Should the Triangle have its own forum?

[jb4563]

Ok...Charlotte has its own forum (and I am from CLT), but I think that the Triangle should have its own forum too.

The two metro areas are essentially the same size, so why not?

Plus, it makes NC look good to have two metro forums

[orulz]

The management of urbanplanet has made it clear that they believe there isn't enough interest/participation regarding the triangle to justify having its own forum. In a similar thread several months ago I already stated that I disagree. A forum doesn't need to be as active as the Charlotte forum to be worthwhile. And to be perfectly honest a lot of the traffic in the Charlotte forum is just "me too" posts anyway. I think there is more than enough actual content - posts that actually contribute to the discussion - to make having a triangle forum worthwhile. Such a forum doesn't exist anywhere on the internet, and I predict that having a seperate forum would stimulate MORE interest and discussion about the triangle, rather than less, as the management seemed to imply.

Anyway, the results of the previous poll that I posted were overwhelmingly in favor of splitting the North Carolina forum, but nothing happened, and I honestly don't expect anything to happen this time either.

[orulz]

Here is the thread with that poll from when they first reorganized the carolinas forum.

[urbanvb]

Just as an outsider (I live in VA), I think a Triangle forum could work provided you have a moderator who will help drum up business, if you will. I think Urbanplanet was wondering if a Hampton Roads forum would work but now it is truly amazing and what an active that thread it is. I might add however that our moderator, Vdogg, puts a lot of time and effort into the forum. Just now he is gathering together pictures and articles on construction projects for the different cities and making a major thread on those. He went to a local tv station website and posted something on the forum with a link to advertise our forum and response has been good. Needless to say things are going well but he is working hard to bring in more people. That said the forum now is pretty much self sustaining imo but I still think having the moderator engaged helps a lot. I used to read a lot of postings on Skyscraperpage.com about the Raleigh area but it seems as of lately mostly represented is Charlotte, Atlanta and the deep south. There may be other forums that represent the Raleigh area besides these two out there but I am not familiar with any. So, if someone has the time and opportunity I think it would be a great asset to an area that really has a lot of potential.

[Neo]

When the time arises that we discover an individual willing to devote their time and hard work into making a Traingle sub-forum work and have enough activity we will do so. I'm sure the forum would succeed, but only with a dedicated moderator which we don't yet have.

[JunktionFET]

We've discussed this a number of times of course. I believe we have some great Triangle forumers, but I don't like the idea of a dedicated forum. Right now the topics in the North Carolina forum stay in agreeable rotation. I like having Charlotte in its own space because it is so very active--Charlotte topics and discussions would walk all over the other North Carolina discussions.

I don't like dividing things up into little subdivisions unless it is necessary--doing such is almost a suburban mentality ... give everything its own little cul-de-sac and a 1/3 acre lot

I like to mash it all together--it makes North Carolina feel more unified and informed IMO.

[IBruton]

When the time arises that we discover an individual willing to devote their time and hard work into making a Traingle sub-forum work and have enough activity we will do so.  I'm sure the forum would succeed, but only with a dedicated moderator which we don't yet have.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If there is something that I can do, please let me know. I would love to see the Triangle represented in its own forum again.

[Whynotme]

Whether the Triangle has its own sub-forum or not, more traffic would be beneficial to the variety of discussion topics. I've recently been following the Providence forum (because that's where I grew up), and they have a solid group of dedicated bloggers plus dozens of browsers who make infrequent posts. Also there is a very active moderator in Providence.

Anyway, there are untapped resources for Triangle thread bloggers. Consider recruiting students from the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC and Landscape Architecture at NC State.... also the UNC business school has a program in real estate development.

Dave Hartzell is a real estate professor, who would point his students to urban planet if he thought it would be informative.

http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/Faculty/s...fm?person_id=35

I took Hartzell's class and he fills us in on the Triangle market very well, bringing in local developers and financers.

At DCRP consider Tom Campanella a possible link to students. He teaches courses on urban design, etc.

http://www.planning.unc.edu/facstaff/faculty/campanella.htm

Sorry, don't know about NC State.

philanthroplan