What other city needs it's own forum? (Seattle, Tacoma: home, find a job)

[Aquajox]

What other city in Washington needs a forum of it's own forum? You can choose more than one.

[scirocco22]

Interesting you should bring this up, Aquajox. I've been contemplating asking the Administrator to possibly consider another city forum but I know for a fact that none of the cities you list have enough "traffic" to justify a separate forum.

My idea was perhaps separate the western side of the state from the eastern side since they are so different.

I've also considered asking him to consider instead of a Seattle city forum, to make it a Seattle metropolitan forum which would take in all the suburbs ...or even the tri-county area of King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.

Whatever the case, IMO, your poll will be in vain because the Administrator goes only on "numbers." He will analyze it to see if a certain city has enough traffic (inquiries) to justify its own forum so even though we vote overwhelmingly or have hundreds of votes to have a separate sub-forum for, say, Washtucna, the bottom line is if the traffic shows it is not justified, it won't happen.

Good post at any rate.

--'rocco

[gallo]

I was actually going to suggest the opposite; that we consolidate the Seattle forum and the Washington State forum into one.

Here’s why:

1) The Seattle forum does not generate a lot of traffic – from both people asking questions and people who respond to them. It is common for there to be one or two new posts there a day. That’s it. And often it is someone bumping up thread that has been dead for 3 months.

2) A lot, probably of the majority, of questions we get deal with the Seattle metro area, i.e., the suburbs. Where exactly do these questions go? Should they do in the Washington State forum? In the Seattle forum? Sometimes ‘rocco moves them to the Seattle forum and they just sit dead. It is almost like o.p.’s come back, can’t find their post, they make a new one or just abandon it.

3) We get a lot of questions dealing both Seattle and the suburbs in it. For example, where should I live in Seattle or in Bellevue? Or we are moving to the army base on Whidbey Island. I need to work in Seattle. Where can we live on the Island and where can I find a job in Seattle? -- see above explanation.

4) Since Seattle is the home base so to speak in Washington we get question like, we are flying into Seattle, taking downtown, but then we are going to go to Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Park. Where should we stay in Seattle? What’s the best way to the parks? – see #2 for explanantion.

5) The Seattle sub forum just sort of sits at the top of the page and I swear people don’t see it. In fact, I didn’t even notice it was there until after about two weeks after reading the forums. I guarantee a lot of people are just missing it and don’t see it. A lot of forums have two or three sub forums. For instance, in Illinois, there is the general Illinois forum as well as Chicago and Chicago Suburbs forums. Given there are two sub forums they tend to pop out and people recognize them more. Again, I feel that people just don’t see the Seattle sub forum. And no, a separate section or just the Seattle suburbs would not generate enough traffic.

6) Is Seattle really big enough to need to its own sub forum? I realize it’s a top 15 metro area in size, and that other cities similar and smaller size have their own forums, but it’s not like Chicago with its 200+ suburbs and 60+ neighborhoods packed into the city. Plus, as I said there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of activity in there, at least not so much that we couldn’t handle it the forums were merged.

7) Doe the Washington State forum really get that much action by itself? Its also common to go a few days and only have a handful of posts in that forum.

8) I think combining the two would make the Washington forum (as one) much more active and much more lively – and again, not to the point the point where it becomes confusing and messy, but it will help bring some action to the forum. Often the whole Washington forum, and Seattle sub forum feels like Seattle in the winter, just dreary, slow, and dull. That is not going to attract people to participate or new members to stick around.

9) Having combined forums will serve to unite us Washingtonians and get to know each other as little better even though it is only on the internet. In all honesty there are really only a handful of us that post in the Seattle sub forum, and not many either in the Washington forum. Why not combine them? More ideas can be kicked around, more perspective, more welcoming to new members, we can get away from the same people answering the same questions over and over. It make make more of a sense of an online community.

What do you think? Maybe I can send this over to the Admin?

[gallo]

Originally Posted by scirocco22

My idea was perhaps separate the western side of the state from the eastern side since they are so different.

I've also considered asking him to consider instead of a Seattle city forum, to make it a Seattle metropolitan forum which would take in all the suburbs ...or even the tri-county area of King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.

Hey’ rocco,

I agree that the Seattle suburbs forums might be good idea, but yes, it won’t get the necessary traffic.

I don’t think a western/eastern WA division would have enough traffic. Well, the eastern one at least.

Also, it’s important to understand that Washingtonians are the only ones who make a clear distinction between eastern/western WA. For everyone else, they just see the state as one giant forest/rain. As we know this is not the truth, but I tend to think having western/eastern WA forums would just confuse people more of where the cutoff between western/eastern WA is, and why the heck they are separate.

Join not divide : )

gallo

[scirocco22]

OK, I've read through all you've written, gallo. Thanks for posting such a well thought-out series of suggestions.

I hope you haven't forward them to the Administrator yet. The reason being, I'd really hesitate in giving up the "Seattle city forum." Yes, perhaps it doesn't appear to generate enough traffic to justify its existence, I still believe it serves a purpose. Without it, the hodge-podge of posts in the general Washington forum would tend to be even more of a mess to navigate.

I'd much rather see the Seattle city forum expanded to include all of Seattle and its King county suburbs. I believe that would lend itself to much more cohesiveness.

I do agree with your comments on the western/eastern thing, however. That's why I've dropped the idea of suggesting that.

All that I know from observing other sub-forums being added to a state's general forum is that the Administrator does do quite a number's analysis when it comes to adding sub-forums to make sure they're justified. So no matter how this poll comes out, I'm absolutely sure they're not going to make a separate sub-forum for, say, Olympia no matter how many votes it gets because there just isn't enough inquiries about Olympia to justify it at this point.

--'rocco

[gallo]

LOL. Thanks ‘rocco, I just kind of whipped them up real quick.

Too late ‘rocco, I have sent my ideas to the admin, all of the senior moderators, all of the regular moderators, and have created a thread with a poll on the subject in the “general U.S.” forum.

OK, OK, I am just kidding, I haven’t sent anything to anyone or posted anything.

I like your idea, and after thinking about it again, perhaps having just one
forum for Washington would turn out to be a big hodge podge as you suggest.

I don’t know, it just seems so slow in here a lot of the time.

May I suggest expanding your Seattle and King County idea to “Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area” sub-forum ?

After all, that is really the cut off. Questions basically ask about either the Seattle/Tacoma area or another part of the state that is a significant distance away.

It is also very common for people to ask about both Seattle and Tacoma and their suburbs in one thread.

Furthermore, where do we make the distinction between what are the suburbs of Tacoma and what are the suburbs of Seattle? It is really one big area.

What’s more, what if people don’t know what King County is as a lot of the questions are from people unfamiliar with the area.

You get my point, LOL. I am content with whatever everyone wants to do, and that includes leaving it all alone.

My suggestion, however, is to have the Washington forum and a “Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area” sub-forum within.

[scirocco22]

The problem with a Seattle/Tacoma metro sub-forum is that it leaves out the southern Snohomish county suburbs like Bothell/Mill Creek, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Lake Stevens, etc., etc.

That's why if we were to suggest that, I'd probably want it to include Snohomish County also ...again, all three counties.

Just recently, they did that over in the Utah forum. Of course, they never had a separate SLC forum to begin with but when they did create the sub-forum, it included several counties in the Wasatch Front including Salt Lake City proper. That's probably more the way we should go in Washington.

...or just leave things the way they are. That's why I haven't mentioned anything up to now. I'm not quite sure what would be the most logical way to go.

--'rocco

[brightcopperkettles]

With Puget Sound Naval Shipyard the largest employer in Kitsap and so many people in the navy being stationed here, I think a lot of people would benefit from being able to access information about Kitsap County.

[gallo]

Originally Posted by scirocco22

The problem with a Seattle/Tacoma metro sub-forum is that it leaves out the southern Snohomish county suburbs like Bothell/Mill Creek, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Lake Stevens, etc., etc.

That's why if we were to suggest that, I'd probably want it to include Snohomish County also ...again, all three counties.

‘rocco, I think you are making this too complicated. I have never heard anyone leave out the areas you mention when talking about metro Seattle/Tacoma. They are always included.

Again, I think most people actually consider Snohomish County as the metro Seattle/Tacoma area. And Kitsap County should be included too.

This is what I originally meant when I said “Seattle/Tacoma Metropolitan Area” I meant all of King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties. This is what people across the region and throughout the U.S. commonly refer to and recognize as the greater Seattle area.

I actually think the census also defines metro Seattle as King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties also.

When I lived in Chicago, I was talking to a lady and she said a few times that her son and daughter-in-law lived in Seattle. When I finally asked her where in Seattle she said they lived in Silverdale. So, again, I think metro Seattle is really defined as King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap. And all four need to be included or people will be confused. I mean Bainbridge and over there really are the western suburbs Seattle. And Everett, Mill Creek, Bothell and such are the northern suburbs of Seattle.

If we include this chunk it also puts a pretty good distance between any other cites/areas and will not confuse people. What’s the closet city to those four counties? Centralia? Bellingham? Port Townsend? People don’t consider those as metro Seattle/Tacoma. Neither does the census (I am pretty sure, anyways).

I know we don’t want to be constantly bugging the admins, but it can always be changed back if it doesn’t work well.

I think by including those counties in a sub-forum it solidifies the distinction between the Puget Sound/Seattle/Tacoma area and the rest of Washington State, which is what this forum needs.

Again, it’s your call since you are the mod of the forum. I think it’s a good idea, but if we don’t go with it’s OK, I am sure others feel that way too, or plain old don't care at all.

What does everyone think?

[gallo]

Originally Posted by brightcopperkettles

With Puget Sound Naval Shipyard the largest employer in Kitsap and so many people in the navy being stationed here, I think a lot of people would benefit from being able to access information about Kitsap County.

Agreed brightcopperkettles!

Just posted that.