New subforums in TT - what are your opinions?

[Typhoon Hunter]

Initially I'm opposed to the idea of sub-forums since it takes away the chance for users who are browsing the main forum to enter a thread which is of interest to them but they might not have otherwise known about.

Ie. how many users at the end of last year only found out about the Philippines being nailed by endless cat 4 and 5s by browsing the main forums. Sub-forums will eliminate this passing participation in my opinion.

However I'll give it a chance and see how things are after a week or two.

And for members to refer to threads regarding TC in other basins as "clutter" is just damn rude in my opinion. I imagine those who've spent time and effort analysing these systems and passing on information to those who don't know some much about "foreign" TCs find this highly offensive. Not impressed at all.

[mf_dolphin]

Voting is useless. The pro-Atlantic "screw all the other basins" movement will win out regardless, as this forum is primarily geared for the Atlantic. Like I said, forget it, just got to live with it.

That couldn't be further from the truth if you tried. The decision was made by the admin staff to try the new sub-forum feature and this forum was the most logical one to try it on. The idea is to make it easier for people to find the information they need on a specific storm no matter what the basin. The sub-forums may stay or they may go but either way it's not some Altantic conspiracy or effort to offend anyone. We're always trying to improve S2K for the good of all our members, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't but we'll keep trying....

[WindRunner]

I've restrained myself from commenting until this point so that I could try and see how the forums are doing.

Initially, I thought this would be a good idea. Maybe now the interntational TCs could finally have their threads for each storm along with any suspect area and whatever else might be happening in the basin . . . but that, of course, won't and doesn't come true if there aren't enough people to discuss the systems. I know that one of the best things about the threads were that, like Chacor had mentioned, those of us that tracked the international systems could "advertise" storms and such. Now that entire feature has been taken away - side effects have included a few more people consistently check these new forums, especially since EPAC got put in one as well, but this extra group will probably disappear from the subforums as soon as we get another thunderstorm in the Atlantic. The "Category 5" headlines always drew the people in, almost regardless of what was happening elsewhere, and especially during calm times in the NATL.

The only suggestion I can think of is that there are a small group of people around here that keep pretty well up-to-date on the international systems that would be discussed in the subforums. In order to keep the publicity up, maybe there is a way to let some people change the titles or descriptions on the new subforums? Similar to having a basin-wide thread in the main forum, but always there in the same place where people can train themselves to ignore if they desire to do so, but also always easy to check for those with an interest.

Don't know what kind of powers would be needed to do that - and maybe just moderator powers in the subforum could work - but it is a possible resolution that both sides could live with.

[LJR]

I wonder if the forums would be viewed differently if they were included on the index page for all to see???

[chadtm80]

I wonder if the forums would be viewed differently if they were included on the index page for all to see???

Actually they are. Look in the descripton of the TT forum

[O Town]

Okay I understand what some of you are saying about changing the thread title. I admit I would click on a thread if the title sounded interesting and check it out. But in all honesty I havent opened the other sub forums since they moved them, so I can see what they mean by being less active because of it, but I still like the idea of them it seems more organized that way. Its all a matter of getting used to it thats all. I mean if it was that way when we joined then we probably wouldn't like it if they changed it and they didn't have thier own forum, some people have a hard time with change but give it some time.

[LJR]

I wonder if the forums would be viewed differently if they were included on the index page for all to see???

Actually they are. Look in the descripton of the TT forum

Ok, I see it but I have missed them before. Maybe they should be more noticeble. This is what I had I mind...

Talking tropics
1- Atlantic Basin
2- Pacific Basin
3- And so forth and so forth

[HurricaneBill]

The decision was made by the admin staff to try the new sub-forum feature and this forum was the most logical one to try it on. The idea is to make it easier for people to find the information they need on a specific storm no matter what the basin. The sub-forums may stay or they may go but either way it's not some Altantic conspiracy or effort to offend anyone. We're always trying to improve S2K for the good of all our members, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't but we'll keep trying....

I think what you should have done before installing the subforums was create a thread in the Talkin' Tropics forum asking the users how'd they feel about having basins assigned to subforums. I think that would have saved a lot of trouble.

I think what has some users upset is that you never asked for the users' input prior to the creation of the subforums. I'm not saying you don't listen to us, I'm just saying that maybe you made a mistake.

[chadtm80]

So we need to ask permission before we try things on the board? As has been said MANY times this is just a few week trial. And we have letting this page get to 5 pages long of members input. So again.. how did we handle it wrong?

[fwbbreeze]

As hard as you try Chad you will NEVER please everyone.....now if only this board had an IGNORE button!!

[O Town]

As hard as you try Chad you will NEVER please everyone.....now if only this board had an IGNORE button!!

Psssst, it does.
Look in your user control panel under manage foes.

[Regit]

How about everyone just cool down for a bit?

Give it a few weeks, then if the general consensus is that the subforums are not popular, the admins will probably just put things back like they were.

The Talkin' Tropics forums has over half a million posts, and it's helpful to have things more organized.

It's just a trial. If, after a little while, you genuinely don't like it, write a PM to the staff calmly explaining that you don't like it.

Acting like Chad tried to rape your grandmother isn't really constructive criticism.

[O Town]

Acting like Chad tried to rape your grandmother isn't really constructive criticism.

LMAO........


sorry but that was funny.

[HurricaneBill]

So we need to ask permission before we try things on the board? As has been said MANY times this is just a few week trial. And we have letting this page get to 5 pages long of members input. So again.. how did we handle it wrong?

I give up. I wasn't trying to get everyone to hate me. I feel like an idiot.

[Coredesat]

All right, I'm willing to give it a few weeks.

[Chacor]

Suggestion/question:

Is it feasible for the mods to move threads on major active storms (usually there aren't more than one or two at any given time, so it's not a 'clutter' problem) to the main Talkin Tropics forum for more prominence (and get more people interested, Atlantic hurricanes aren't everything), then when it dies off move it back to the subforum?

[mf_dolphin]

A thread shouldn't be moved back and forth between forums.

[Noah]

To the moderators. Ease of use and less clutter is always a good thing.
Owning a forum myself, I think its fabulous how you have everything neat and clean.

[Chacor]

I have only one request, please stop calling non-Atlantic threads "clutter". It is very disrespectful in my view to those of us who spend time contributing to them.

[mf_dolphin]

I agree that clutter is not a good description of what we're attempting to accomplish. I think "more organized" is a much better way of looking at it. That is definitely the intent from the staff standpoint. As I said earlier we're trying to make it easier for everyone to find the threads they are personally interested in reading, nothing more nothing less.