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Why does Canada get it's own board but nobody else?

Started by dvferyance, September 07, 2018, 12:40:34 PM

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dvferyance

For international discussion Canada gets it's own board but for everyone else it's all one forum?


Brandon

Quote from: dvferyance on September 07, 2018, 12:40:34 PM
For international discussion Canada gets it's own board but for everyone else it's all one forum?

Because Soviet Canuckistan rules.  :spin:
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briantroutman

I think the answer is obvious enough: Not enough people interested in or talking about road topics in any other single country. Just look at the number of posts. The Canada board contains almost 5,000 total posts while all the nations of Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Oceana combined have generated only about 3,500. Compare that with of 46,000 posts on just the Northeastern US alone.

adventurernumber1

#3
My guess is because the highest proportion of people on this forum live in the United States, then Canada, then everywhere else. Most of the regional boards are dedicated to the U.S. as such, then Canada gets its own subforum, and all other countries are represented by "International Highways." As noted above, the numbers speak to how this is true.


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Scott5114

And, of course, it's comparatively simple for a US roadgeek to go up to Canada–you can drive there, and most of it speaks the same language as you. It's not even a far drive from many of the US's population centers. This isn't true for any other country–you can drive to Mexico (and theoretically beyond), but they speak Spanish, and all of the other English-speaking countries are at the other end of a plane ride.

Because visiting Canada is so easy, US-based forum members are more likely to actually do it and then have something to post about.
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hotdogPi

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 08, 2018, 04:48:00 AM
and all of the other English-speaking countries are at the other end of a plane ride.

Belize speaks English.
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Takumi

Quote from: 1 on September 08, 2018, 06:56:51 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on September 08, 2018, 04:48:00 AM
and all of the other English-speaking countries are at the other end of a plane ride.

Belize speaks English.
It's also unwieldy to get to by car.
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1995hoo

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 08, 2018, 04:48:00 AM
And, of course, it's comparatively simple for a US roadgeek to go up to Canada–you can drive there, and most of it speaks the same language as you. It's not even a far drive from many of the US's population centers. This isn't true for any other country–you can drive to Mexico (and theoretically beyond), but they speak Spanish, and all of the other English-speaking countries are at the other end of a plane ride.

Because visiting Canada is so easy, US-based forum members are more likely to actually do it and then have something to post about.

Canada also has fewer hoops to jump through in terms of driving your own vehicle, especially when it comes to insurance.
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J N Winkler

The question can be asked in the other direction:  why does Canada, an independent country, have just a subforum on a US-based forum?  This is the epitome of sidekick treatment.
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briantroutman

^ Canada may get sidekick treatment in many ways, but I'd say the assertion that it gets only "a subforum on a US-based forum"  is debatable. Canada is a subforum underneath "Regional Boards" –not "Regions of the U.S."  International is a subforum under the same heading, for what that's worth.

True, Canada isn't a child board of International, which could be interpreted as a signal that Canada is "less than international"  from a U.S. perspective. But on the other had, I read that as Canada having been promoted above the obscurity of a board dominated by infrequent threads about roads through the Himalayas or the Muntilupa Cavite Expressway in the Philippines, an unusually high number of which have few or zero responses–rather than Canada having been demoted to kid brother status.

vdeane

Way, way back posts about Canada actually were in International.  I think it was also a subforum of that board, briefly, but I can't verify that.  In any case, it was less than six months before it was promoted to its current board.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

Alps

Quote from: J N Winkler on September 09, 2018, 02:36:20 PM
The question can be asked in the other direction:  why does Canada, an independent country, have just a subforum on a US-based forum?  This is the epitome of sidekick treatment.
Ontario has their own forum through Yahoo - not sure if it still runs there since I left the platform. The rest of Canada really hasn't been represented, despite the proliferation of Quebecois roadgeeks, so the fact our Canada board hasn't outgrown being just a single subforum is indicative of its popularity.

webny99

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 08, 2018, 04:48:00 AM
Because visiting Canada is so easy, US-based forum members are more likely to actually do it and then have something to post about.

Just as one example, Toronto is much closer to me than NYC, despite NYC being in my home state.
I've crossed from NY into Canada more times than I've crossed from NY into another state (in other words, crossing a state line is a bigger deal to me than crossing the international border), so there's that for what it's worth.

AsphaltPlanet

There used to be a Yahoo Group called Canroads for general Canadian Roads discussion as well.  Much like it's Ontroads counterpart, Canroads is pretty much dead.  There is some local Canadian roads discussion on the Canada subforum of Skyscraperpage, as well as some chatter on Skyscrapercity, but nothing to the extent of the AARoads board.

For whatever reason, there has never really been a large roadgeek contingent outside of Ontario and to a lesser extent Quebec.  I find that I very rarely stumble across good high-resolution photos of road projects in western Canada (though it's possible that I am just not looking in the right places).
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