Changes Are Coming!

[AlanB]

The staff is currently working on plans to add a few new forums, move/rearrange a few forums to new locations, as well as renaming a few. So over the next few days/week, expect that you'll be seeing some changes from time to time as we move things around and add the new forums.

 

[rrdude]

The staff is currently working on plans to add a few new forums, move/rearrange a few forums to new locations, as well as renaming a few. So over the next few days/week, expect that you'll be seeing some changes from time to time as we move things around and add the new forums.

Might I suggest a separate VIA RAIL forum? Right now, I think when members look for, or want to start a thread about Via Rail, I think we need to put it into "Miscellaneous...Something........"

 

[Bob Dylan]

The staff is currently working on plans to add a few new forums, move/rearrange a few forums to new locations, as well as renaming a few. So over the next few days/week, expect that you'll be seeing some changes from time to time as we move things around and add the new forums.

Might I suggest a separate VIA RAIL forum? Right now, I think when members look for, or want to start a thread about Via Rail, I think we need to put it into "Miscellaneous...Something........"

I Second this! Perhaps a VIA/Foriegn Passenger Rail Forum would Work???

 

[Ryan]

There's also a little bit of a hole on where threads to organize mini-meets should go. I put my recent one in Amtrak Rail discussion, but ideally they'd have they're own home. Maybe in the same area as the "Member Trips" (and perhaps with the same restrictions on registered users, but that's a staff decision for you guys to make).

 

[the_traveler]

I agree with Ryan.

As an example, the mini-meet at WAS for NTD is in the "regular" thread. Also I think the CHI and LAX NTD mini-gatherings. I would like to see then as a sub-forum or something on the "Member Trips" thread.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

I don't know fur sure, but I'd guess that there are more things to see in Austin, TX, than bats. Not that there's anything wrong with bats, mind you. The problem we have here is the "one topic per city" limitation, of which Austin's has just been used up by Jim Hudson to advertise bats.

One city per topic would seem to be a more reasonable guideline in these new "What to See, and Where?" forums. One city per topic - as opposed to one topic per city - would also make a lot more sense for places like Los Angeles, where there are so many things to see and do that one topic could hardly do it justice. Also, jamming everything under one Los Angeles topic would force people looking for different types of things to slog through a whole topic packed with stuff that doesn't interest them, because everything in Los Angeles has to be covered by ONE TOPIC.

One the other hand, one topic per city would seem to work just fine for, say, Tuscarora, Nevada, where the probably isn't much to see except the outdated Velveeta over at the Pak & Pay.

EDIT: Okay, Tuscarora, NV is not served by Amtrak. But plug in Wolf Point, MT, or Helper, UT and the result is pretty similar.

 

[AlanB]

The rule is that you are allowed to create one topic per city. This board considers this collection of now 7 posts to be a topic. Please look below to where you can click the controls to move one previous topic or to the next topic. Look on an index page and you'll see that these are called topics. Let's not play semantics please!

 

[AlanB]

On a separate note, let me also say that the new area What to see and Where, will be far more tightly moderated than other areas of the forum. We won't be allowing people to go off on tangents like we allow in other areas. Posts that stray from the topic of the city in which they were posted will either be deleted or moved elsewhere. Posts that are partially on topic and partially diverging, will find the diverging part deleted, leaving only the on topic portion.

The staff is still debating about what to do regarding questions posted in the various topics. However, the current thinking is that questions once answered will be deleted, leaving only the answer so as to keep the topics clean and shorter to read through.

It should also be noted that guests are not allowed to start new topics in the What & Where forums; they can only reply to existing topics. This was done to keep spammers out of the area and reduce the staff's workload, plus past experience has shown that many first time guests just pick any old place to start a topic without regard to whether or not it fits the forum parameters. A guest wishing advice/suggestions on a city that doesn't have an existing topic are welcome to ask their question in a new topic in the general Amtrak forum, and the staff will then move that topic to the correct place within What & Where.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

A guest wishing advice/suggestions on a city that doesn't have an existing topic are welcome to ask their question in a new topic in the general Amtrak forum, and the staff will then move that topic to the correct place within What & Where.

And of course guests all know this instinctively. Clear as mud (no semantics here), and good luck with all THAT.

EDIT: My observations are just that, not complaints. I hope it works smoothly, just kinda doubt it. I expect no impact on me, as I generally do my own tourism research, and there are plenty of folks here ready to fork up info for the lazy.