Why do San Jose and San Francisco have their own sub-forums? (Fresno: to live in, moving to)

[BVitamin]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

While I see the point you are making I don't find it relavant to the forum model at all. I belong to many forums covering a wide range of topics such as photography, autos, software engineering (which is my field), computers, mobile devices and many other areas of interest. In none of these forums does it or would it make sense simply to lump all things together in one big mush pot bucket. Forum members **never** complain about too many sub groupings. Without them its like walking into a messy house, department store, garage, etc... vs. an organized one. It's so much easier to find things when they are organized into logical groupings and sub areas within those groupings. Imagine walking into a hardware store looking for specific things like gloves and nails. But it turns out they are scattered throughout the store. Are they still there? Sure. But are they easy to find? No way! Its a mess.

This is especially the case with a location based forum in a state as large, highly populated and diverse as California. Do you want to know something about Monterey or Frenso when you are a newbee? Well good luck because right now the threads are buried many pages deep under political or other general complaint threads which have nothing to do with the area data one is interested in. Its a jumbled, disorganized mess IMO. And I try to help as many ppl as I can with Central Coast questions. But as I've tried in past to explain to Mods a logical grouping for places like the Central Coast or the Central Valley would prove very beneficial for people looking for things specific to these areas. Having them thrown in with everything else is like looking for a pair of socks in a big messy pile of clothes. You might get lucky, but probably not. And yes, of course ppl can use search. But thats still no excuse to not organize the data more logically based on primary areas/regions of interest.

If you or the other mods don't have time to work on these things why not bring in more mods who can help? I'd volunteer to help organize some of this California city/area data. Heck, I don't even need or care about the title. Its not like you or anyone gets paid to do the work or anything. I understand that.

Derek

What he said. Political/Social threads flood the California Forum from disgruntled Ex-Californians to California Cheerleaders. How many earthquake related threads do we have now?

Population growth in the Central Valley has grown, it needs its own sub-forum. There's been just as many inquiries to the Central Valley as there are of Ventura County, San Jose, and even Orange County. Florida has how many sub-forums again?

[FresnoFacts]

Originally Posted by BVitamin

What he said. Political/Social threads flood the California Forum from disgruntled Ex-Californians to California Cheerleaders. How many earthquake related threads do we have now?

I agree.

Personally I'd like to see a "California Politics" subforum to move those discussions out of the general forum. The political threads degrade so fast anyway into bashing from both the left and right.

I always thought it was "City-Data.com Forum: Relocation, Moving, Local City Discussions", at least that is what the web site scripting says. I don't see state politics listed in there.

Originally Posted by BVitamin

Population growth in the Central Valley has grown, it needs its own sub-forum. There's been just as many inquiries to the Central Valley as there are of Ventura County, San Jose, and even Orange County. Florida has how many sub-forums again?

And Central Valley growth will rapidly continue. The region will be a major center of the state's growth over the next few decades.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

While I see the point you are making I don't find it relavant to the forum model at all. I belong to many forums covering a wide range of topics such as photography, autos, software engineering (which is my field), computers, mobile devices and many other areas of interest. In none of these forums does it or would it make sense simply to lump all things together in one big mush pot bucket. Forum members **never** complain about too many sub groupings. Without them its like walking into a messy house, department store, garage, etc... vs. an organized one. It's so much easier to find things when they are organized into logical groupings and sub areas within those groupings. Imagine walking into a hardware store looking for specific things like gloves and nails. But it turns out they are scattered throughout the store. Are they still there? Sure. But are they easy to find? No way! Its a mess.

This is especially the case with a location based forum in a state as large, highly populated and diverse as California. Do you want to know something about Monterey or Frenso when you are a newbee? Well good luck because right now the threads are buried many pages deep under political or other general complaint threads which have nothing to do with the area data one is interested in. Its a jumbled, disorganized mess IMO. And I try to help as many ppl as I can with Central Coast questions. But as I've tried in past to explain to Mods a logical grouping for places like the Central Coast or the Central Valley would prove very beneficial for people looking for things specific to these areas. Having them thrown in with everything else is like looking for a pair of socks in a big messy pile of clothes. You might get lucky, but probably not. And yes, of course ppl can use search. But thats still no excuse to not organize the data more logically based on primary areas/regions of interest.

If you or the other mods don't have time to work on these things why not bring in more mods who can help? I'd volunteer to help organize some of this California city/area data. Heck, I don't even need or care about the title. Its not like you or anyone gets paid to do the work or anything. I understand that.

Derek

Totally agree with this. I've been a mod on forums and have admin-ed a few as well and if things are jumbled together, it's like shopping at Ross

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by FresnoFacts

I agree.

Personally I'd like to see a "California Politics" subforum to move those discussions out of the general forum. The political threads degrade so fast anyway into bashing from both the left and right.

I always thought it was "City-Data.com Forum: Relocation, Moving, Local City Discussions", at least that is what the web site scripting says. I don't see state politics listed in there.


And Central Valley growth will rapidly continue. The region will be a major center of the state's growth over the next few decades.

Florida has a million forums. I agree we should have a Ca. politics sub-forum. It's not always possible to discuss Ca. without getting political at some point but shoving them over into cyber hell (politics forum) is never a good thing.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Totally agree with this. I've been a mod on forums and have admin-ed a few as well and if things are jumbled together, it's like shopping at Ross

Hahaaa, Exactly like shopping at Ross during the day after Christmas sale. Now try finding some shoes in your size. You can do that, but why?

[FresnoFacts]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Florida has a million forums. I agree we should have a Ca. politics sub-forum. It's not always possible to discuss Ca. without getting political at some point but shoving them over into cyber hell (politics forum) is never a good thing.

I agree. Many of the Calif Political threads would not be good for the full political forum. And yes talking about California does bring up politics in many ways.

But putting them in a California Politics subforum would make them available for those interested in California without getting lost in that mess that is the current political forum.

Since the number of California political posts on the general forum would seem to match the magic number needed for a state subforum here it would seem to make sense to have it.

That would leave the general forum for lots of other more useful discussions about California life, relocation, etc.

[BVitamin]

Originally Posted by FresnoFacts

I agree. Many of the Calif Political threads would not be good for the full political forum. And yes talking about California does bring up politics in many ways.

But putting them in a California Politics subforum would make them available for those interested in California without getting lost in that mess that is the current political forum.

Since the number of California political posts on the general forum would seem to match the magic number needed for a state subforum here it would seem to make sense to have it.

That would leave the general forum for lots of other more useful discussions about California life, relocation, etc.

Or, leave the California forum open to whatever threads and have sub-forums covering the regions of California.

Something like this, more or less

http://www.labor.ca.gov/cedp/images/cedpregionsmap2.jpg (broken link)

Which would be still less than how many Florida has.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by BVitamin

Or, leave the California forum open to whatever threads and have sub-forums covering the regions of California.

Something like this, more or less

Which would be still less than how many Florida has.

Yes, I like this. It at least gives some representation to significant California regions which are currently ignored.

So far SoCal has the majority of coverage and is fine left as it is: San Diego, Orange County, LA, San Bernardino & Riverside and Ventura. Yet that leaves both Central and Northern Cal with nothing more than the Bay area and Sac. forums. Huge swaths of land and cities which are larger than many states are simply ignored and jumbled together in a hodgepodge mess in the general forum. That is not very functional for those living in these regions along with many others asking for city/region specific data about them.

Derek

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Yes, I like this. It at least gives some representation to significant California regions which are currently ignored.

So far SoCal has the majority of coverage and is fine left as it is: San Diego, Orange County, LA, San Bernardino & Riverside and Ventura. Yet that leaves both Central and Northern Cal with nothing more than the Bay area and Sac. forums. Huge swaths of land and cities which are larger than many states are simply ignored and jumbled together in a hodgepodge mess in the general forum. That is not very functional for those living in these regions along with many others asking for city/region specific data about them.

Derek

I'd put San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties with central coast and leave SD and Imperial with SoCal but otherwise, makes sense to me.

[bmw335xi]

If we had sub forums for every area/city...there would be very little discussion on City-Data.