Combined Forum Announcement / Other Forum Ideas

[Jeff Smith]

Hello all! After discussion with the moderators of the respective forums, I have merged the two Passenger Rail General Discussion forums on HSR and Commuter transit. I came to this decision because "commuter" just didn't seem to fit the bill for a recent proposal by the FEC for intercity rail between Miami/S Florida and Orlando. With varying degrees of HSR, Intercity, and potential other private proposals, I decided the best fit was to combine the two into a "catch-all".

MTUANDREW and GPRIMR1, having been the separate moderators of the two forums, will team up for the combined forum. Thank you to them for continuing on.

I've also had suggestions to re-separate the Anthracite forums. I will be taking a look at that in the upcoming weeks/months. Any suggestions are welcome.

[charlie6017]

Personally, I would love to see the Anthracite Forum be un-merged, as
I believe each of those railroads deserve their own forums. I think we lost a LOT of
forum traffic after this was lumped together.

I know I would be greatful, and I think others would be too.

Charlie

[Otto Vondrak]

Personally, I would love to see the Anthracite Forum be un-merged, as I believe each of those railroads deserve their own forums. I think we lost a LOT of forum traffic after this was lumped together. I know I would be greatful, and I think others would be too.

Since that was my doing, I'm going to respond. Charlie, your claim about lower traffic is simply not true. First of all, each individual forum had less than 100 posts in the six years they were established. I would hardly consider that high traffic at all. It was my belief at the time that we did not need a specialized forum for every railroad out there, and forums with less than 100 posts got consolidated. A lot of people's feelings were hurt when the forums were combined for some reason, but no one could give a good reason for the forums to remain separate.

Since I no longer own this site nor set policy, the decision is not mine to make. However to claim that combining the forums some how took away traffic is simply erroneous. There was not much discussion of those roads *before* the consolidation, so don't expect traffic magically jump if they are some how severed again.

And if they are severed, then, hey, I owe you a Coke!

-otto-

[Jeff Smith]

And I don't mean to second guess Otto's decision; sorry about that. Here I combined the HSR and General Commuter forums. I've also set up a Housatonic and P&W forum and split those out of New England. It's just what works for each of us respectively. It's not necessarily a traffic decision. It could be identity, it could be organization, it could be ease of moderating. In other words, it's a value judgement. "Anthracite" made sense back then; it was kind of clever. It doesn't mean I'm throwing away my CNJ coffee mug LOL. And it doesn't mean I'm going to combine NH, NYC, Penn Central, and Conrail either (and I also have a NH coffee mug ).

If I do unmerge them, Otto, I'll cover the cost of your Coke when the Mamaroneck Station restaurant opens.

[charlie6017]

Wasn't trying to step on your toes at all Otto.

I'll admit that I "assumed" traffic was lost......I haven't actually checked stats or anything. I just know
there were upset people when the merge took effect, and I understand why you did it, especially since
it "may" have affected finances (I don't know). I was simply judging by what seemed like "not much
happening" in the new forum, thus my assumption.

No harm intended!
Charlie

[Otto Vondrak]

Wasn't trying to step on your toes at all Otto.

No harm, no foul.

-otto-