I have no opinion about a gun forum, not being a consumer/use of these products. However, is this topic not already represented de facto in the "Outdoor Equipment" topic area.



I know how rabid gun supporters may be/are, as I worked at the skeet range the US Olympic team practiced at in 1984 for the Los Angeles games, and therefore have experience.

What other topics? Some of the forums do not have any/many traffickers, agreed. Might these face deletion? The Nissan/Rover/International forums are the three particulars I'm thinking of.

How about a "my woman is a pain in the ass forum?"
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />
I'd have plenty to offer in that sucker.

Just kidding. I love her (crazy or not) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Seriously bad move.

The last thing we want to do is "cross pollinate" ideas for them.

On a serious note, how about a "Men's health/Men's stuff" forum? I know it is not in the "line of fire" for what was asked, but we have had one on Outerlimits4x4 as a thread that has allowed people to learn a bit about aging, mental health/depression ("R U OK?"), diabetes, cancer, "waterworks" issues, and various other conditions, or to just chat with the big expectation that there are no foolish/toolish answers. The whole thread started as a result of about 3 suicides over a period of 6 months of our members (we're not that bad....really <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />).

Not being sexist or anything, but women do open up more freely to each other than men do with men, and sometimes the "anonymity" of hiding behind a keyboard works for us guys.

There was mention of expanding to include new topics and yes, there are some dormant topics.

Which is why I posed the question...

I am not going to delete any of the older/little used forums. I am considering an order change to bring them into a smaller area.

In the process, I will add topics of interest that will potentially attract (and keep) visitors.

After all, traffic generates revenue which pays to keep the site on line.

I would actually suggest not adding a new forum topic and in fact consolidating existing forums.

I think the more forums that are added, the more separated people get and forums that certain people tend to want to visit, start to die out from lack of participation and then a vicious circle begins as people leave the website due to lack of participation and forum activity.

A new vehicle section, like Subaru, might actually make some sense, because there�s potential to attract new visitors, but if existing forums are watered down further, like the off topic section, readers will be further divided and forum participation will decrease and eventually die off.

I�m a believer in as few forums per website as possible, keeping in mind that the VAST majority of viewers do not click on all forums and forums that get the most viewers and participation, often increase in popularity and increase readers exponentially, just as failing forums lose popularity and readership as they get less and less participation.

Many people who use certain forums as their own personal clubs, and especially want to narrow the topic range to only what they want to discuss, may disagree with forum consolidation, but if I was the webmaster, the goal would be increasing readership and popularity, not maintaining a personal clubhouse for a half dozen people who do nothing significant to pay the website bills.

My suggestion would be to consolidate all of the vehicle forums into a single section or may be two at the most plus an archive, if needed. And consolidate the off topic back into one section and some of the other sections as well.

This will increase participation in each of those forums. Increased readers will build on itself and the forums are increasingly linked too and visited by new readers as an active forum.

This is a good point. I also follow the boards on Pirate, Power Wagon Advertiser, and Ramcharger Central. I peruse these boards to sell and trade parts, pick things up, and similar along my lines of interest. The comment about using a particular board as a 'club' is appropriate and I have to admit this pitfall holds for me to a great degree. I like to think that I am versed in my automotive interests, but have settled in to a few marques. The settling I would attribute to: 1. what I have available in the yard, 2. what I can afford to own and learn about, and 3. not having local friends with interests similar/slightly different.

My questions about consolidation would be: which topics, which marques? The tech boards as current may not handle compression too well, for example.

I really am enjoying this discussion, BTW. Cathartic and expressive.
R-

I think I may have stopped breastfeeding too early...

How's that? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Remember board guidelines for topic and our clean, squeakiness. I merely intoned that an open discussion of the topic at hand would lead to the bettering of our board. 'Ya know, like totally?' <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />

Sorry Russell. It was a random statement. First thing that came to mind. It was more directed as a response to DK about the suicides and mental health. I make random statements for comic relief in person, guess the humor gets lost in the keyboard...

No problem for me. I have posted a pic that had me banned for a moment... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> I was forgiven. I am the comic relief in my surroundings, too. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />