Separate leopard gecko discussion forum?

Recently I had someone request that I set up a separate leopard gecko discussion forum instead of having that topic matter covered in this more generic "gecko" discussion forum. I used to have it that way a long while back, but when traffic died off for one reason or another, I decided to combine the two to conserve page real estate. It just didn't make any sense to have such light traffic divided over two forums instead of just one.

I've looked over the traffic patterns and I could go either way with this concerning that request. On one hand I don't see all that much of a traffic increase in this one forum to warrant splitting it in two. But on the other hand, maybe if there were a separate leopard gecko forum there would be more traffic interested in posting there. But even the drawback of that is that simply moving the traffic that would normally go here (and still be relatively light) to another forum, really isn't much of a net gain. So I guess the question really boils down to whether or not having a leopard gecko discussion forum separated out from this one would really gain us anything. Do members interested in topics other than leopard geckos find the leopard gecko postings burdensome? And do the members looking for leopard gecko discussion threads find the other types of gecko threads burdensome to them?

So I figured I would solicit feedback to see what you all think with a poll.

Separate Leopard Gecko Discussion Forum along with the generic Gecko Discussion Forum (meaning everything else gecko-wise), or leave it as it is now?

For the sake of simplicity, I am only providing a YES or NO in the poll. A "doesn't matter to me" option would really just equate to a NO anyway.

So, 50 views so far and only four votes? I take it that this means "Meh, who cares either way?"

I was the one no vote, only because I don't think it would really change anything. I don't have the information to back this up, but based on the number of posts generated, I think it would only be a matter of time before the forums are combined again due to lack of interest. I don't see enough posts created that leopard gecko posts are drowning out other gecko posts or vice versa.

I am one that took a look but did not vote. Reason being, you guessed it Rich, I could go either way.
On one hand, it would be really nice to have certain, separate, gecko forums.
On the other hand, as much as I would love to see more activity, I have just not seen a level of activity/interaction that would necessitate a separate forum at this point in time.

Originally Posted by defcon222

I was the one no vote, only because I don't think it would really change anything. I don't have the information to back this up, but based on the number of posts generated, I think it would only be a matter of time before the forums are combined again due to lack of interest. I don't see enough posts created that leopard gecko posts are drowning out other gecko posts or vice versa.

Originally Posted by Pasodama

I am one that took a look but did not vote. Reason being, you guessed it Rich, I could go either way.
On one hand, it would be really nice to have certain, separate, gecko forums.
On the other hand, as much as I would love to see more activity, I have just not seen a level of activity/interaction that would necessitate a separate forum at this point in time.

Based on what I can see, I tend to agree. if the party who asked me about this wants a separate leopard gecko forum, I will have to be shown FIRST that it really warrants it here. When I look at a forum of this nature and can see a month old thread still on the same page, it just doesn't indicate to me that there is a heck of a whole lot of traffic in the forum.

Heck, for that matter, I'm pretty much more inclined to just merge ALL the lizard forums together into just one large "Lizards Discussions" forum, based on the "discussion" based traffic I see here. The discussion forums here on this site just never have done all that well. So certainly the admonition "use it or lose it" definitely does apply here. With little traffic and very few sponsors to any of the discussion forums, where's the incentive to keep them?

So if you all want to KEEP the discussion forums, you need to SHOW me that is the case.

I thought about voting, but decided against it...mainly because it seemed wrong to vote NO ("doesn't really matter to me") when I haven't kept lizards in years.

I think it's ok to have all the geckos lumped together. It's easy enough to use the search feature to just pull up info on leopards if that's what your looking for.

I do not think it would be a good idea to lump ALL the lizards together though. If for example I'm searching for info on humidity for iguana's I can type it into the search of that specific forum and only have to weed out the moniter posts. If they were all lumped together and I typed "humidity" I would have to sift through them all to find posts pertaining to iguanas. I feel it would be a huge pain in the tush. Just because there isn't a bunch of people regularly posting doesn't mean that there aren't people regularly searching.

Also I know the advanced search feature would get me the info I want, but people who are new to forums and/or reptiles might not. Those are the people who need to be able to find the info the most.

Originally Posted by Alicia P

I do not think it would be a good idea to lump ALL the lizards together though.

I agree.
Leaving things, as they are now, would be good.

Every now and again I evaluate all of the forums with the thought in mind that if they are not pulling their weight, either with traffic or sponsors, then they are subject to getting the axe at any time. Pretty much the rule of thumb is going to be "use them or lose them". It's pretty much been the case here ever since the beginning that the discussion forums have generally been a poor utilization of the real estate on the server. Quite honestly, I could likely delete all forums other than the classifieds sections and the BOI and most members wouldn't even notice it. Most of those that did, wouldn't complain at all about it, I'm sure.

So if something is not proving to be providing a DEMONSTRATED value to this site, why should it remain? Unless I see a forum actively being used by the members, what legitimate reason would I have for allowing it to remain?

The leopard gecko discussion forum, for instance, took a dramatic drop in traffic a while back, so it went away. I don't think anyone complained about it at all. Other forums have suffered the same fate over the years. Heck some entire SITES have just vanished because of lack of member participation. It certainly happens.....

That's just the way it is, I guess.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Every now and again I evaluate all of the forums with the thought in mind that if they are not pulling their weight, either with traffic or sponsors, then they are subject to getting the axe at any time. Pretty much the rule of thumb is going to be "use them or lose them". It's pretty much been the case here ever since the beginning that the discussion forums have generally been a poor utilization of the real estate on the server. Quite honestly, I could likely delete all forums other than the classifieds sections and the BOI and most members wouldn't even notice it. Most of those that did, wouldn't complain at all about it, I'm sure.

So if something is not proving to be providing a DEMONSTRATED value to this site, why should it remain? Unless I see a forum actively being used by the members, what legitimate reason would I have for allowing it to remain?

The leopard gecko discussion forum, for instance, took a dramatic drop in traffic a while back, so it went away. I don't think anyone complained about it at all. Other forums have suffered the same fate over the years. Heck some entire SITES have just vanished because of lack of member participation. It certainly happens.....

That's just the way it is, I guess.

This is the bad thing and can, certainly, see your point.