Hey Fodorites,

I'm thinking that a forum for AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST is just too large a region. Having questions about Israel, Egypt, Kenya, Zambia, etc just seems to bring confusion.

Do you think there's any way the FODOR moderator would consider making an East Africa forum? Or a Southern Africa forum?

Thoughts?

I think there are so many questions that apply to safaris in general that it would be a shame to separate Southern Africa and East Africa. Furthermore, I don't think there is ENOUGH activity on Northern Africa and the Middle East for it to justify its own forum.

Increasingly, there are more and more of us who have experienced both East Africa and Southern Africa and are passionate about both places. Although I have taken most of my trips to Southern Africa, I am dying to return to Tanzania for a repeat of the Ndutu area and places such as Mahale, Katavi, Ruaha and Selous.

Potentially there would be too many forums if they were separated:

1. Southern Africa
2. East Africa
3. North Africa & Middle East
4. West Africa

If you take a look at the USA or Europe forums, you will see that the number of threads in this forum pales by comparison, so it is really not that bad.

I would suggest separate middle east and north africa from the rest of Africa. But beggars can't be choosers. Thanks Fodors for providing us with what we have!

I wouldn't want separate East and Southern Africa forums. I agree with Rocco that there's a lot of general information that's shared that applies to both areas.

Agree with Rocco also.......however, i'm irate at times......more out of frustration.... when occasionally there are lots of threads on morrocco or israel or something like that.

Hari

Why not separate Africa from The Middle East? Okay - some confusion on Egypt... but it seems like it's the most obvious and identifiable split.

It seems like there is an opportunity given the differences in geography/culture.

lovetodiscover,

Also some confusion on Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, all North African countries like Egypt with similar cultures.

If such a suggestion were ever put to the vote, not that it's likely, I'd also vote against separation of the forum into regional areas.

Whilst there are occasionally threads on countries that don't interest me I find it easy to skip them - they certainly don't interfere with my enjoyment of the board nor my ability to find and access the threads that do interest me.

Also, I agree that threads are often cross-region in topic.

Not to mention the threads by people who haven't yet decided just where to visit or are thinking of doing an overland trip covering multiple areas!

I remember back when I first started using the internet to talk travel - back in the days when there really weren't many proper websites at all let alone any with web-based discussion boards like this - I participated in a newsgroup discussion group instead called alt.travel. I remember the proposals and votes on whether to split that down into broad regions (Europe, Africa, North America, South America and so on) which passed, went ahead and worked reasonably well but I also remember subsequent splits into much smaller areas. This definitely didn't work in my opinion as people didn't know where their thread really fit, many either duplicated their post across multiple areas or lost out on advice by restricting to just one. The community, advice and activity was just too split out and momentum was lost. Of course, the latter period coincided with an increase in the number of useful websites and web-based discussion fora too so that had an impact.

And I've seen similar problems on web based sites too.

I think, for this board, it works best to leave it as is.

That's my tuppence anyways.

I pretty much agree with Kavey in that N.Africa is part of Africa after all, so why segregate. I actually peruse over there frequently and find that lots of people do indeed make stop overs thruout all parts of Africa.

Also, I don't think a N. African forum would garner enough activity to support it.
My thoughts;
Sherry

Okay, maybe it was a bad idea... i was just trying to simplify.

Perhaps they could separate Middle East and Africa... but then maybe it doesn't really matter at all...

Not a bad idea... I think most of us understand why one might suggest it. But I also favor leaving it the way it is.

My tuppence, also!

If it is done I suggest "Northern Africa & the Mideast" and "Subsaharan Africa."

ut it doesn't bother me anymore once I started typing in "Egypt" to the box. That way I get the posts from people who forget to put their posts in "Egypt" and put them, instead, in the general "Africa & the MiddleEast forum.

No, not a bad idea and I think it's always good to discuss ideas openly anyway! Just happen not to agree with this one but still glad you opened it up for discussion - it's always nice to see opinions on board issues from other posters!

If the board is split it does seem "Northern Africa & the Mideast" and "Subsaharan Africa" are logical categories. "East Africa" seems too specific.

I think this proposed split would be more help to those new to the board. The traffic for each area being together does not bother me at all.

I agree with leaving it as it is. Though I have no desire to travel to Oman, Dubai or Morroco, once I've read all the "Africa" threads, I do read those also, some very interesting posts and reports.