Should the Europe Forum be divided up?
 

Looking at the Europe Forum and the huge number of great posts; made me wonder whether it should be split into either countries or regions along perhaps with a general all countries touring section.
I know its full searchable at the moment but It may help to keep a particular question nearer the top rather than 3 pages away the day after it was posted.
Anyone have any thoughts on the idea?

Muck

Been done; total failure. It seems that what makes this place as vibrant as it is, is the cross-fertilisation.

And, of course, lots of Americans, in particular, are doing 2 or 3 countires and don't want to be making 2 or 3 posts

It's very possible it wouldn't work here at Fodors but I beleive if you separated out a Italy and France board that would take half the posts away :)

But actually rather than separate it around country, how about subjects ? Something like, hotel, iternary (sp?), transportation and general f. inst.

I also think it can get a bit messy here.

Cobos

Hi Mucky,

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

You can limit your search to a particular country using the top box. So it is sort of split up. Most of us just choose not to do that.

Also, when you post a new message, it gives you the option to select your country, so that if others are already reading only about 1 country, your post will show up there.

So, use the search function, and then you can get what you want while others can read all of the Europe posts. Part of the good thing about this board is that a bunch of people have been all over Europe, or live there, so they can give advice on many countries.

Happy travels,
Karen

May I second that? It only takes a second to click on your country at the top right, and voila, there's your sorted list. When I stroll through the general Europe list, I find all sorts of interesting topics that I never would have found in a narrower format. Love it. J.

It seems to me that searching for information would become more difficult, especially when a question or an answer includes more than one country: "Cheap airfares from Paris to Rome?" or "What to see on the way from Vienna to Venice?"

Thanks for your replies, I totally agree with you all that the site is fully searchable,and a great site it is! but I noticed that particularly on the Europe site, posts that are less than a day old are normally relegated to 2nd 3rd or even 4th page, this minimises the chances of people seeing the question thus minimising the amount of activity and replies on that particular post.
Lets face it how many of us read to the 3rd or 4th page ?
Therefore I know that if we are looking for information from previous posts about a subject then we will search, but if the post is not immediately visible people won't necessarily add their comments.
I am a great believer in 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' however I am not against improving things.
But if its been tried and failed in the past, then thats fine.
Thanks for your comments

Muck

It's one of those 'to them that hath shall be given, to them that hath not shall be taken away' situations. People post here precisely because it is a busy board.

I enjoy the scrolling past posts that I would not usually be interested in. Sometimes I learn something new or just get a laugh out of a general post.
It might get boring if there were all one country or topic threads.
Although in the US forums, Hawaii seems to deserve its own forum :)

I don't know about anyone else, but I read/scroll as far back as where I left off last (ie. by the date/time). The only exception is if I've been away too long and it would take 'forever'...

I wouldn't like to see the forum split up by country, but would welcome a separate section for "accommodations" in all European countries. I just scrolled the first 50 and eight were questions about hotels, B&Bs, etc. I agree with Mucky that it's unfortunate that posts sink so fast and honestly don't know if moving hotel questions to its own board would help, but I personally would love to see that happen.

Mucky, I'm a rabid Fodorite who quickly scans all the titles on the left-hand side every day, if at all possible. My strategy is to go back as far as necessary to catch the titles that have been posted from midnight to midnight. Sometimes this is three pages back. I've been doing this for years! So there's at least one of us, and I suspect others do the same.

I think Elaine has it right--it'd be more difficult to find information about traveling through the countries of Europe if the boards were separated. It was tried for a short time a few years ago and quickly reverted to the current process. I do agree about separating Hawaii, though, on the US board. That seems like a natural split.

Travelnut & Betsy,

Glad I'm not the only one. I also scan back as far as the last thread that I read the previous day. I think it's truly an addiction....ha.

Muck,

In a way, Im with you. It seems like a vast majority of the posts are Italy . . . and next France. I suppose the only way it would work to split this site would be to have an "Italy Only" site which would be fine with me, but I think there'd be lots of pushback on that idea.

The ability to search on your own name makes it easier than ever to have a "milepost" as to when you last reviewed the forum. I read back to qwhere I was when I last visited (which is often synonymous with when I last posted) everytime I come here (except when traveling - - just scan one page or two at most this last trip, and usually didn't post).

Strongly in favor of always keeping it all together.

Best wishes,

Rex

Part of why I like this BB is that it *is* so busy. Too many people travel numerous countries in one trip, to split the board wouldn't make sense.

Also I read for entertainment, not just when I am planning a trip. And yes, I do read more than just the first pages.

ttt

Mucky, when you get your job at Fodors then you can further make this board BUSY with these travel-related questions...otherwise ask about what to wear or start a crossword puzzle string.

Let's not mess with success.

I hardly ever ask a question and make only occasional comments, but I certainly read everything and feel that I know most of you!

And our trips are much better because of the information obtained here (even though we frequently ignore the conventional wisdom and travel in a very un-Fodorite style!)

Anyway, I like reading about all of Europe.

Byrd

ok JonJon,
I will try to remember...lol

;-)

Muck

NO! It was done in the past, and was awful.

Another vote for separating Hawaii. There are a significant number of posts about it only, and not many people tie it in with other states in one visit. ((C))

Another vote against - I usually post more on the Asia board since I live in China, and it's sloooooooooooow! The Europe board is much more fun because it moves so fast. I think the benefits and ease of searching & bumping posts back up if they've disappeared too quickly to get many responses outweigh the many drawbacks there would be to splitting them.

IF (that's a big IF) a change HAD to be made, wouldn't the solution be to simply expand the message list from 50 to say, 100, or 200? It's text only, so it wouldn't take more than a pico-second more to load.
I echo all previous posts re "cross-fertilization", "if it aint broke", etc. If it changed to be more segmented like Frommers or Lonely Planets, would it be as popular as Fodors?

Another vote for keeping things together on the EUROPE board.

Threads on the US board sink just as quickly as on the Europe board, should we have to divide up the US by states? Guess this makes me against having a separate Hawaii forum.

I love scrolling down the Europe forum messages and getting ideas for places I haven't been. Would lose that ability if the whole forum were split up. Besides, would have missed that three word game that Betsy started - sooo much fun! :)

I say keep it all one board, there are too many "general" conversations that branch off here in this forum.