Boards on the chopping block

[NariaDreaming]

It's about that time again. We are reviewing our current board listing to see which boards to consider archiving for the time being.

The following boards are the short list on the chopping block


Health & Home- no non-spam posts since 3/1. Limited posts betweeen October and March. We would be happy to bring the gardening subforum back for the season

Book Club- only sporadic posts since early January. Do you guys want to try and breathe life into it again Unknown, @akafred, aggiebug?

Buy/Sell/Trade- has bene archived for the time being

Religious & Secular families- neither board has really gained traction (less than 1,000 combined posts on both boards)

Would entertain keeping them live if the respective users plan to breathe new life into them (., aves0708, ohinvrtedworld, theholmanherd, @gnaomesweetgnome)

International Families- no new posts since 11/29/15. estrellas, your thoughts?




We will keep this post up for discussion until 5/5. If we decide to archive any boards, we can archive them in their entirity, and bring them back whole if and when there is such a time that they would be wanted.

[Unknown]

I'll try to bring life to the book club board. I've been on a reading hiatus since have a baby a few months ago. Feel free to keep us on your watch list, and if we can't get going you can chop us next time around. Sound good?

[beardpapa]

May 2, 2016 20:44:00 GMT -5 . said:

I would've loved for Secular Families to really take off, but tbh I don't see that happening. Ok by me to chop the board.

I'm lurking on that board right now and love that it exists. Is there a goal to set before it gets chopped (Z users or Y posts by Xmas time)--or has it already gotten a second chance?

[sewfie2]

May 3, 2016 0:20:13 GMT -5 beardpapa said:

May 2, 2016 20:44:00 GMT -5 . said:

I would've loved for Secular Families to really take off, but tbh I don't see that happening. Ok by me to chop the board.

I'm lurking on that board right now and love that it exists. Is there a goal to set before it gets chopped (Z users or Y posts by Xmas time)--or has it already gotten a second chance?

For some reason I didn't notice this board listed in the index, but I'd like to see it get a second chance too, if it hasn't already.

[theophania]

beardpapa, sewfie2, if people are going to use it we'll leave it. Is there a better place you can see it being in the index where it would be more visible?

[menrandes]

I was thinking of starting daily posts on the health and home board to try to drum up some business there. I really wish I had done it back in January when everyone was fresh with resolutions!

[sewfie2]

theophania, I'm not sure. The section it's in is nice and short, but I could see it fitting into the Parenting section (like the interfaith board).

[NariaDreaming]

May 3, 2016 7:24:27 GMT -5 menrandes said:

I was thinking of starting daily posts on the health and home board to try to drum up some business there. I really wish I had done it back in January when everyone was fresh with resolutions!

Well, make it your May resolution and start drumming up some posts

[aves0708]

I'd love to see the secular families board stay around, but my attempts to get some more posts haven't done much so I understand if it gets the chop. I like sewfie2,'s idea of trying it in the parenting section to see if it gets more attention there.

[beardpapa]

May 3, 2016 7:26:40 GMT -5 sewfie2 said:

theophania, I'm not sure. The section it's in is nice and short, but I could see it fitting into the Parenting section (like the interfaith board).

I am pretty new so I don't know what a reorg costs the current users. When I joined I just opened every section to see what could apply to me so I had no trouble finding it, but if moving things around doesn't cause trouble I might suggest (again, as a noob) getting rid of "Modern Families" and just having Single, Interfaith/Interracial, Secular, and Religious under one roof directly in Parenting.

Would love any insight or context around why it's important to (not) change the way things are.

[NariaDreaming]

May 3, 2016 8:56:40 GMT -5 beardpapa said:

May 3, 2016 7:26:40 GMT -5 sewfie2 said:

theophania, I'm not sure. The section it's in is nice and short, but I could see it fitting into the Parenting section (like the interfaith board).

I am pretty new so I don't know what a reorg costs the current users. When I joined I just opened every section to see what could apply to me so I had no trouble finding it, but if moving things around doesn't cause trouble I might suggest (again, as a noob) getting rid of "Modern Families" and just having Single, Interfaith/Interracial, Secular, and Religious under one roof directly in Parenting.

Would love any insight or context around why it's important to (not) change the way things are.

The aforementioned boards didn't have a lot of traffic. They were combined so that the users would still have a place to congregate, but that we wouldn't have solo boards hanging out with 300-500 posts. They were all boards that were present from the start of our website, and failed to gain much traction during the first 6-9 months here.

It's very much a catch-22: lurkers and potential members get turned off by having a ton of boards with very little active conversation happening, but on the flipside, not having the boards at all could deter potential members who are looking for a niche discussion topic.

So we try to strike a solid balance between those two needs. It's an art, not a science

[beardpapa]

May 3, 2016 9:09:13 GMT -5 NariaDreaming said:

May 3, 2016 8:56:40 GMT -5 beardpapa said:

...but if moving things around doesn't cause trouble I might suggest (again, as a noob) getting rid of "Modern Families" and just having Single, Interfaith/Interracial, Secular, and Religious under one roof directly in Parenting.

Would love any insight or context around why it's important to (not) change the way things are.

The aforementioned boards didn't have a lot of traffic. They were combined so that the users would still have a place to congregate, but that we wouldn't have solo boards hanging out with 300-500 posts. They were all boards that were present from the start of our website, and failed to gain much traction during the first 6-9 months here.

It's very much a catch-22: lurkers and potential members get turned off by having a ton of boards with very little active conversation happening, but on the flipside, not having the boards at all could deter potential members who are looking for a niche discussion topic.

So we try to strike a solid balance between those two needs. It's an art, not a science

Thanks NariaDreaming! Just to go on record: as a potential member in the tapatalk app I didn't even see how many posts a board had, just how recently they were posted in, and neither really factored into my interest in lurking and reading older posts. For someone who had until recently never posted, a latest post from a month ago still felt like much more community than none at all. I think the activity in other boards is great but for these particular threatened niches I'd love to see them stay and maybe I can self-promote from lurker to poster and see if I feel the same way by the end of the year.

[yl]

I didn't even know there was a book club board!

[BookishMomma]

May 3, 2016 9:23:50 GMT -5 beardpapa said:

May 3, 2016 9:09:13 GMT -5 NariaDreaming said:

The aforementioned boards didn't have a lot of traffic. They were combined so that the users would still have a place to congregate, but that we wouldn't have solo boards hanging out with 300-500 posts. They were all boards that were present from the start of our website, and failed to gain much traction during the first 6-9 months here.

It's very much a catch-22: lurkers and potential members get turned off by having a ton of boards with very little active conversation happening, but on the flipside, not having the boards at all could deter potential members who are looking for a niche discussion topic.

So we try to strike a solid balance between those two needs. It's an art, not a science

Thanks NariaDreaming ! Just to go on record: as a potential member in the tapatalk app I didn't even see how many posts a board had, just how recently they were posted in, and neither really factored into my interest in lurking and reading older posts. For someone who had until recently never posted, a latest post from a month ago still felt like much more community than none at all. I think the activity in other boards is great but for these particular threatened niches I'd love to see them stay and maybe I can self-promote from lurker to poster and see if I feel the same way by the end of the year.

By posting this, you've already upgraded yourself from lurker to poster 

[ohinvrtedworld]

I was totally a drive-by on religious families, so it's nice having a place to go and ask a question, but I understand that it doesn't get much conversation going.

I'd be nervous for either religious or secular family boards going under Parenting just because for someone like me, who has no kids (but hooopefully will someday, ugh), people might assume it's for parenting-type conversations. But if that gets more visibility and still is clearly open to all kinds of families, then that might be worth the risk.

[beardpapa]

May 3, 2016 12:39:50 GMT -5 ohinvrtedworld said:

I was totally a drive-by on religious families, so it's nice having a place to go and ask a question, but I understand that it doesn't get much conversation going.

I'd be nervous for either religious or secular family boards going under Parenting just because for someone like me, who has no kids (but hooopefully will someday, ugh), people might assume it's for parenting-type conversations. But if that gets more visibility and still is clearly open to all kinds of families, then that might be worth the risk.

Thank you ohinvrtedworld! I'm sure now that I wanted to say "Family Life" and not "Parenting". I did not mean to exclude any family ?

[ohinvrtedworld]

May 3, 2016 12:54:20 GMT -5 beardpapa said:

May 3, 2016 12:39:50 GMT -5 ohinvrtedworld said:

I was totally a drive-by on religious families, so it's nice having a place to go and ask a question, but I understand that it doesn't get much conversation going.

I'd be nervous for either religious or secular family boards going under Parenting just because for someone like me, who has no kids (but hooopefully will someday, ugh), people might assume it's for parenting-type conversations. But if that gets more visibility and still is clearly open to all kinds of families, then that might be worth the risk.

Thank you ohinvrtedworld ! I'm sure now that I wanted to say "Family Life" and not "Parenting". I did not mean to exclude any family ?

It wasn't interpreted that way, all good plus non-parents post on Parenting all the time, so it's kind of normal on this site to do whatever you want.

[cavewmn]

There are certain boards that no matter where you put them I will still have to look for them. lol

[pibblemom]

I know this thread is about boards that are at or near the chopping block, but would the mods consider adding an addiction/recovery/alanon type board? It could be for any type of addictions, families of addicts, etc. If there is one please point me in the right direction. I know many people are affected in different ways and sometimes I feel like I could use an anonymous vent, but don't necessarily want to join a whole other community. If there's no interest that's fine too, but as the community grows, I think it would pertain to more and more people.

[NariaDreaming]

May 4, 2016 22:10:45 GMT -5 pibblemom said:

I know this thread is about boards that are at or near the chopping block, but would the mods consider adding an addiction/recovery/alanon type board? It could be for any type of addictions, families of addicts, etc. If there is one please point me in the right direction. I know many people are affected in different ways and sometimes I feel like I could use an anonymous vent, but don't necessarily want to join a whole other community. If there's no interest that's fine too, but as the community grows, I think it would pertain to more and more people.

Definitely would consider

[seamonster]

Maybe expand the Book Club board to be Books, TV, Movies? Might be a good place to have some of the TV and movie discussion threads.