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An Atlanta Forum Community Effort


ironchapman

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Spartan's post here has recently gotten me thinking about how unorganized this forum is. While we do indeed have a sizable base of posters here, it seems that we can never stay in tune with one another. We should try to get this place to feel more like a community instead of a loose group of, more or less, independent posters who act on thier own.

For example, I posted a news tidbit in the Atlanta News Update thread about Audi moving its US HQ to Atlanta. A few minutes later, I discovered that it had been posted at about the same time in the Off-topic thread. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but it proves just how unorganized we are as a community.

We need to come up with a more organized forum with a more coordinated community of posters. It would also be nice if we could decide, as a group, where to post things so that they would be the most beneficial to the forum. This would also cut down on the unnecessary duplication of information that seems to happen here. It's time we figured out what threads we could use for what and what threads are, in a sense, unnecessary.

It would be nice to get ourselves a little more coordinated as a group. Anyone with me? Anyone have a few thoughts to share? I'm looking for your feedback on the subject.

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One way would be to define what the individual threads are about.

Is the Atlanta News Update thread simply to give general news about Atlanta or development updates. If the latter is the case then what is the purpose of the Atlanta Off-topic thread thread. There could be some duplication issues going on here. A company moving it's regional or American headquarters to Atlanta may not warrant a complete new thread.....so would that not go into the off topic thread.

Major development announcements could technically go into the Next Wave or Metro Atlanta Projects Discussion. I however tried to limit my Atlanta proper announements to the Next Wave section and my metro developments to the MAPD section. Something being done in Gwinnett would not go into the Next Wave section

We have a Regional Rail Transit in Atlanta section. This could include all local developments of rail....commuter or Marta.

Unlike Charlotte, we don't have a retail section in the Topic Title section, so I guess until that happens, people will probably post these articles in the Off Topic section or start other threads in the Forum Topic section.

As far as Forum topics, those are threads started because perhaps the poster did not want said item to be buried into a broad development or off topic thread. This could be a way to encourage specific discussion about this particular item. From me browsing and even contributing to other city's forums, you will be hard pressed to get everyone on one accord as far as where to post an item. It will generally be up to interpetation. Forum topics can run their course and be relegated to the second, thrid or fourth page so something posted there may be done just for general discussion where as topics of great importance and potentially on going development or announcements would be placed in the threads under the Atlanta- Topic Title section.

That's just my understanding.........

But I will say good luck with trying to get everyone on one accord because interpetation of significance is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps Spartan can collapse some of the threads below into the topic threads above but I see no real need for that because it happens in other cities as well. Especially those with significantly more forumer participation. You may also suggest to him that if there is a thread below that you feel is being overlooked to have it moved to the more concrete topics in the Topic Title section. That could garner more response.

As far as a more coordinated community of posters, that would entail limiting posters. Someone from other cities can post here and may not be aware of any set rules for posting in which thread. You also have to consider new forumers. I think the best we can hope for is that people place articles of discussions in threads that best match their posting. Such is the life of message boards. I think the only thing one can really control is the starting of duplicate threads. This is more apparent.....postings will cause for extreme policing and I don't know if Spartan has that kind of time. We are hoping that the Atlanta forumers grow.

I hope it works out for the best though. I really do......

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here's what I've come up with.

The way I see it, here's is what could be done to clean this place up:

  • Next Wave & Metro Atlanta Projects discussion:

    We should combine these two because they, in essence, discuss the same thing.

  • Things to do this weekend in DT Atlanta!:

    We should try to post all information about regular events here

  • Regional Rail Transit in Atlanta:

    We should post all transit related info here.

  • Atlanta Photo of the Day:

    If you have a couple of pics of Atlanta, please post them here (unless they contain information specific to the thread you post them in)! We would like to see them! Feel free to create your own thread if you have several to share (i.e. vacation pics).

  • Atlanta (and suburbs) traffic congestion:

    We should try to post anyhing related to fixing Atlanta's traffic problem here.

  • Atlanta News Updates:

    Let's use this thread for any non-building or transit related information, or for a general summary of events from local papers.

  • Visions for Atlanta:

    let's post any hopes for Atlanta's future here.

  • Atlanta VS Charlotte:

    ^Read the title

For major things, I wouldn't there'd be much objection to letting them have a thread of their own, such as:

  • Aquarium: Area gets ready for '05 opening

  • Allen Plaza

  • Nascar Hall of Fame?

I also have a couple of other thread ideas in mind, such as:

  • A Beltline Specific thread

Of course, we could always specify what goes where. We just need to figure out what exactly DOES go where.

As far as a more coordinated community of posters, that would entail limiting posters. Someone from other cities can post here and may not be aware of any set rules for posting in which thread. You also have to consider new forumers. I think the best we can hope for is that people place articles of discussions in threads that best match their posting. Such is the life of message boards. I think the only thing one can really control is the starting of duplicate threads. This is more apparent.....postings will cause for extreme policing and I don't know if Spartan has that kind of time. We are hoping that the Atlanta forumers grow.

I'm not necessarily saying we should have a dictatorship here, it's just that we regular posters here should try to be more coordinated.

Any thoughts?

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Oh never mind. I knew this topic would probably be a bad idea to post.

Just for the record, I never wanted to try to impose some sort of hierarchy upon us. I just wanted to see if we could establish more or less where to post things and to see if we could try to get a little more co-ordinated as a forum. I never wanted to ask anyone to spend more tim online...I have no authority to do so. it is your time and you may use it as you please.

Like I said, I just wanted to see if we could come up with a basic idea on where to post things so that perhaps we won't have as much duplicate information floating around.

Sorry.

BTW: Newnan, the mods can close posts within their respective forums. The Global mods and the admins can close them anywhere.

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Here's the thing- there is some disorganization. However, its not that bad.

Most of what you are suggesting is a simple matter of renaming or merging a few threads. It is not a massive operation because most of what you suggest is already there in some form.

The Beltline thread should probably be pinned. It is such a large project that it ought to exist on its own.

I think the 'problem' (for lack of a better word) is that an understanding on how things should work has not developed itself yet. Its not something you can force on people, but in my experience it just happens. Thats really what I meant by that post. I didn't necessarily mean some sort of new order of things. It never hurts to point this kind of thing out. It puts everyone on the same page, and perhaps it will lead to a more coordinated effort amongst the GA forummers :)

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Here's the thing- there is some disorganization. However, its not that bad.

...............

The Beltline thread should probably be pinned. It is such a large project that it ought to exist on its own.

I think the 'problem' (for lack of a better word) is that an understanding on how things should work has not developed itself yet. Its not something you can force on people, but in my experience it just happens. Thats really what I meant by that post. I didn't necessarily mean some sort of new order of things. It never hurts to point this kind of thing out. It puts everyone on the same page, and perhaps it will lead to a more coordinated effort amongst the GA forummers :)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I never meant to force this upon anyone. I wanted to get some feedback on it so I created the topic.

I too think that major projects merit a separate thread.

The only thread that I can think of devoted to the Beltline is one on the thrid page called "So, any news on the ATL Beltline" by dixiecupdrinking.

I created this topic to point out the problem and see if we could find a solution.

Most of what you are suggesting is a simple matter of renaming or merging a few threads. It is not a massive operation because most of what you suggest is already there in some form.

That was my original thought on the topic.

I'm so confused......so much for wishful thinking. :(

Would anyone else like to give thoughts on the subject and maybe help me out some?

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IC I can see your point in trying to organize things and I try to post things where someone who may be interested in whatever Im posting would naturally go there to find it.

However, I don't think there necessarily needs to be one massive thread where all Atlanta projects are discussed. I think it adds to the enjoyment of the board to have different threads with different types of development info. In fact I think there could be threads for different areas of the city that are seeing a lot of development...Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, East Atlanta neighborhoods, the westside, Decatur. Theres a lot of stuff out there that Ive never seen mentioned on this forum.

Of course some large or important developments may require a seperate thread, like Atlantic station for example, at least for a while until it falls off the front page. I think a retail thread would be a good idea too.

My thinking with the Next wave thread was simply a discussion of proposals, rumors and rumblings of what may rise in the future. Remember there are so many developers in Atlanta that much of what is proposed may never see a shovel turned. I personally don't even consider them to be "projects" until they break ground because you never know what the circumstances are with these proposals or their developers.

Also whats been discussed there has been limited to highrise buildings.

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^Yes, well, I see your points there, Martinman.

I was going to post this in last night, but I didn't get around to it.

I think I just overreacted in someways to the situation altogether, but it may turn out to be useful just like I thought it would be.

@ the Atlanta projetcs thread: Jacksonville has a simuilar set-up, but they have a huge base of posters. I think we might could support one dedicated to Atlanta's three main neighborhoods, Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. Some cities (such as Providence) have their own subforums for Projects and Construction. Atlantaic Station in itself could host a thread since it is such a massive project. I figure that any major development could support it's own thread (i.e. the aquarium, Atlantic Station, Symphony Center projects because of their symbolism).

What about, like I said Providence has, a ubforum entirely for projects and construction? That would give us a reason to have the variety of neighborhood specific threads and also threads for many of the major developments. However, the question would remain if the Atlanta forum could support itself after being divided up.

Of course, I have no direct say in such issues, but it's good to toss the idea around.

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I think the main point to consider ironchap, is so far we're lucky enough to have just an Atlanta sub-forum.  There isn't that much traffic yet to worry about adding a stripe down the road.  Until it does build up (& it might not) I would prefer to keep things loose & simple.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True, but traffic has been picking up some lately. I could see sub-forums in the future, but certainly not yet. The Georgia forum has also had a noticeable increrase in traffic, so my guess is that we are finally starting to feel some of the more positive effects of splitting us. However, I guess we should feel ludcky that we have the Atlanta forum as it is.

The odd thing is that Atlanta and Charlotte were two of the strongest bases of posters here at UP when it started. I wonder what happened to some of the posters from back then?

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The odd thing is that Atlanta and Charlotte were two of the strongest bases of posters here at UP when it started. I wonder what happened to some of the posters from back then?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is a touchy subject best not discussed...

Nonetheless, I wouldn't expect any of the more known ATL forummers at SSP to come back. As for me - I have no alligience :)

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^The question that I would still like to know is if there is some way to clean up the forums some (you know, delete a couple of repetitive topics and so on)? I wouldn't suggest delleting a major topic, but one that wouldn't do to much harm if we did so.

I have a couple in mind.

Don't worry, I won't ask about the forumers.

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....

The odd thing is that Atlanta and Charlotte were two of the strongest bases of posters here at UP when it started. I wonder what happened to some of the posters from back then?

Well actually that is not true. We started this forum originally as a group of Charlotte forumers that were tired of the childish antics that exist at SSP including those of the admins there and decided to start our own forum. which later evolved into present day UP. I think we might have had one Atlanta forumer, donaltopablo (now known as paulblackgtx) who had been banned from SSP for stupid reasons.

We didn't even have a Charlotte or Atlanta section when we started the forum. There was just a South forum. A number of SSP forumers followed Neo and I over here. Some have stayed, others did not like our restrictions on fighting, pissing contests, etc (essentially all the things that exist at SSP and why we left) and over time they either left or got banned. I can't say they are missed since we get endless PMs and Email thanking us for providing a much more mature place to disuss urban matters. We are also not just focused on Skyscrapers. There really isn't that much you can say about them when you think about it.

From the early days our strongest bases were NC, Detroit, and New England. We have grown quite a bit since those days and find that many of our forumers are not form SSP or SSP.

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From the early days our strongest bases were NC, Detroit, and New England. We have grown quite a bit since those days and find that many of our forumers are not form SSP or SSP.

You could toss in Florida, too. Jacksonville is the third most active city-specific forum here.

Correct me on this if I am wrong, but the most active city-specific forums here are:

1. Detroit

2. Charlotte

3. Jacksonville

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Having this other stuff like links here won't cause people to join. Its more of a reference point for those who do post here.

So here is what you do:

Create intelligent, thought provoking discussions. Solid discussions are what make the site grow, because that in itself provides content. It really is that simple. Just keep up what you are doing and things will take care of themselves.

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That is a recipe that works for sure. It will eventually get indexed by google and the traffic will pickup. This is what has happened to every popular forum here. I would post something in the CLT forum everyday and in the beginning it would go for days without any activity but eventually it picked up.

If someone wants to link to us, then I am quite happy to let them, but I don't actively (for the most part) make attempts to get people to do this for us. We have tried alliances before with other sites and they never work out so I figure it is best for us to stand on our own and avoid arrangements with other places that place requirements on UrbanPlanet. Plus a couple other urban forums that we cross linked with turned out to be something that we did not want to be affiliated with anyway.

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