Forum Consolidation?

[RjBlake]

Given the relatively light posting volume in the forums overall, would it be possible or useful to consolidate the forums into a single folder instead of all the subcategories? It is annoying to have to click into each subheading.

Or perhaps the ability to view it as "latest post in all forums" per Mountain Project.

It would be nice to centralize the ability to see active threads, especially as we try and get this thing going.

[cwoodall]

I would probably do this:

- Merge Beta, The Crag, Gear Room, Events, and Trip Reports
- Keep Support and Feedback, and Partners separate

I think this will keep the support, and partner finding posts kind of spread out.

I would also sticky upcoming event posts in the main section possibly.

I would keep the other forums as is, they serve a specific purpose.

[mattdrayer]

I agree -- it would be good to have a single "Community" forum for general conversation, people looking for partners, talking about top 10 routes, etc. I agree with Chris that the program coordination areas should stay as-is (private, class-specific), and I think there should be a private leaders area as well.

I'm thinking that the "Beta" area should remain as well, but with the threads locked. There would be one thread per route with a single post that grows to include as much general/timeless information about each route as can be collected. So it would essentially be an online guidebook. There might be a better way to achieve that end, but if we're going all-in on the forums then seems like a viable approach. If people have questions/comments about the routes they'd just post everything in the community area to keep the communication flowing.

Matt

[cwoodall]

I kind of question what the difference between a trip report and beta is at some level.

[johngassel]

I think this is a good idea. I'll work on merging some of the content into a single forum.

When I set this up it made logical sense to have a lot of different forums. I can see how it's mostly just annoying in actual use though.

[mattdrayer]

I kind of question what the difference between a trip report and beta is at some level.

Trip reports vary in the amount of detail and quality of information based on the person posting the report. Maybe instead of calling it "Beta" (which is more like Blue's Clues), we could have an actual "Guidebook" section, which would be along the lines of what I said -- something more than the 3-4 sentences we get from AICGTNNE -- something with a bunch of posts like one: http://goeast.ems.com/ice-climb-shoestring-gully/

Matt

[johngassel]

These forums came out around the time that the Crux was going away. So the "trip reports" was a good replacement for that.

Now that the Crux is back (in an online version), I think that makes sense as a more formal trip report location.

http://www.amcbostonclimbers.com/the-crux-1?tag=trip%20reports

[cwoodall]

These forums came out around the time that the Crux was going away. So the "trip reports" was a good replacement for that.

Now that the Crux is back (in an online version), I think that makes sense as a more formal trip report location.

http://www.amcbostonclimbers.com/the-crux-1?tag=trip%20reports

I generally agree. I think we should promote people to report less formal trip reports, to the forums and try to encourage the better ones to submit to the crux. I think the lower bar of entry and formality could be a good thing (if we can get more trip reports coming in).

[johngassel]

Okay, I merged Beta, Trip Reports, and Events into The Crag. I think the others make sense to leave separate for now. They all have a decent amount of activity and might be nice to have separate.

[RjBlake]

Looks good.