Regional Forums?

[Aaron Peluso]

I have been debating about whether or not to create regional forum groups for regional discussion.

Possibly big regions distinctions like east coast, west coast, europe...

Or possibly smaller areas like socal, norcal, FL Gulf Coast, FL East Coast. NC. DE. VA. NJ, Portugal, France, UK etc etc etc...

What do you guys think?

The results of the poll won't necesarily be what I do, but it will give me an idea what you guys are thinking.

Feel free to post comments.

[beezy]

You should have different Forum catagories like Music, TV/Movies, Sports, Religion, Video Games, Porn, Sports...

[Teddy Parker]

I voted no, but right after clicking it I realized it would be kind of sweet. But still, I don't think it is needed. It could be settled at people post a topic of their area and meet all those people and never post a topic about there again really... I'd like to meet more skimmers in LA, but I don't think a forum for it on here is necessary.

[Derek Makekau]

Large areas, if anything.

[dEUZ]

not needed for portugal, we have our own forum running and kind of 300 users... but still, maybe people from other places find it necessary.

[Pat-Juh]

just create an area for Europe atleast... might be handy for roadtrips etc..

[tcmarkley]

I don't think people would use those areas.

[idrathrbskimmin]

i think have regioal forums woould be good and more efficent b/c that way if someone had a ? about a beach, they would not have to post it on the main forum

[superskimcdy]

does that mean a forum for where u live ??? thats a ausum idea

[Richard]

East/west/europe would be enough.

[BART]

things to consider:

in my eyes, the main need for additional forum categories is when the main forum simply cannot handle all the post traffic and still be manageable/easily read. other websites that have 3 pages of new posts a day come to mind as candidates for this.

on the other hand, it could spawn more regional discussion and create a sense of local community.

if you decide to do it, do what richard says, start with east/west/international. if and when those get a ton of traffic, you can splinter further into subgroups.

i disagree with beezy, that would kill the offtopic forum/disucssions. forums that have categories like that work in boards with 10,000 regular users. if you go to a forum without much user volume and all those categories, you'll notice the forums are completely dead. i always laugh at newbie forums people set up and there's 50 categories but only 10 members = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. those forums never get off the ground because the discussions are just too splintered.

[BART]

currently, the main skimboarding discussion forum has threads on the first page with 'last posts' covering 3 different days. meaning, there's not even enough new posts in different threads to fill up the first page in a day. but the volume on the new board is not close to what it used to be yet either. on the old board new posts would fill the first page easily. might take a week or two to get up to full speed again.

[Islandboy]

I was thinking no, but trying it might be good. But like some people said, only really like East, West, and International. I just dont know if people would want to go into that many different categories just to find out stuff.

Example: If a contest was going on Argentina or something, and it was posted in the International group, its possible that many people that werent interested in the International topic, but may be interested in a different contest location, may miss out. It may also lead to people posting stuff twice, like in the Skimboard discussion, and in the international discussion, therefore defeating the purpose...

I guess we'll see, its just something to think about...

[Woj]

I give it a "no". What's the point of segregating what you've already brought together? What would be the point of Cramik's scrilla, the NJskim MB, or the skimsandiego MB?

[jake]

that would be a good idea for like socal nor cal and all those. but florida panhandle gulf and gulf from tampa-naples are two tooottally different places

[med' skimboarder]

it's a good idea , but i think you must let the regional's locals riders do that....

( exscuse me , i don't speak american very well)

[Rockporter9]

No, this forum is unique the way all sorts of posts get all thrown together rather than spread out over lots of topics

[Ryan Vaughan]

I would say no. One of the things I like most about this board is the sense of community that it creates. More categories would separate that more

[Scrub]

i said yes, but now i say NO.all these posts will get so spread out it will be hard for everyone to see and get to answer everything as quickly.

[Doctor Delicious]

I would definately give this idea a NO. Think about it. If I wanted information from someone in my area, i wouldnt go on a forum, I would get my lazy ass out and talk to him/her personally. I don't need to talk to my neighbor online. I want to know what the people in NC and Cali are doing,and the internet is the only medium through for which i can do this. I can't exactly ask another Floridian how to do a frontside wrap on a 6 foot wave now can I? And I realize that I could just go over to that "region" but what's the point?
I think the diversity of this forum is what keeps it from NOT being so damn boring, just because different people from different places share differet experiences for different people to differentially discuss and differ from the diff diff difference....Ya Know?

[BOYNTONDAVE]

Differnt catagories would be cool. Like not just having skimboards for sale. Maybe like a FOR SALE : OTHER:D


You should have different Forum catagories like Music, TV/Movies, Sports, Religion, Video Games, Porn, Sports...

[norv]

We have sub-forums for each state of Australia in our forum and it works very well.
General discussion goes in the main SkimUnity (http://www.skimunity.com) forum, and skim reports, spot checks, "let's meet up for a skim" threads etc. go in the state forums.
Also makes it easier for travellers to quickly locate good skim spots in each state.
And the main forum is less clogged and recent topics stay on the first page or two.
We also have a SkimWorld sub-forum and any enquiries about the USA get referred to SkimOnline!
That's my 2 cents worth!

[Digital Rapture]

Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coast would be sufficient

[Blak_skimmer220]

i think a good idea would be like a "skim spot/beaches" section or something. all the "u wanna meet up and skim" or "whats the break like here" posts would go in it. its a way to keep all those related questions in one eparate catagory instead of making it a ton of subgroups. I know what BART means when there are like 500 catagories but not enough people. this one only 1 extra

[DJ-NJ]

Bart and Woj hit it on the head!

[Nuke561]

i would say no, no one is serious enough to actually use them properly, for instance with east/west someone from west will come into the east forums and be like we have waves bitch and you dont, thus creating a new level of sarcasm on the boards

[dlux]

Yes for specific Areas. Not necesarily state by state, but smaller regions.

Cali can have its own. Northwest (Oregon/Washington). Florida can have it's own as well. Middle Eastcoast (North of Florida to South of New Jersey. North East (New Jersey and North.)

Then UK. Europe. Carribean (Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Cuba, etc). Pacific Islands (Hawaii, Tahaiti, etc)

[samcollett]

no. i like the small number of forums on the message boards. if you go on skate perception or silverfish, there are a lot of different forums. less forums mean more concentration of people on the given forums, and that's what makes skimonline skimonline.

[SkimSF]

I think having sections for each smaller region is a great idea for location specific stuff that people wouldn't post on the general message board.

This would get more people talking to others about their area's conditions and will help more skimmers meet and skim together, which makes the community tighter. And with more traffic than regional sites more info gets shared.

[Brave H]

I want the old mb back.... but I kinda liked blank skimmer's idea.... have a general skim disscussion and then have location specific disscussion as well..

[p.pointe]

i agree with nuke, partially, because then you would have the cali skimmers always having skim, thinking they are higher/better than someone on the east coast(mainly florida) simply because they don't have waves as nice as aliso/wedge. Its bad enough that everyone on this board is so fucking tense when it comes to jokes/sarcasm, regional wave shit talking would make it one big gay-fest...

[dlux]

ahah, true. I still like the main discussion groups because well, It brings a smile to my face daily. But I think that additional groups by region or even Blak Skimmer's idea of Beaches would be very beneficial.

[slottyskimmerIZ]

it'd be cool especially with the northeast. it's a small community who is quite spread out. it'd be cool to have it oepn thoguh so say sopmeone from DE comes to Mass, he can ask us if we want to skim/where to skim, all that.

[longislandskim]

no... thats segregating sorta... i think itll spread the forum out to thin... i say just leave it