Boards for other enthusiasms

[MillTheRoadgeek]

Hello AARoads! 

I was thinking that there should be more boards for other things people would be interested in here. I don't have much else to say, but FYI, I'd say they would be under the Other board. Enjoy...

   
• Grocery/Retail
• Computers and Technology
• Vehicles
• Video/Board Games

More can be suggested, this is all for now. Thanks! 

[jeffandnicole]

Christmas Lights!

[Alps]

All of these can be individual threads, but we don't need entire boards for these. Frankly, not sure why Sports! is its own board.

[DaBigE]

I could possibly see some sort of vehicles board (vehicle technology, etc.) but that's about it. The others seem like they would defeat the purpose of having an all about roads forum. Similar to what Alps said, an individual thread or two on occasion is ok, but beyond that, I doubt they would be very popular. Unless you're in the industry, how much can really be said about grocery or retail that hasn't been covered in the topics in the Off-Topic board?

OTOH, I'm kinda surprised mapping & GPS doesn't have their own board yet.

Frankly, not sure why Sports! is its own board.

Agreed.

[froggie]

OTOH, I'm kinda surprised mapping & GPS doesn't have their own board yet.

Mapping could arguably fall under "Road Related Illustrations"...

[Zeffy]

You could always make a topic in Off-Topic for other interests like Weather, Activities, Pooing, etc...

[adventurernumber1]

Personally, I'm not wildly into sports, but I could see why there might be a sports sub board (just made up the word since it's a board within a board). There are a lot of people who are into sports, like..a lot. But I'm not one of them, and I will admit it is a little odd there's a board for Sports 

Also, I do agree with possibly a Mapping and Vehicle Technology board, those have far more to do with roads than sports 

For other interests, you could just make a thread in the Off-Topic board. There are so many different interests, and I can't imagine having a board for every one..

[Pete from Boston]

K.I.S.S.

If people are having a problem zeroing in on the off-topic threads, that's one thing.  But to just generate lots of ancillary threads?  This is a roads site, right? 

It seems like the mods are pretty generous with the free hand allowed in the OT forum, and it seems to work fine.  But "Off-Topic" means "not pertinent to the subject the forum exists to discuss." When it becomes fertile ground for subforums on all kinds of areas, why some and not others?  Why not food, relationships, work, health...

The current system allows liberal dabbling on other subjects.  I don't really think it makes a stronger site to make its theme "Roads and everything else roads enthusiasts are interested in" any more than it is now.

Two cents paid, plus tax. 

[vdeane]

The question is "is this a forum about roads, or is this the one-stop shop for roadgeek socialization?".  The admins have consistently answered the former, but there have been many boards that I've seen answer the latter.

[hbelkins]

The question is "is this a forum about roads, or is this the one-stop shop for roadgeek socialization?".  The admins have consistently answered the former, but there have been many boards that I've seen answer the latter.

Facebook fills the bill nicely for the latter.

[Pete from Boston]

The question is "is this a forum about roads, or is this the one-stop shop for roadgeek socialization?".  The admins have consistently answered the former, but there have been many boards that I've seen answer the latter.

This isn't the same post I was going to reply to, which was something about being THE place to talk about roads, which I was going to say hasn't existed since before MTR caught a bad case of viatology.

The newly edited post is much clearer, and I think it takes a steady hand to navigate between the "community" and its reason for coalescing.  Each aspect kind of needs the other to thrive. 

How about we compromise and put all these extraneous areas into a forum called "off-topic"? 

[mrsman]

The question is "is this a forum about roads, or is this the one-stop shop for roadgeek socialization?".  The admins have consistently answered the former, but there have been many boards that I've seen answer the latter.

This isn't the same post I was going to reply to, which was something about being THE place to talk about roads, which I was going to say hasn't existed since before MTR caught a bad case of viatology.

The newly edited post is much clearer, and I think it takes a steady hand to navigate between the "community" and its reason for coalescing.  Each aspect kind of needs the other to thrive. 

How about we compromise and put all these extraneous areas into a forum called "off-topic"?

And that is exactly what is done now.

To me, it seems that if you want to discuss things that are somewhat related to roads like driving, car performance, car repair, gas stations the OT fourms here would be great.  Even general geographic information, like maps that aren't roadmaps, the OT forums would be good too.

But for topics that are totally irrelevant to roadgeeking, you are welcome to discuss them here and socialize with fellow roadgeeks, but you might find it more enjoyable to find a totally different forum or website for that interest.

I also enjoy reading about mass transportation.  I read the forum for that here, but often find that the discussion on the topic is limited, so I also frequent railroad.net for the systems that interest me.  I'm not a member, so I don't post there.

And if you really want to talk about board games, video games, weather, etc. I'm sure there are plenty of geeks into those things on different forums somewhere.

[english si]

Personally, I'm not wildly into sports, but I could see why there might be a sports sub board (just made up the word since it's a board within a board). There are a lot of people who are into sports, like..a lot. But I'm not one of them, and I will admit it is a little odd there's a board for Sports 

The Sports board is a board for you, rather than those who like sports. Removing Sports threads from Off-topic, ditto Mass Transit, means that Off-Topic isn't jam-packed with threads on those popular subjects and those who don't care can easily ignore them. OK, it does make it easier for those wanting to find such threads, but it's not for them.

Certainly SABRE created its Transport & Driving board to remove the discussion of railways, etc from the general Off-topic board and threads about driving, cars, cyclists-are-annoying/brilliant from the Roads Boards.

[formulanone]

I don't think we have that much discussion about automobiles (itself as a topic) to really warrant it's own board. It seems if you have a question or want to bring up a subject that isn't specific to roads/highways, you use Off-Topic.

Too many forums out there have sub-forums which narrow down every type of discussion, and typically, they're not terribly successful. They don't get that much traffic; if you get a lot of discussion about a single subject, then it's wiser to open an appropriate sub-forum.

I enjoy our off-topic sections, but if a user  has a very specific question about something obscure and "off-topic", then they should probably ask that question on another forum (say for example, How do you X on Video Game Y?) to get an appropriate answer.

[Pete from Boston]

We have a lot of solutions here in search of a problem.  Someone state the problem.

[Darkchylde]

Facebook fills the bill nicely for the latter.

Facebook's not an answer for this. I don't use it, I won't ever use it, and I'll take a gamble that I'm not the only one here who shares those sentiments.

That said, entire subforums for some of these topics isn't the answer either. (I can kind of see the logic with the Sports board - if the ongoing topic is football and someone brings up golf, it could get a little chaotic.)

Why not split the difference? Make topics for each of these subjects in Off-Topic, then sticky them. That'll make discussions about these sort of things more easily found, while not wastefully creating new forums that will see less traffic than the Sports board.

[Zeffy]

Facebook fills the bill nicely for the latter.

Facebook's not an answer for this. I don't use it, I won't ever use it, and I'll take a gamble that I'm not the only one here who shares those sentiments.

No, you're not alone. I have a burning hatred for Facebook as well.

[vdeane]

Why not split the difference? Make topics for each of these subjects in Off-Topic, then sticky them. That'll make discussions about these sort of things more easily found, while not wastefully creating new forums that will see less traffic than the Sports board.

Come to think of it, maybe it would be a good idea to sticky the individual state threads in their boards too.

[DaBigE]

Why not split the difference? Make topics for each of these subjects in Off-Topic, then sticky them. That'll make discussions about these sort of things more easily found, while not wastefully creating new forums that will see less traffic than the Sports board.

Come to think of it, maybe it would be a good idea to sticky the individual state threads in their boards too.

I disagree. Many of the states already have multiple topics started, some of which probably could be combined, but many others are too big of a topic on their own to merit combining them. You would end up with so many stickies that the stickies would lose their value. Too bad the forum software doesn't allow you to sort the icon columns, otherwise if users applied the appropriate hwy shield, you could sort your topics by state.

[vdeane]

Why not split the difference? Make topics for each of these subjects in Off-Topic, then sticky them. That'll make discussions about these sort of things more easily found, while not wastefully creating new forums that will see less traffic than the Sports board.

Come to think of it, maybe it would be a good idea to sticky the individual state threads in their boards too.

I disagree. Many of the states already have multiple topics started, some of which probably could be combined, but many others are too big of a topic on their own to merit combining them. You would end up with so many stickies that the stickies would lose their value. Too bad the forum software doesn't allow you to sort the icon columns, otherwise if users applied the appropriate hwy shield, you could sort your topics by state.

I was talking about the general threads titled "New York", "Vermont", etc. for miscellaneous posts.

[cjk374]

Facebook fills the bill nicely for the latter.

Facebook's not an answer for this. I don't use it, I won't ever use it, and I'll take a gamble that I'm not the only one here who shares those sentiments.

No, you're not alone. I have a burning hatred for Facebook as well.

x3!  FB does not interest me at all.

I think what we have now works really well.  There are lots of forums you can join if you want to discuss other hobbies such as sports, railroads, r/c models....not sure about grocery stores though.   

Why not split the difference? Make topics for each of these subjects in Off-Topic, then sticky them. That'll make discussions about these sort of things more easily found, while not wastefully creating new forums that will see less traffic than the Sports board.

Come to think of it, maybe it would be a good idea to sticky the individual state threads in their boards too.

I disagree. Many of the states already have multiple topics started, some of which probably could be combined, but many others are too big of a topic on their own to merit combining them. You would end up with so many stickies that the stickies would lose their value. Too bad the forum software doesn't allow you to sort the icon columns, otherwise if users applied the appropriate hwy shield, you could sort your topics by state.

I was talking about the general threads titled "New York", "Vermont", etc. for miscellaneous posts.

I've seen these state shields used with some listings, but I don't know how to access them. 

[briantroutman]

Wouldn't it answer a lot of these concerns if threads could be tagged? That way, the hierarchical organization structure wouldn't have to become more complex (in fact it could probably be simplified), and it would allow people to easily find threads on topics that don't necessarily fit the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Off-Topic... structure very well.

[vdeane]

We need a colors forum.</sarcasm>  Where else would threads like "what color nail polish do you like" and "what color underwear do you wear" get posted?

[roadman65]

I think that we need to provide links to other sites with the required topics.

How many of us here like to argue about something where the moderator either edits, locks, or removes a bunch of posts because it violates the rules, but has merit and the argument is a justifiable one even though not for this forum.

I think there are a few on here who are heavily into politics here and enjoy talking about them and have great topics to argue about.  However, it is not aaroads material, but something for another site that some of us seem to enjoy talking about.

Heck its not even politics only as there are other subjects that we all get into that are not in the scope of aaroads.com, but worthy to talk about as well.  I only used that as an example.

Politely invite your foes in whatever to join another such forum.  Tell them via PM your user name and continue the nice chat with them on there instead of having it removed, edited, or locked here.  You can be more free to go on as you do not have the rules here bounding you to stay within limits.

There are other such forums out there that talk about politics, sports, music, and even lodging if its your thing about traveling roads.  We all can be members here and still be members elsewhere and it might even make ourselves more talkative and maybe lessen nerve strain here as well.

[Zeffy]

Politely invite your foes in whatever to join another such forum.  Tell them via PM your user name and continue the nice chat with them on there instead of having it removed, edited, or locked here.  You can be more free to go on as you do not have the rules here bounding you to stay within limits.

There are other such forums out there that talk about politics, sports, music, and even lodging if its your thing about traveling roads.  We all can be members here and still be members elsewhere and it might even make ourselves more talkative and maybe lessen nerve strain here as well.

Politics, religion, etc, are all topics that can instantly turn ugly because of how different people's views on them are. The main focus here is that we are a roads forum. Of course, politics can definitely play a major factor in such a topic, but it doesn't matter. When it comes to people bashing x because they are a member of whatever party, it just gets annoying to look at. When it comes to people practically trying to convert people or tell them otherwise they are wrong about their religious beliefs it's wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Some opinions may be much more harshly worded than others. Therefore, we like to keep talk about them to a minimum here.

There's nothing wrong with a good debate, but it's not right to criticize others for their opinions just because you feel strongly about it.