by GreenLake » Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:16 pm
Already there are too many topic areas on the forum. I think. Reason one: whatever doesn't fit on the screen will be ignored by a substantial fraction of users. (A not insubstantial fraction never posts anything outside the category for their specific DS model.) Reason two: the more areas there are, the more people will hesitate where to put things. Reason three: the traffic in topic areas is very uneven.
As a moderator, I can move posts and topics, but I can't change the basic layout (and I think the fewer changes we make at that level the better off we are).
Over my term as moderator so far, I've tried to help move topics to make the topic areas (categories) more consistent. When discussions become very wide-ranging, I quickly reach the limits of what can be done. (I'm not always able to split topics in a clean way and then I remind myself that this is a forum and not the wikipedia).
I would like to move this particular cruising discussion to fleets/locations because I believe that cruising (including the information on cruising locations) is equivalent to the "business" of the "independents", that is those of us who are not part of a (racing) fleet. In my view (not belonging to a fleet) the independents "deserve" to live on equal footing (and the fleets aren't really active on this forum, so posts tends to be on how to find one).
Because the category is named Fleets/Locations, the most useful way to organize topics would be by location like "Cruising the Chesapeake" or "Lakes of Minnesota". Having said that, general discussion about cruising would be appropriate by extension.
Going further, I believe that cruising-related events belong in the Events category - if they have a name and a date, they are events.
Finally, while cruising results in different modifications to rig and equipment, I don't think we want duplicate racing/cruising versions of categories for repair, sails, rigging and seamanship. I am open to more aggressively move racing oriented discussion to racing/performance, and would appreciate suggestions.
While I haven't gone back in the DS1 and DS2 forums to pull out older topics into their proper categories, I am not opposed to doing so, if someone has a suggestion for a particularly well motivated move.
Please post these on "website info" in a new topic like "suggested site maintenance" rather than sending me PMs.
A final note: while fixing DS1 floorboards is a "repair" and so is fixing the DSII CB downhaul, to me these are "typical" topics that are best categorized by DS subtype. But in many other areas, such as sail selection, rigging etc. there really aren't any differences and it would make sense to pull out some of those topics into the more generic categories.
If we moved the 50 most interesting, yet currently mis-categorized topics it could strengthen the site, so post your suggestions under website info. (I'll move this topic in a few days).
~ green ~ lake ~ ~