining forums would increase without everything ending up in General.
One final request. could the deceased forums be kept as searchable, I dont know what all is written there, and what I may need someday, maybe under the new heddings I sugested, or just accessable if searched?
Rene I hope you respond to this because I think it would work for all involed.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Sounds to me like Rockmodeler has a plan, I'll second the motion!

[tangerine-jack]

Sure, if it's got to happen, then rockmodeler's plan is best. I'll third the motion and call for a vote.

[Camaro1967]

I am still in the Kstrong camp. Nothing is broken, so what is there to fix. We are presented with a LIST of topics that we can choose or not choose to read, but it is a list of organized information. Also, What happens to the R/C people who are not live steamers. I really can't believe that there are not more of them anyway. All live steamers are R/Cers. bit not all R/Cers are live steamers. Has anyone ever heard of Aristocraft's Train Engineer?

[Tom The Brat]

Oh, I was going to blame it on a flight to Bermuda[:-,]

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheRockModeler

Ok since this is gonna happen I am not gonna wine, but make a sugestion. Rene I hope you read this: how about meld forums. I dont like it all going to General, so how about: R/C with live steam, generally most live steamers use R/C, just retitle that to include both. Railway design and construction with Railway gardening, since when designing & constructing a layout one is also figuring out which plants and where. Unlikely treasures with Scratchbuilding and kitbashing, since this is a source for kitbashing. By combined forums the remaining forums would increase without everything ending up in General.
One final request. could the deceased forums be kept as searchable, I dont know what all is written there, and what I may need someday, maybe under the new heddings I sugested, or just accessable if searched?
Rene I hope you respond to this because I think it would work for all involed.

I agree with this, its logical to combine the Gardening forum with the Railway Construction forum as they both are intermixed. Same with R/C and Live Steam. Eliminating the Treasures forum or combining it with the Scratchbuilding forum will allow for the retention of the R/C-Live Steam forum. I can understand managements concern to maximize the new forums. I agree to keep the Pull-out plans forum.

Now will the new MR forum get rid of the rarely used "Where is it" boxcar forum?[:0]

[paultheloon]

how are you going to replace them?[?][8][B)]

[Anonymous]

Sure seems strange and information was so easy to find.


mikadousrp

[Anonymous]

Camaro1967, I agree with you & KStrong, but I dont control the site. Since it has happened, I just want a better solution than everything ending up in General.

FYI, on a lighter note I have a '99 SS, I'd like to add a 67-69 SS -wouldnt that be a site to see in a 2 car garage [:)]

[RhB_HJ]

Well boys and girls. This is what "Use it or lose it" is all about!

Since this is supposedly a "server space" problem - or did I misinterpret that??- I'm curious to know how much space all the ads gobble and by how much it slows things down.

Of course the second question would be: has it any connection with the software being used? I notice that most of the phpBB fora are considerably faster than the Snitz stuff - even the really large ones which have Lord knows how many users!

BTW on the "Railway Gardening" section; perhaps the traffic would be better if we would have a "Ask Pat (Pat Hayward)" column! Just one of my looney ideas.[;)][:)][;)]

[Camaro1967]

I got it. I propose that we ADD a forum. "First Generation Camaro". Me and The Rock Modeler will keep it full all the time. Then there can be no danger of it being closed. This is about as smart as removing the gardening forum from the Garden Railways Magazine website.
Paul

[Anonymous]

Paul, Beautiful -both your response & the car

[Camaro1967]

Thanks Rock Modeler. Its a sleeper. .30 over 454, turbo 350, big cam, runs on pump gas, suprised a few 5.0 mustangs. Check it out at: http://www.life.umd.edu/cbmg/faculty/bottino/genetics/camaro.html
Paul

[Rene Schweitzer]

WHOA! This thread has exploded! Ok, ok, you guys win (well, sort of). I am still removing the original forums, but have combined them as suggested above. I've also updated and added descriptions for each forum. If you go to the general forum area, you'll see what I mean.

I know this probably won't please everyone, but perhaps it will put a few minds at ease.