New subforums in TT - what are your opinions?

[Cyclenall]

I changed my mind. I don't want to have to scroll down every time I access talking tropics in order to get past the subforum list. That clutters the board more in my opinion.

I agree. Perhaps it can be reversed to the bottom instead of the top.

NO! That's even worse because no-one would scroll to the bottom to find them and would make it worse than it is right now.

I agree, that would be the worst.

Already I'm noticing a bit less activity in the sub-forums or it could be Sunday.

[HurricaneBill]

If they dont work out they can always be removed It is a neat feature to have though

Neat? Maybe.

Necessary? No.

Do we really need these subforums? Were there constant complaints about foreign basin TCs "cluttering" up the board? I don't recall any, but I don't know how things were behind the scenes.

If you wanted to add subforums, why didn't you ask the community beforehand how they'd feel about foreign basins being placed into subforums? I think that irritates me the most. You just went ahead and made subforums without asking if we wanted them.

[JonathanBelles]

I like the idea; however, I dont think that it is working. It does seem that activity has gone down in the subforums. Can you make it possible to make it open like a drop down so that when you click on it, it just drops down and opens up?

[miamicanes177]

While I like the idea, I do see the potential of weakening the non-Atlantic threads. Usually non-Atlantic storms were limited to just one topic (as compared to an Atlantic storm that has several threads, some locked). By separating these threads to another section, traffic will probably drop significantly, much like the time when non-Atlantic tropical cyclones were kept in the Global Weather section.

Also, with a section on EPAC and WPAC, I do have to ask about the Indian Ocean and the SPAC.

I agree that the traffic will be too low to these forums. When we get a big hurricane in another ocean some people might miss out on it because they will not bother to look in the other subforums.

[CajunMama]

How do you know the traffic wasn't slow already for those threads? How can you tell that the activity in the forums have slowed down? To be honest, I find i like it better. I'm more apt to look at those threads now. When i was reading them today, there were several people in there reading them. I felt TT was too cluttered with all the threads from each basin.

As for having to scroll down, is it that much of a hassle to move your index finger twice on the mouse wheel?

What can we do to make everyone happy? We try new things to better the board. Just once, try something for awhile before you decide if you like it or not.

[Chacor]

Would you like me to drag up a thread from before and compare? Traffic was good to these threads. Why should we try something that we don't like right from the get-go? If you guys feel that these are complaints that are not warranted - which is really unfair - then I'd rather stop contributing, because I don't feel we're being treated as equal members of the storm2k community, when we equally contribute our own time to help improve this board.

[superg77]

"Subforum" makes it sound like the other basins are substandard and not as important as the Atlantic basin. Forums within forums also just doesn't work very well. It seems like this will greatly diminish activity in the non-U.S. tropical threads.

[vbhoutex]

"Subforum" makes it sound like the other basins are substandard and not as important as the Atlantic basin. Forums within forums also just doesn't work very well. It seems like this will greatly diminish activity in the non-U.S. tropical threads.

Get over the word sub!!! It is just a word. These forums are now at the top of the Tropical Weather Forums instead of mixed in. It seems to me that they are easier to find now, and I for one am now reading them even though my major intersts lie in the Atlantic basin.

We are giving this at least a two week trial run and we will reevaluate the situation after that. As was stated above-try it out for a while before you decide it isn't good.

[Chacor]

I for one am now reading them even though my major intersts lie in the Atlantic basin.

I do hope that this ends up being the effect, rather than what a lot of us expect (i.e. a decrease, rather than increase in traffic).

[southerngale]

I like the subforums. It might be a better idea to just have one global one though, at least at this time, since there's not as much activity in some of them... JMO. I think it will have people viewing them more, not less. I've already read more of them today than I have in the past several weeks.

I like to see how it works first until I make full judgement. On the one hand, EPAC storms have affected us and caused flooding.

And we can still post in there about that. That would be something that would probably draw more attention to the forum.

I see a lot of people like it, but I guess I don't understand why some view it as like an insult to those basins or something. They have their own forum now!

It will take a bit of getting use to, but during busy time will be excellent for visitors to seperate the threads they are not interested in.
They will be lonely forums at times...

Agreed. As this forum will be the lonelier one at times.

I don't like it either; in fact, I really don't like it. My first thought when seeing it was that someone must be fed up with discussion of activity other than in the Atlantic - after all, the activity is not in the Atlantic, and most people here want to see something in their own basin.

I understand that most people here only care about Atlantic tropical cyclones, but relegating tropical cyclones that form elsewhere makes them seem less important, when they're not; no basin should be considered "less important" than any other basin, whether or not people here think they're "boring" (after the typhoons in the Philippines last year, I got upset at people who didn't care about the other basins because they're "boring").

If the discussion on Atlantic storms gets too much, then I'd agree with splitting off the other basins, but right now that doesn't seem to be the case.

Fed up with discussion of non-Atlantic activity? Huh? I don't know how in the world you perceived that, but it's simply not true. We added the subforum feature and thought it would be a nice addition to the tropics forum to give those basins their own forum.

Yes, it's true that most people here only care about Atlantic storms though. Most people only care about storms that could potentially affect them, so that's logical. Those who are interested in other basins can simply go into those forums.
It doesn't mean they're "less important" but they are less active. Now it will be easier to find threads on those basins when this forum gets really busy.

"Subforum" makes it sound like the other basins are substandard and not as important as the Atlantic basin. Forums within forums also just doesn't work very well. It seems like this will greatly diminish activity in the non-U.S. tropical threads.

Subforum just means that it's a forum within a forum, not that the other forums are substandard. It's a new feature that's available on this version of phpbb so we wanted to try it out.
I don't think it will greatly diminish the activity in the non-U.S. tropical threads. If anything, I think traffic will increase. The same people who usually post in those threads still will. And now they seem to stand out more and I think they will draw more attention.

I guess it's all in the way you perceive things, but I see it as there's enough interest in the other basins to warrant their own forum. That's a good thing.

[AussieMark]

just a question why is it labelled as Talkin' South Pacific

wouldn't Southern Hemisphere make more sense since that season is actually South Pacific and South Indian Oceans.

Or is the Indian Ocean forum actually covering the SOuth Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Northern Indian Ocean.

[senorpepr]

just a question why is it labelled as Talkin' South Pacific

wouldn't Southern Hemisphere make more sense since that season is actually South Pacific and South Indian Oceans.

Or is the Indian Ocean forum actually covering the SOuth Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Northern Indian Ocean.

I believe Indian Ocean covers all of the Indian Ocean while the South Pacific actually covers just the South Pacific.

[AussieMark]

I was asking as there is frequently crossovers in the basin unlike with the Atlantic and East Pacific.

I mean most years we do get one storm that goes from Coral Sea or that area and end up near Western Australia.

[senorpepr]

I was asking as there is frequently crossovers in the basin unlike with the Atlantic and East Pacific.

I mean most years we do get one storm that goes from Coral Sea or that area and end up near Western Australia.

We can easily move a topic from one section to another in that event.

[LJR]

Smart
I like the idea because myself personally am only interested in what goes on in the Atlantic Basin

[Coredesat]

Meh, I give up. I no longer have a problem with the subforums. This doesn't mean I like them (I probably never will). I had an argument with CajunMama on IRC about them and I'd rather not get upset over something like this.

I always thought this was a place where people could come to discuss any weather anywhere, but nothing can be done to account for the definite bias here (which is understandable given where most of the members are from). No one cares, and I (and others who follow worldwide weather) can't make them or ask them to care.

[CajunMama]

Sorry Core...that wasn't an argument. I left before it could become one. I asked you to give it a chance and you said you said you wouldn't like the new forums and never will.

[Ixolib]

I like the separate forums - I just wish they were grouped at the bottom of the page instead of the top.....

[lencast]

Would rather they weren't there. IMO

[Coredesat]

Well, here's what can be done. It's not possible in phpBB to move subforums to the bottom of the page (unless they changed something in phpBB3). Again, I think the best idea is to just move all the out-of-Atlantic discussion to another top-level forum. That way people who monitor activity all over the world won't feel shunted, and people don't have to scroll down past basins they don't care about.