I was thinking maybe "Road Related Illustrations" should become its own board.

[Quillz]

Maybe a child board of Fictional Highways?

That particular topic is extremely large, filled with possibly hundreds or even thousands of various concepts, some of which aren't around anymore. It's hard to find things in the topic.

What about making a board that's just for posting various illustrations, whether it be BGS, shields, diagrams, etc?

[Alps]

Some illustrations are used for existing, former, or planned signs, highway configurations, etc. Others are used for fictional purposes. I wouldn't recommend combining them. Illustrations can definitely be a child of Fictional.

[vtk]

I'd say it might best be a child of Photos, Videos, and More.  But actually, the kinds of things posted could really go under Fictional Highways, Traffic Control, or... I'd say Maps, but there isn't a Maps board!  Should there be a Maps board?  Might the Illustrations board deserve to be its own board, not a child of another board?

It's true the Road-Related Illustrations topic has become huge, but that was probably a folly of someone who thought such a broad subject should be one topic on the forum.  Many of the things people post there could easily be their own threads in other existing boards.  We don't necessarily need a new Illustrations board to take that step.

P.S. Might it be possible to post a single topic under multiple boards?  I suppose that would be a feature request for Simple Machines to update the forum code, unless it's already a feature that's disabled here...  (And I'm not talking about simply posting the same idea twice in different places. That would be annoying and I get why there's a rule against it.)

[Alps]

Some topics do span multiple boards. For example, you're taking a roadtrip from Ohio to North Carolina. What's the best place to discuss it? I don't believe there's a way to let a room sit in multiple boards, unless you post a locked redirect message in each one, which I don't think we want to do. But you're 2 for 2 on good ideas.

[J N Winkler]

Don't put us in Fictional Highways, please.  Quite a lot of what I post in Road-Related Illustrations is based on photos or actual construction plans and so does not belong in the ghetto.

[corco]

Don't put us in Fictional Highways, please.  Quite a lot of what I post in Road-Related Illustrations is based on photos or actual construction plans and so does not belong in the ghetto.

This is possibly my favorite comment in the history of this board- I laughed.

But very true- I don't participate much in either Fictional Highways or Road Related Illustrations, but I do at least lurk in Road Related Illustrations because it's actually interesting, unlike the thousands of I-98 through Williston proposals

[Quillz]

I think it could be on the same tier as "National Boards," if something like this was even to happen. Below "Fictional Highways," it could just be called something like "Illustrations" or "Concepts" or w/e.

The only reason I even bring it up is because I like to post various shield designs that I've done, as do others often have a certain illustration/theme they like sharing. On an actual board, we could make our own topics and just post everything there.

Just an idea, of course. Just something to consider.

[J N Winkler]

This is possibly my favorite comment in the history of this board- I laughed.

I'm happy you liked it.  Ghetto is a loaded term but personally I have found it convenient to have reality separated from Interstate-quality county roads with 85 MPH speed limits, extraterritorial Interstates, and the like.

I think most of the drawings (which is essentially what Road-Related Illustrations is about) were put in a common thread because the creators felt they would have gotten lost if they were hived out to their own threads.  Road-Related Illustrations has developed organically as the one-stop shopping point for sign drawings and the like; no-one in authority said all illustrations had to be there, and in fact there are a very few isolated examples of illustrations in other threads where they have been posted to prove particular points.

The page count in Road-Related Illustrations is unreasonably high now, and drawings made (say) two years ago are no longer easily retrievable, but I don't think the solution to this problem is to distribute the content among new threads on one or more boards.  Might it instead be possible to create a micro-Wiki for image hosting?  (SABRE has a full-blown Wiki with image hosting capability, but in the absence of a strong desire to create an "AARoads Wiki" it might be possible to install wiki software to allow illustrations to be uploaded and linked to their creators' accounts so that the images can be retrieved by author without having to go through all 120 pages of Road-Related Illustrations.)

[vtk]

The page count in Road-Related Illustrations is unreasonably high now, and drawings made (say) two years ago are no longer easily retrievable, but I don't think the solution to this problem is to distribute the content among new threads on one or more boards.  Might it instead be possible to create a micro-Wiki for image hosting?  (SABRE has a full-blown Wiki with image hosting capability, but in the absence of a strong desire to create an "AARoads Wiki" it might be possible to install wiki software to allow illustrations to be uploaded and linked to their creators' accounts so that the images can be retrieved by author without having to go through all 120 pages of Road-Related Illustrations.)

That's a bit of a separate problem, that of the specific kind of link rot that comes with free image hosting.  It has nothing to do with whether Illustrations is a gigantic thread or multiple threads in its own board. But I like this proposed solution of AARoads image hosting linked to forum accounts.

[myosh_tino]

I do agree with JN Winkler that the Road-Related Illustrations thread has gotten quite large (120 pages and counting) but I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done to "tame the beast" so to speak.  I also agree with vtk that the thread is suffering from a significant amount of link rot.  Some of that link rot can be attributed to the use of free image hosting services but it can also be attributed to members who post something only to take it down a few days later.

All of the stuff I posted on the illustrations thread is still there 2 1/2 years later but that is because I am able to host all of the images myself on my web server.  At some point, I do plan on displaying all the images I have posted here on my website in it's own section.  I don't have any time right now but it is on the to-do list.

[Quillz]

I do agree with JN Winkler that the Road-Related Illustrations thread has gotten quite large (120 pages and counting) but I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done to "tame the beast" so to speak.  I also agree with vtk that the thread is suffering from a significant amount of link rot.  Some of that link rot can be attributed to the use of free image hosting services but it can also be attributed to members who post something only to take it down a few days later.

All of the stuff I posted on the illustrations thread is still there 2 1/2 years later but that is because I am able to host all of the images myself on my web server.  At some point, I do plan on displaying all the images I have posted here on my website in it's own section.  I don't have any time right now but it is on the to-do list.

I'm capable of hosting my own images too on my web server. My issue is more OCD-related: I tend to delete old stuff that I don't think is very good rather quickly. I think a lot of the things I've posted there are now gone, at least the ones I didn't consider any good.

I am trying to stop doing that, though, as I know it must be annoying to have to browse through a topic with lots of deleted images.

[formulanone]

Quite a lot of what I post in Road-Related Illustrations is based on photos or actual construction plans and so does not belong in the ghetto.

It is a too-long thread, to be honest. The fictional stuff really ought to go in there, to be fair...but there's going to be a lot of gray area between "look, I made a better BGS to replace that ugly one at Exit XX on Interstate YY" and "wanna see my shields for a state that doesn't exist yet", as well as the hand-drawn stuff from the ones made in Adobe Illustrator.

[Truvelo]

Could the length of the thread be due to the popularity of it? I certainly like looking at people's artistic talents when it comes to making signs. It's true that some way of making it easier to navigate would be better but I wouldn't want to see the thread closed simply because of its size.

[J N Winkler]

Truvelo:  yes, the thread has become long partly as a result of its popularity.  I think "Don't mess with success" is another argument in favor of leaving it alone.

[vdeane]

I would think it's success would warrant its own board.  As of right now, the only way to find anything is to read a 120 page thread to see what's there.  Who wants to read a 120 page thread to see what's been done?  In a forum they could open threads for the signs of interest.  The 120 page is only really useful for people who have been here and reading it the whole time.

[Scott5114]

A simple solution would be to simply lock it and create a "Road Related Illustrations II" to start from scratch.

[J N Winkler]

That could certainly be done, but personally I think we need more of a consensus that there is a problem before we set about solving it.

[mightyace]

As mainly a lurker on this board, I'm coming at this from a more detached perspective.

The way I see it is that something should be done as there are multiple types of discussions going on in this thread.  Following various discussion types would be much easier if they were in separate threads presumably under it's own board.

Heres some of the discussion types that I see happening here:

1) Layout Theory and Practice
These are the posts regarding font choice, kerning, the various incarnations of the MUTCD, etc.

2) Sign Replication/Improvements
These are designs that are based on real world signs and are either the poster's attempt to replicate the existing design or create an improved version of it.

3) Shield Redesign (Fictitious)
These are proposed redesigns of existing real world shields.

4) Signs from Fictitious Highways
These are signs for roads that don't exist in reality.  These could be for fictitious changes in the real world like replacing I-99 with I-576 or from a totally fictitious area like the Pokemon signs.

Just my $0.02

__________________________________

If board changes have already been made, please disregard this post.

[Dr Frankenstein]

+1 mightyace's post.

[Scott5114]

The problem with splitting them along those lines as I see it is–in many cases those overlap. I might find it more convenient to try some layout experiments with some fictional towns and highways, because it is easier to invent a town or interchange that doesn't exist than to try to find one that exhibits the characteristics that I want to examine (long names, a certain ramp config, number of concurrent highways, etc.) It might be fun to try out a new shield design in the context of an existing sign to see how it meshes with real shields. So I don't think that separating them in this way will be very successful.

[vtk]

I say just create a Maps/Art/Illustrations board and then let it evolve and self-organize over time.  We don't even have to close the existing thread – if people want to continue posting there, why stop them?

[vdeane]

I thought the whole point of the board was so that people who wanted to find a particular illustration after the fact didn't have to re-read a 120 page thread.

[vtk]

I doubt anyone wants to go through the existing 121-page thread and split all those posts into categories.  (And then there's the reply posts to keep track of...)  Sure, if a mod wants to do that it would be awesome, but I didn't think anyone was talking about moving existing posts.

[vdeane]

Sure, the legacy thread would be around (I'd make it a locked sticky in the board), but why make NEW ones hard to find in time?

[vtk]

I just think that's a matter of preference for the individuals posting their illustrations.  Don't force people to abandon the monolith, but let them decide to do so on their own terms.  Seems to me that would make a smoother transition.