Does BT need a new forum?

What he said...  And if you really want to get crazy, stop by the Cup Of Joe thread.....

I think it's ok as is.  When a thread's subject is appropriately titled, it's easy to just ignore the ones I don't want to read.  

At least until I notice it getting to page 3 or 4 and then I have to check it out in case it's something juicy.  

Hmm.  Maybe my suggestion wasn't clear.  I wasn't suggesting that we have a 'nice' forum and a 'mean' forum.  The suggested division is topical and I believe could lead to everybody getting the kind of advice, or being involved in the kind of discussion, they they are seeking.  (That is what I believe for now -- I posted because I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, not that my opinion on this point matters.)

Let's try to keep the discussion civil.  It's an honest question, not an attempt at provocation.

I would also agree that a couple of sub forums would be benefical to the site. My suggestions are

Beginner forum - Unfortunately there are some very inexperienced beginners with main goals about only finishing and having fun. As much as this site is biginner triathalete.com there are many who are not beginners and sometimes forget what that was like in thier responses

Specific Swim/Bike/Run forums? - specific help forums in each discipline. Not necessary but could be helpful

Tri race forum - for those specifically intersted in racing and winning AG, KQ, Boston qualify, etc

Just a few suggestions

I don't think we need a new forum and I don't think it would get a lot of traffic if we had one.  Lets face it...as much as I enjoy BT the vast majority of the post are feel good post.  Not very often is the science of sport, endurance, nutritution discussed in detail.  Like most people, when I really want to know the why behind something, I just go to slowtwitch. 

Edit: Not to say that there are not knowledgeable resources here...but it just gets over run with a bunch of N=1 information. 

I'll be sure to title all my threads "Hot triathlon coeds in their birthday suit" to get more responses next time

agree with that. i think since it's a beginner site, if you segmented the forums too much, i think that would inadvertantly divert the experienced posters away from  the inexperienced (ie: the ones who need the experienced ones to read and comment the most)

A valid point.  I was suggesting just one (additional) division, but I do appreciate the 'slippery slope' argument.

I agree

I get your worry.  I think that an argument could be made in the other direction.  There are several very experienced, knowledgeable, fantastic, helpful, people on this site who almost never post in the main forum because they are interested only in training-related posts and don't like wading through the rest.  There are others who used to post a lot, but don't anymore, largely for the same reason.  I'm not speculating here -- I've spoken with them (in the internet sense of 'spoken').  Sometimes skimming subject lines is enough, and sometimes the subject line or even the post itself fools you about what the OP is looking for.  After being burned enough times, they just stay away.

This is spot on.

When a board starts branching out into multiple sub-forums for general discussion - one of two things happens.

1)  People ignore the new forums after a month and end up staying in one forum anyway.

2)  People get spread out over a few forums on a site - the discussion dies down - and eventually people move on and the board dies.

You need a MASSIVE community to be able to keep multiple forums active over time - and BT isn't anywhere near the size you need to be (I'm talking something like ign.com - where they can divide a ton of forums throughout each video game they support...).  I've yet to see a community of this size be able to post consistently over several subforums and keep the community going.  Just the way it is.

I agree with the bolded parts and in fact I think that's already happened here.  Now it's often beginners helping beginners in the main forums and all the best discussions on the site are now found in the mentor threads.

I agree with this, the general spirit being, "KEEP IT SIMPLE".  This forum is robust enough to capture a good breadth of topics without creating an overwhelming set of threads to sift through.  If you look at the most current comment posted in each thread on the right-hand, it goes back to yesterday afternoon (that is, the thread at the very bottom of page 1 has not been commented on since then and the time from then to now includes some high traffic periods (evening after work and morning log-in)).  There are enough people logging on that, for most topics, if anyone has something new to say or if there is still a discussion/debate going, the thread will likely remain on page one . . . and it takes less than 30 seconds to scan down the list of topics.