Could/should the forum be split into more sub-sections?

[mobile]

I have a keen interest in Cephalotus and Heliamphora but have no interest in Sarracenia and Darlingtonia. On other CP forums I subscribe to the Cephalotus and Heliamphora forums, so that I get notification of new threads but by grouping Cephalotus, Heliamphora, Sarracenia and Darlingtonia together in one 'Pitcher Plants' forum I am unable to do this here. Given this grouping philosophy, shouldn't VFT be grouped with Utricularia and Aldrovanda, as they are all 'Spring Traps'?

Is it possible to split these into there own sub-section and if so would this be useful to other forum members?

 

[Taliesin-DS]

i'd like that.

 

[Not a Number]

The splits probably have more to do with the number of posts that a genus generates more than simple taxonomy. If a taxon or group of taxa does not generate enough posting traffic it's not worth the additional administration overhead. It would also be a very time consuming task for the admin and mods to have to go through every thread and move them to new sub-forums.

Utricularia are aquatic, even the terrestrials are semi-aquatic which is why they are grouped with Aldrovanda and Genlisea. Besides, Dionaea alone generates 3 times as many posts as the others named above.

 

[mobile]

The splits probably have more to do with the number of posts that a genus generates more than simple taxonomy. If a taxon or group of taxa does not generate enough posting traffic it's not worth the additional administration overhead. It would also be a very time consuming task for the admin and mods to have to go through every thread and move them to new sub-forums.

Utricularia are aquatic, even the terrestrials are semi-aquatic which is why they are grouped with Aldrovanda and Genlisea. Besides, Dionaea alone generates 3 times as many posts as the others named above.

What would the administrative overheads be? I would not suggest splitting the existing threads across any newly created forums, rather create the extra forums and from there on new threads are added to the appropriate one. I'm not suggesting that VFT should be grouped with Untricularia and Aldrovanda, I was merely using it as an analogy of what we have with the 'Pitcher Plants' forum. Arguably, by not splitting into smaller groups, the forum uses more bandwidth, as anyone who is interested in Cephalotus for example might subscribe to the 'Pitcher Plants' forum and receive notifications of threads for species that they are not interested in. Judging by the number of Cephalotus related threads I would have thought there was enough interest in this species to justify a seperate forum, the same may be true of Heliamphora too.

 

[SDCPs]

What would the administrative overheads be? I would not suggest splitting the existing threads across any newly created forums, rather create the extra forums and from there on new threads are added to the appropriate one. I'm not suggesting that VFT should be grouped with Untricularia and Aldrovanda, I was merely using it as an analogy of what we have with the 'Pitcher Plants' forum. Arguably, by not splitting into smaller groups, the forum uses more bandwidth, as anyone who is interested in Cephalotus for example might subscribe to the 'Pitcher Plants' forum and receive notifications of threads for species that they are not interested in. Judging by the number of Cephalotus related threads I would have thought there was enough interest in this species to justify a seperate forum, the same may be true of Heliamphora too.

I think that a split of this sort would be benificial also...but I've learned to live with it. There are some forums that have subforums on every genus...we don't want to do that!

You need to acquire an interest in sarracenia and darlingtonia. These are some of the most marvelous CPs. Do they not grow well in your location?

 

[Taliesin-DS]

One reason id like it split is bec it would make it much easier to find general stuff about heliamphore.
If i want to just browse topics about it and read about ppls experience now i have to get lucky the good topics actually have "heliamphora" spelled out in them and not some subspecies name.

 

[lizasaur]

I'd like this, but NAN's guess also makes alot of sense.
Although, to be honest, I never understood why Cephs were in with Sarrs, and not Nepenthes if there is going to be grouping.

 

[Taliesin-DS]

Yeah, while others even have 2 forums! (broms)

 

[RL7836]

My preference to to leave the grouping alone. I peruse all of the major forums and find that I tend to spend the most time on Terra - it seems to have more traffic than the others. I could probably check Aidan's forum once per month & not miss much. On CPUK, I have to make 2 clicks to get into the subforums (ie: Nepenthes) and then find there were no new posts - so I wasted my time. While they have some great growers with a lot of knowledge & cool plants, they tend not to post a lot (especially since Aidan left). ICPS is a bit better in that there are no subforums so you can check the last post date but it's still a pain to have to click on every single group. I find that I spend less time there just because it's tedious to keep opening groups. On Terra, it's just much easier to navigate & find posts that interest me....

Otoh, I understand your frustration with wading through posts that amount to 'noise' without any easy way to filter it ...

 

[Taliesin-DS]

I agree with that too many forums dont work.
I've seen a lot of forums with interesting subjects but a ton of subboards with 2-3 topics each.
That doesnt look inviting to me.

 

[pappydew]

You can subscribe to specific threads as well but it doesn't help you to find new posts.

 

[mobile]

My preference to to leave the grouping alone. I peruse all of the major forums and find that I tend to spend the most time on Terra - it seems to have more traffic than the others. I could probably check Aidan's forum once per month & not miss much. On CPUK, I have to make 2 clicks to get into the subforums (ie: Nepenthes) and then find there were no new posts - so I wasted my time. While they have some great growers with a lot of knowledge & cool plants, they tend not to post a lot (especially since Aidan left). ICPS is a bit better in that there are no subforums so you can check the last post date but it's still a pain to have to click on every single group. I find that I spend less time there just because it's tedious to keep opening groups. On Terra, it's just much easier to navigate & find posts that interest me....

Otoh, I understand your frustration with wading through posts that amount to 'noise' without any easy way to filter it ...

I am an active member of CPUK forums and subscribe to the Cephalotus and Heliamphora forums there (I have 1,700 posts currently) . I regularly receive emails about new posts in CPUK forums and often reply to them. Unfortunately this is not possible on Terraforums and I tend to post much less on here because I miss topics that would be of interest to me.

As an aside, CPUK forums seems to be more popular with Europeans and Terraforums with Americans. I think the divide is more to do with locale than number/quality of posts. It also only takes one click to reach the Nepenthes forums, click on the 'Subforums: Nepenthes' link under the 'Pitcher Plants' link.

 

[Taliesin-DS]

I'm a european and i like TF more.
The reason i like TF more is bec it's way more active here, TF has a chatbox and most "local" stuff on CPUK is about the UK afaik, and i dont live there

 

[mobile]

Lets not let this become a debate between which is the best forum... back to topic.

 

[RL7836]

As an aside, CPUK forums seems to be more popular with Europeans and Terraforums with Americans. I think the divide is more to do with locale than number/quality of posts.

I agree that my rationale may not the same as other users. I spend much less time on CPUK than in the past and it comes down to the forum layout & number of posts.

It also only takes one click to reach the Nepenthes forums, click on the 'Subforums: Nepenthes' link under the 'Pitcher Plants' link.

Yeah - I should have looked before I posted. The issue is that I must click on each subforum to see if there is a new post (or is there a better way?). Since the post volume is so low, it's frequently a waste of time to keep clicking on subforums...

 

[mobile]

I really don't want this thread to become a comparison between different CP forums. I am simply looking for a solution of being notified of new Cephalotus and Heliamphora threads, without getting loads of notifications about species I am not interested in. The only way I know of doing this is if there were species sub-forums.

 

[xvart]

If tagging was used more and vBulletin supported a better tagging search this problem would really be solved.

xvart.

 

[Wolfn]

I would like a seperate section for Cephalotus and Heliamphora too. For example, I see someone post a thread saying "New pictures" and I click on it expecting to see Heliamphora or colorful Cephalotus, but instead they are Sarracenia hybrids or something. Personally, I'm not interested in Sarracenia hybrids and this would clean this up a bit

 

[Exo]

I also think that Cephalotus and Heliamphora should have thier own sections.

 

[Brokken]

I would also throw in my two cents regarding this topic: I too would like to see the forums broken down into individual families - similar to what ICPS does.