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Okay, now where in sam hill is the About the Forums thread??? where Robyn's Medicare placement poll is supposed to be? When I google "City Data Forum About the Forums" I get nothing. Then I google "City Data Forum Medicare" and see that it is not its own forum, but numerous threads all mixed in with health insurance and various diseases. I'm starting to think I'm too old for all this confusion and had better find another hobby...
Dear admins: We do know how hard you work but we are old and confused ...and can't see the reason for this change...maybe it will all make sense in a few months.
Last edited by RiverBird; 06-25-2012 at 07:03 PM..
Okay, now where in sam hill is the About the Forums thread??? where Robyn's Medicare placement poll is supposed to be? When I google "City Data Forum About the Forums" I get nothing. Then I google "City Data Forum Medicare" and see that it is not its own forum, but numerous threads all mixed in with health insurance and various diseases. I'm starting to think I'm too old for all this confusion and had better find another hobby...
Dear admins: We do know how hard you work but we are old and confused ...and can't see the reason for this change...maybe it will all make sense in a few months.
Go to the bottom of the General Forums page. In terms of the Health Insurance Subforum, it looks to me that with a few exceptions (moderators?) only the current Retiree subscribers are responding to the Medicare posts. It also occurred to me that every time one of us checks out the new subforum, we add to the "success" of the subforum with each click. Something to think about.
Go to the bottom of the General Forums page. In terms of the Health Insurance Subforum, it looks to me that with a few exceptions (moderators?) only the current Retiree subscribers are responding to the Medicare posts. It also occurred to me that every time one of us checks out the new subforum, we add to the "success" of the subforum with each click. Something to think about.
The way I see it, if we help that forum become a success, they will be more comfortable with letting the topic be discussed here as well.
It is all about SEO (search engine optimization). Key words. A forum's success (in this case, City-Data) is measured not by how many people are posting, but by metrics that "prove" how many "hits" the forum is getting.
So by dividing the forum up into sections with their own key words, and with posts having titles that relate to those keywords, it is more likely search engines, such as google, will pull up those particular posts first. If the topic is buried on a subforum with a different title, i.e. "Retirement," the key words "crawl" will not be as likely to pick up the word "medicare."
That is an over-simplification but that is what it is all about. Advertisers base where to put their media $$$ based on how many hits any given blog, website or forum receives per month, per day, and even per hour (in some cases). More advertisers, more clicks = more revenue.
And that's it - in a nutshell.
Edited to add: Don't be surprised if there are more spin-offs as the metrics are studied over the next year. If other topics seem to be trending (by both Google and C-D's own tracking) there will be more subtopics.
For example, let's say we start discussing SENIOR issues more than RETIREMENT issues. They may very well decide to spin off "SENIORS" as a separate forum. Or SENIOR TRAVEL as a specific subtopic of travel . . . It all depends what trends the searches indicate.
It is all about SEO (search engine optimization). Key words. A forum's success (in this case, City-Data) is measured not by how many people are posting, but by metrics that "prove" how many "hits" the forum is getting.
So by dividing the forum up into sections with their own key words, and with posts having titles that relate to those keywords, it is more likely search engines, such as google, will pull up those particular posts first. If the topic is buried on a subforum with a different title, i.e. "Retirement," the key words "crawl" will not be as likely to pick up the word "medicare."
That is an over-simplification but that is what it is all about. Advertisers base where to put their media $$$ based on how many hits any given blog, website or forum receives per month, per day, and even per hour (in some cases). More advertisers, more clicks = more revenue.
And that's it - in a nutshell.
Edited to add: Don't be surprised if there are more spin-offs as the metrics are studied over the next year. If other topics seem to be trending (by both Google and C-D's own tracking) there will be more subtopics.
For example, let's say we start discussing SENIOR issues more than RETIREMENT issues. They may very well decide to spin off "SENIORS" as a separate forum. Or SENIOR TRAVEL as a specific subtopic of travel . . . It all depends what trends the searches indicate.
Good info - the more we know, the more we know I must have been a PIA as a 2 year old because I always want to know why - I am more apt to accept/follow the rules if I know why (unless the why makes absolutely no sense). We aren't dummies, ya know. Thanks
Good info - the more we know, the more we know I must have been a PIA as a 2 year old because I always want to know why - I am more apt to accept/follow the rules if I know why (unless the why makes absolutely no sense). We aren't dummies, ya know. Thanks
I would suspect you were a delightful and curious 2 y/o, lol. I have had to learn this stuff as part of my business requires it. I still am learning - the internet is constantly evolving - and with it, website management and marketing/advertising.
I don't particularly like that topics are being taken away from the Retirement forum, even tho I understand (from a business and revenue perspective) why it is happening. I like having a "community" of advisors on the Retirement forum. We get to know a bit about each other and the reliability of info that is shared after posting for a while with one another. Also, different folks at different stages of life . . . different locations throughout the country . . . I have so appreciated various perspectives, opinions, and most of all - firsthand experiences that others have shared.
The Retirement forum has been valuable to many discussions hubby and I have (and continue to have). I don't always have much to share, but I sure have learned a lot from others.
I don't particularly like that topics are being taken away from the Retirement forum, even tho I understand (from a business and revenue perspective) why it is happening. I like having a "community" of advisors on the Retirement forum. We get to know a bit about each other and the reliability of info that is shared after posting for a while with one another.
I totally agree with all these thoughts. We really have been hit with it lately--everything practical and useful is taken away but the BS topics (practicing dying, for example) remain. Not only the caregiving threads and the medicare threads but now I see anything on frugality will also be moved.
I'm now afraid to start new threads on anything I really want to know about because it will be moved. Yesterday I wanted to start a thread on retirees traveling together, but decided not to because the point of starting a thread in retirement forum is I wanted to hear feedback from the people who come to this forum. But that thread would have been moved to the travel forum, where I don't trust a lot of the posters. C'est la vie.
Okay, I know my brain doesn't function well all the time, but wasn't this thread allocated to the top with a sticky? Now that it's gotten busier, it seems to have moved down.
Okay, I know my brain doesn't function well all the time, but wasn't this thread allocated to the top with a sticky? Now that it's gotten busier, it seems to have moved down.
You're not imagining things, it was a sticky yesterday and today it's not. And yesterday the sticky for the thread about retiring on a shoestring was removed--so guess that means some other thread will be stickied today. Sad to see that happen to the shoestring thread, that one had been a sticky for years and it was stickied because it was a very helpful thread. I'm also sad that the stickies are being changed like this--don't the mods understand that senior citizens don't like things to be changed all the time? We get used to things being in a certain place, and it's hard on many people our age when you keep messing with it.
BTW I'm annoyed that a helpful sticky was removed so that it could be replaced with a chastising post from a mod who isn't our regular mod. Talk about a waste of a sticky, and it hasn't even had many views. I've been trying to be a good sport about all the recent changes and be supportive, but that sticky is not necessary and it rubs people the wrong way. Hopefully, tomorrow the mod's sticky gets removed and we return to using stickies for useful information--and whatever gets stickied stays stickied for awhile.
I honestly don't understand the need to fiddle so much with this forum. It was thriving just fine as it was. A few changes I can see, a new forum I can support, but enough is enough.
Last edited by Caladium; 06-27-2012 at 09:42 AM..
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...and can't see the reason for this change...maybe it will all make sense in a few months.
I must have been a PIA as a 2 year old because I always want to know why - I am more apt to accept/follow the rules if I know why (unless the why makes absolutely no sense). We aren't dummies, ya know. Thanks
