Splitsville!

Excellent idea.

I guess I am the only one voting no. I think it is fine, since there are not a huge amount of postings. If there were more posts, maybe so.

Perhaps those looking for "South America" don't know that "Latin America" includes both Central & South America.

These forums are so much more user friendly than your competitors.

Keep up the good work.

MY

I'm OK either way. This isn't so active a forum that it's hard to catch up every few days, so I haven't minded the mix even though, at this point, I'm only actively interested in Central America.

Either way, I hope the new format is mainly the same but shows the country plainly. It's really irritating how many posts have ambiguous subjects like "How does this itinerary look?" and "Here's my travelogue?". I have to either ignore it assuming it's Argentina or Costa Rica, or open it to see what country they're talking about in case it's one I'm interested in.

I think it is a good idea.

Please don't change too much with the forums!! I agree that the format right now is the most user-friendly around. I do think that a private message function like TripAdvisor has would be good, as would be improving the search function. For example, I cannot find my trip reports in the European section that I did last year, although I've tried every which way to find them!

Good point about the search function. I often search using key words or even exact title name and nothing comes up. Would love it if that could be improved; everything else is great.

Yes, split them! One of the frustrations with so many countries in the same forum is that people often neglect to put the country in their title... so if you're looking at the entire LA board, you have to click on the post to find out the country. That issue will remain, but splitting the boards will help.

(And I agree with Todd - LOVE the format of the Fodor's boards. Much better than any of the others I look at... on an occasional basis.)
Karen

Thanks for the feedback. We're excited about the uprgade; it should improve the search dramatically.

Skatedancer, do you recall about when you might have written those reports? What countries were they for?

We definitely want to add direct messaging but that feature won't be a part of our initial roll-out.

The forum will still have the same look (threads on the side, etc.) but the various sub-categories (in Latin America's case, countries) will be pulled out more; their current position nestled within search is confusing, especially for newbies.

We're also hoping to add a trip report tag so that you can flag your reports---this way we'll have the ability to group all Chile trip reports, etc.

I'm really excited about the changes we're working on; as we come closer to launch date I'll be sure to keep you informed. Thanks for giving me the quick feedback regarding the Latin America forum specifically. You can reach me anytime with any suggestions or comments at [email protected].

Thanks-
Katie

DO IT!

Me too- this is a great idea.

Katie, can I suggest creating a POLAR forum at the same time, for threads about Arctic and Antarctic trips?

At the moment Antarctic ones tend to get lost in this forum, though some may be posted in Australia forum (since there are itineraries from Argentina and New Zealand) and, likewise, the Arctic ones tend to get lost in the boards for the various departure countries.

Would be great to have a separate POLES or POLAR TRAVEL forum, even though it wouldn't be huge.

Good idea, Kavey!

I vote *NO*!!!

Reasoning... This forum gets so little traffic anyways, if you dilute the topics even further... there will be hardly any news posts here each day!

On a busy forum it might be OK to subdivide, but here I predict it will be the kiss of death. There's so few postings, it's certainly easy enough to zip thru Mexico, Central, and South American destinations within the same forum.

Look at what happened to "Smart Tips" if you don't believe me.

Everyone please take a moment and check the dates on posts here, before you cast your vote.

Some days the Latin America branch doesn't even get 10 entries total! Hardly a need to break it down further.

That said... I've got no issues if you want to change the NAME of the forum so it is more clear that it includes Mexico/Central/South America.

suze, that was my first reaction too. This board is not nearly as busy as the Europe board which is the other one I visit frequently. I've seen this board get so much more traffic with each month it seems. When I went to SA 4 years ago, there were very few posters and it never helped much with trips to CA or Mexico just a few years back esp after one poster left who was helpful with Mexico.

But as I thought about it, I actually came to the opposite conclusion from u and thought it might get more traffic focused on SA or CA etc if split. For newbies it might be easier to find what they are looking for with separate forums. Probably hard to judge...

Nope, sorry, I don't believe that it IS hard to judge. Go take a look at Trip Advisor or Frommer's who ARE already broken down into very small forums. Or past experiments here at Fodor's where they've deleted popular boards, combined them, or otherwise broken things up. Except for the invention of the Lounge, none of these have ever worked here before.

I don't see why a forum that gets barely 10 posts a day (this is hardly an exaggeration most days) should be divided into two parts. What? So each now gets 4-5 posts per day? How is that good for anyone?

Suze: TA's Argentina forum has a lot of volume.

My vote is to break it down and my wish is: let's grow!!!

When I first started posting in the Africa forum it was really quiet. The daily post count was extremely low. BUT traffic has grown and it's now a fantastic resource.

Although it will seem quiet at first, I think having a tighter focus will prove attractive in the long run.

Although we are outnumbered, I agree with you Suze.

Why fix something that isn't broken. As far as making it easier for newbies, I think it is pretty simple as it is.

MY