The Discussion Forums future

I voted to leave them where they are.

I do agree though that the traffic patterns might be higher if the forums themselves were more generalized. just have a snake forum, a lizad forum, etc. once it becomes apparent that the arboreal keepers want a forum of their own, they will ask for one and expansion may be attempted. I saw them fine, even though they are at the bottom of the page.

I also agree that this site doesn't attract the "newbies" that it needs to make some of the forums necessary. Whether it be because of the more specific or technical discussions that occur, or due to lack of advertising I don't know.

I do know that I like the format of this message board much better than that of kingsnake. It's prettier, easier on the eyes, and more convenient than only being able to view one message in a thread at a time, then have to reload the screen to get to the next message......

Anyway.....keep the forums, but maybe "downsize" them a bit

Thanks
Todd Evans

I voted to leave them also...I think it just needs more attention from all us regulars to try to frequent them more and offer advice and help where and when we can. I am certainly going to take the time to peruse them more than I have been.

Shhesh, I'm all shy I've never posted before....I voted to leave them on. That's because although I love snakes and would love to own one, I am unfortunately not in a position to get one yet. I'm not prepared to get one until I'm sure I can provide for a snake's entire lifetime, and living in rented accomodation as I am this is not a definate as so many places won't let you have so much as a gerbil never mind a reptile! But still one day....Anyhow, until I finally can, I tend to live vicariously through you folks. I lurk on lists and learn through your posts. The BOI gives me a chance to learn what to look out for when I do get a chance to purchase that snake, but the discussion forums (and I fervently wish they did get more use here) allow me to learn more about snake species and their care. I consider it a way of learning and keeping my interest fresh and sparky - if it is possible to be sparky after you have just finished moving into a new place. If I see another box I'll scream...

Anyhow's sorry for the long waffle and for any wierd spelling - I'm from the UK (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). I just wanted to give my little old opinion. I will now vanish back into the obscurity of lurkdom

Yvonne Stubbington

The only people I could see not wanting this here are the people that are doing bad business and don't want others to know what they are all about !!!

I know if I had known this was here sooner - I would have searched through experiences of others before buying from anyone.

However, this discussion group needs to be more visable without having to scroll down the page to find it. Now that I know it's here, I view through it daily to see how transactions have been handled, corrected or ignored.

I think it definitely gives heads up to buyers or sellers.

Beth Danielson

Rich, I think one of the main reasons they aren't being used is the forum format. Look at the format Kingsnake.com and FieldHerpers.com use. People can reply to whichever post they want rather than a single reply after reply after reply in which you can not choose which reply you'd like to respond to.. Here you have to read through basically every reply in a post. And if it continues from page to page, it gets rather tedious and most people would rather not bother with that. Change it so that people can reply to whatever they like and I think you might see more usage.

I would have voted in the poll but this option was not available.

I say leave them or downsize the ones you feel are not needed. Even though I do not post much I tend to read alot. If they are not slowing down the board or taking up space you need I say leave them.

Sean - in reference the the branching structure of some of the earlier generation styles of message board systems, the original BOI I created was actually in that sort of styling. And it quickly became unmanageable and proved to be unsuitable for what I had envisioned. While a thread of 20 or less messages may work out fine, once the number of message got over that number, and was branching off into 15 different subthreads, no one would ever want to have to jump from each subthread to read the continuation of that section.

Imagine some of the larger threads here with 100+ messages in them, and the number of subthreads and subsubthreads that would have resulted. It would be an impossible task for someone wanting to read EVERYTHING about the topic of that thread to follow them all.

I suppose this same logic applies to what I want the discussion forums themselves to provide for people. It is very easy to cut and paste text from someone's earlier post and quote it within a followup message within the same thread. To date, I have not heard of anyone getting overly confused with this method of replying to someone within a thread.

I have run several subthreading message boards and just do not like that format. The search function fails miserably trying to provide a continuous thread when the keyword hit is deep within a subthread somewhere. Someone new coming to he site seeing a thread with dozens of subthreads is far less likely to read all of the messages than if the thread is in a single chronological linear thread. Right now on the front page of the BOI there are two threads with over 400 messages posted in them. Imagine how they would be with subthreading? Reading a long continuous linear thread may be tedious, but trying to read 400 messages that would be scattered over 50 or more subthreads would be pretty nearly impossible to do without losing your mind.

It was no accident that I chose this style of message board.

But maybe this is just my own personal preference blinding me to what everyone else would rather have.

Any other opinions?

Leave it alone,,, It works great,,,,
the format is easy to follow,
and seems to be more intuitive than the branching threads( to me anyway) and very easy to find the topic you have been following if you "skip it" for a few days,,,

this is a great site,,, with a wealth of info,,, more and more exposure will come in time,,, and more and more members will post,,,
I really hate to say it! But i think to some degree Seamus is right,,, this site maybe more about the real "in depth" side of keeping and the propogation of the reptiles,,, Here you find good discusions on genetics, advanced species,and more of "has anyone ever seen this? type of questions. More advanced questions and to some degree very well thought out answers from some of the breeders with a lot of experience.that is the reason i keep coming back. To me this is more of a "college level" sight than a site catering to "newbies". all are of course welcome here, and everyone has something to add to the "pot" but why try and be something that is already out there,,, how many times can you really answer the question of what temp a ball python should be kept..? OR what substrate is best for a bearded dragon?
those questions are asked over and over and over on one of the other sights,, and here there are some questions posed that are really food for thought,, and something to get the old brain working.... I think as more people find this site, they will come to enjoy and use the site, and find a "home" in the herp world.

I agree, I like the site just the way it is.
But I also think that there is something missing. Something either not being seen or just keeping people from posting in those other threads. Perhaps we as a whole should start out, and show that those threads are not the BOI, a kinder, gentler, more fun side of this site, as well as informative.
I dont know, just a thought.

Rich, From your perspective, I can completely understand why you chose the format you did. It makes alot of sense. I personally have no problem with the style of the forums here. But I remember when Kingsnake.com proposed changing their forums format, alot of people voiced their opinions and wanted the style to be kept the way it always has been. That is their preference so I thought I'd mention that here. Anyway, I'm really not sure why those discussion forums don't get more traffic. I posted a few things on them a while back and some posts did not get a single response. Maybe I should give it a try again. Anyone interested in checking out some Kingsnake photos, I'll be posting them on the King Snakes Discussion Forums tonite. Let me know what you think.