Announcing Amtrak Sub-Forums!

[Jeff Smith]

This is an idea I've had forever. Because Amtrak is "far-flung", I thought it might help searchability to categorize their operations.

You can start to use it now, and I'll gradually move topics over to it as I can. You can still post in the parent Amtrak forum for general discussion, questions, etc.

ENJOY!

-Jefe

[Jeff Smith]

I unlocked the topic so we could see what our Amtrak aficionados think.

I've had one negative comment so far based upon having to visit multiple forums instead of a single forum.

My reason for doing this is based upon searchability... it might be easier to find topics in an unwieldy forum by "classifying" them.

I also think that having to search multiple forums is mitigated by two things:

-The "ego search" function, accessed by going to "Search, Your Posts" for topics you are already participating in
-And: "Forum, Unread Posts", which is how I monitor traffic.

Thoughts?

[eolesen]

I'm a fan. My interest in Amtrak is more regional (e.g. Midwest and South), so all the discussions about Gateway, Downeaster, Carolinas, etc. are simply noise to sift thru.

I'd take corridors a step further and subdivide to Midwest/South, East Coast, and West Coast.

Maybe a separate subforum for Equipment and Strategy/Policy... or a General catch-all for things that are really more of an enterprise issue.

[Jeff Smith]

I appreciate that. I was going to leave the original forum as the "General" forum, but it might make sense to drop those topics down, too.

[Greg Moore]

As the person who you obliquely referred to, yeah, 24 hours later, still not a fan. It's more clicking.

That said while I can appreciate the desire to better organize things, and in part that appears to be driven by, Ill be blunt, the horrible search capabilities of the platform (that's a knock against the platform itself, not Railroad.net specifically).
For example I've often found (though have not checked lately) using the search box that's supposed to search within a forum gets me results from other forums. And trying to narrow things down often gets wonky results. Nine times out of ten, I'll to Google and use that to find the thread I want.

So in a sense I see this a bit as lipstick on a pig: trying to solve the problems with search.

To me, it just complicates my usage. I can certainly appreciate the desire to better organize things. Heck as a DBA I'm a HUGE fan of better organization.

Also minor nit, right now when you list all the trains covered in a forum (mid-distance appears to be the worst) it runs into the board index breadcrumbs a bit, making it harder to read.

Now, I'll toss out a possible positive if it can be done. Additional moderators specific to a sub-forum. This can spread the workload and allow moderators who have a real focus on that sub-forum to be active.

In any case, my 2 cents.

[Arborwayfan]

I preferred the forum the way it was, without sub-forums. That way I could see all the forums with new posts at a glance, and I did not have to wonder which sub-forum a question should go in. Now there are four different places to look. Now I wonder where a discussion of travel btwn Champaign-Urbana and Chicago (where a single day-trip could easily use a corridor train and an LD) is supposed to go, and I envision members and moderators using precious time and brainpower answering that unnecessary question. Florida trains carrying passengers between Washington and New York? Total service levels between Emeryville and Sacramento? These questions are too specific for the general forum, but too broad for the sub-forums. One of few things I don't like about railroad.net is when someone (moderator or member) says "This topic should have gone in x forum" or "In this forum you're only allowed to talk about y if it's very closely connected to z" -- it sometimes sets my teeth on edge to read those discussions -- and having subforums creates more chances for that.

But I definitely appreciate your thinking about how to make the forum better. I might not like this attempt, but I appreciate your work -- all the moderators' work!

[nomis]

If it is truly as cut and dry as LD trains boarding & alighting NEC traffic, we do have the ability to use the shadow topic function so it would show in two different locations. El Jefe doesn't want that to be done for all traffic however. Currently I am sifting through some posts a day and working backwards & the other Mods & Admins also working on it at their discretion.

Like Jeff said, using the Unread Posts Found under "Forum" header drop-down, or Your Posts under the "Search" header drop-down for logged in users has quite a bit of functionality that you may already be looking for.

[NaugyRR]

I'm not a fan, I preferred being able to pop in, get my daily scoop, and pop out.

[STrRedWolf]

I'm mixed about this. On one hand, it helps find some topics. On the other... well...

I tend to regard Amtrak service as one of four types:

• NEC Service - Regional, Acela, Keystone. If it runs multiple times per day on Amtrak owned track, it's here.
• Commuter Corridor - Empire, Capitol Corridor, Heartland Flyer... stuff that is under 8-9 hours total but runs multiple times a day. Regional 65/66/67 (the Night Owl sleepers) I think would be grandfathered in.
• Daylight Service - Stuff that has a round trip daily, goes on non-Amtrak owned track, and that's it. The Pennsylvanian is the best example. The Carolinian falls here as well.
• Overnight/Multinight Service - what we call long distance. Lake Shore Limited, Empire Builder, Capitol Limited, etc.

... hmmm... if the Pennsy and Carolinian ever get more service, they'd go Commuter Corridor. Guess it's future proofing?

[bostontrainguy]

I think I will also have to vote thumbs down. I just want the latest Amtrak posts and don't want to search around. I feel that I will probably miss things that I was interested in.

[justalurker66]

-The "ego search" function, accessed by going to "Search, Your Posts" for topics you are already participating in
-And: "Forum, Unread Posts", which is how I monitor traffic.

My method of using this site is a bookmark that points straight to a regional forum of primary interest, then "Search, Your Posts" to see what previously participated threads have been updated. I accept that I miss a lot of posts and opportunities to participate because I don't look for every new post in every forum of interest. Occasionally I will go to forums such as the Amtrak forum and look back a few pages to see if there are new threads I have missed. This change just means checking a couple more forums in that manner.

I am not specifically for or against this change. Perhaps it will help spread out some of the posts so people who only care about LD don't have to see posts about regionals and NEC. The more narrow one's interests the more the change helps that individual.

[Greg Moore]

I'm starting to possibly rethink my stance, especially if I understand the term "shadow" I think was used above.

Is there a way to have a single Amtrak forum and all discussions go in there, but also be tagged or shadowed in sub-forums?

That way folks who only care about the NEC can go to the sub-forum, but the rest of us can go to the all-inclusive one?

If so, then I'm probably "All Aboard". Probably.

[ExCon90]

Fwiw, I preferred being able to click on Amtrak, see what the latest posts are, and follow up on their respective threads without having to check each category to see what's new. I also agree with other posters than some topics raised may spill over the boundary lines, making it arguable which category a particular post belongs in.

If it's not too far OT, I liked it when the wavy red line under a word called attention to my fat-fingered stabs at the keyboard and I could accept the correction simply by hitting the space bar. Could that be brought back?

[STrRedWolf]

If it's not too far OT, I liked it when the wavy red line under a word called attention to my fat-fingered stabs at the keyboard and I could accept the correction simply by hitting the space bar. Could that be brought back?

That's a browser feature, I believe, called AutoCorrect.

[danib62]

Not of fan of this change at all. Between this and the new NY cross agency forum it means I need to check a bunch of different boards to see what’s going on. Please revert back to the way it was.