New board

[kwormann]

Just thought it would be fun to be the first poster here...;)

SURELY I can think of SOMETHING off topic to write about:p

[daner94]

I thought we had a poll about this, about wanting to separate the boards. I thought the overwhelming response was to leave it as it was.

Is this new board because we were swamping the other one with non food topics? Or some technical thing?

Just curious.

Dana :)

[Maelynn Cheung]

Actually we did receive a lot of comments about off topic threads. And there was some mention of it in the thread itself. We have no plans to break up the food board into more granular topics however.

Because we received many emails on the topic, and by looking at the boards from a "newbie's" point of view - going to the Great Food board should be about what you would expect - food.

If the thread has to do with food or cooking, it will stay in the Great Food board. If it has to do with a healthier lifestyle, it will stay in the Healthy Living board.

But, if it has nothing to do with any of those things but is just a fun comment, interesting question or even a personal concern, then we now have a place for it. Now "Other Stuff" is what it says it is and "Great Food" is as well.

We welcome you comments on this addition. That's what our community is all about here.

Thanks for the question!

Maelynn :)

[mb]

hmmmm..... i don't know if i like this system or not. i'm not a huge fan of 'change' anyhow :rolleyes:, but i think i like seeing the funny and interesting OT threads on the food board. it kinda breaks things up a little and provides a little fun here and there. splitting it up makes the food board seem so much more 'serious'. maybe it will just take some getting used to? :(

[DmOrtega]

Great idea. I find it very easy to keep track of all of boards by clicking on "View Today's Active Threads". This keeps me up to date on all of the conversations going on.

[Beth Y]

Well, as I voted in the poll, which I also thought was overwhelmingly against splitting the boards, I think this stinks. Now, you have to check two boards, which means most people won't check this board, which means that we will lose much of the interesting, non-food info about people. Think how little people initially, and still, check the Healthy Living Board! So, much for community. I don't see what the complaint is. People were rarely posting off-topic stuff without noting it was off-topic. If people are only interested in food, they can just no open it!

[SandyM]

I agree 100%, Beth. If the topic doesn't knock me out, I bypass it.

[LGBurns]

Y'know I'm starting to be won over to the idea of having several more forums for one very important reason (IMO) -- threads get buried way too fast on the Great Food board right now. Basically, if no one responds to a thread within the first 1-2 hours after it is posted it starts to get lost in the 2nd or 3rd page of that day's posts. Some really interesting threads have only had 2 or 3 responses because they got buried so quickly. Hopefully, if more OT threads get posted here (and eventually, maybe travel posts on a travel thread) then we can actually have more feedback on each individual thread. Personally, I check all three (now) forums every time I come on line. I don't find it particularly difficult to switch between forums.

[Beth]

Originally posted by DmOrtega
Great idea. I find it very easy to keep track of all of boards by clicking on "View Today's Active Threads". This keeps me up to date on all of the conversations going on.

Help me if I'm wrong, but I'm not finding that option any longer. It might be a better way to deal with the growing number of boards, but it seems to have dissapeared.

I agree with LGburns that many threads are being too quickly buried, and I would also agree that some of the threads are outide our general interests and spreading further, but I also agree that many of the OT threads are part of the life of the board, giving it that kitchen table quality. Maybe we're getting too big for that, but it has sometimes been the OT threads that have held my interest enough to keep coming back while the food threads all seemed to be repeats of questions asked and answered many times over.

[lindrusso]

I like the idea of a separate board as well. Back when this group was much smaller, it was easy to have everything on one board. But when you miss a day or two (never mind a week), it's nice to have things in smaller categories so you can go right to what you're interested in.

Just like anything else, it can be easy once you get used to doing it. They make it very easy to go back and forth between the boards, so it really isn't any harder than clicking on a new thread.

Think of it this way - when you've read everything on the Good Food board and are just dying for a reason to "waste" some more time, you might be pleasantly surprised to remember that there's a whole new board waiting to be explored! :)

[Gail]

QUESTION!! (raising hand, waving it around frantically)

Does this mean you're going to kidnap OT threads which continue to be posted on "Great Foods" and drag them over here?

COMMENT:

You may want to title the annoucement something a bit more definitive than "New board." As it stands right now, people are probably going to ignore it, assuming it pertains to our recent software change.

[BosunsWife]

I may be in the minority here, but I like this idea. I visit a couple of other BB's and they have a similar set up. You can visit the areas that you like and not visit the ones you don't.

I spend a lot of time over in Healthy Living also so it won't be much of a change to me.

I agree that things get buried. After I discovered that the site was back up here (it took me a while because my bookmark was telling me it was still down), I didn't even bother going back through all the old posts because it would have taken FOREVER!

[Maelynn Cheung]

Originally posted by Gail
COMMENT:

You may want to title the annoucement something a bit more definitive than "New board." As it stands right now, people are probably going to ignore it, assuming it pertains to our recent software change.

Good thought Gail. Thanks.

[Maelynn Cheung]

Originally posted by Beth
Help me if I'm wrong, but I'm not finding that option any longer. It might be a better way to deal with the growing number of boards, but it seems to have dissapeared.

When you aren't logged in the option appears as "View Active Threads" and after you are logged on, it appears as "View New Posts" in the top right corner.

[freckles]

I have to say I agree with some of the others that occasional off-topic threads should be allowed in the food board as a respite from the food discussions - I generally don't look at any other board, just the one, and I usually don't go past the first page, so I probably won't bother to look in the OT board. (I made a point of it this time but probably won't be back.) Regarding the problem of threads getting lost because they quickly get buried (are no longer on the first page), would it be possible to make the first page longer (more posts)? I bet a lot of casual users (like myself) don't even notice there are more pages, or don't bother to look past page 1.

[daner94]

topping....