Where did all the BTers go? (Page 6)

Ron, put me in the "Pro Mentor Group".  While I use the larger threads like TT, Gear Reviews, COJ, etc, I enjoy the smaller feeling of the mentor groups.  Also, one of the things I've noticed is there are folks that are lurkers and rare or occasional posters.  So while they may not be generating activity, they are still active, if that makes any sense.  

Consolidation would be beneficial, as it would make it easier to find questions/answers that are relevant.  I haven't given much thought to what to break it up into at this point though.

A forum navigation issue I have (and maybe I've just missed it all this time) is that there used to be a way to go to the last unread reply in a thread. Now it seems my only choices are the first or last post in a thread. Makes it cumbersome to find where I left off in the conversation. Am I just blind?

I'm curious what the others think, but I do feel Political COJ is still appropriate because we would at times drag down regular COJ.

Not to mention we're entering another political season.  

Not sure what you could do with the mentor groups.  Since this thread started I looked at a few a them and people seem fairly active in them.  Taking them away might drive some traffic away.

Consolodation - I typically only post on TT and occasionally on COJ so not sure how much my two cents matter.  After reading your post and thinking about it I would say the following.  Drop the state and country forums.  I race in PA and NJ so I used to look at those two threads.  Very little activity and posts do not get much response.  Other states could be different.  Not sure how the IM distance folks would feel but get those back in TT.   I do very little LC racing but do enjoy reading about the training.   I did a HIM this summer and tried to join a thread (group) training for that distance.  It went dead pretty quickly.  I never really go into the gear review and such sections. 

One thing I would keep is the race reports.  That's one area I will seek out to read.

This is just one persons opinions.   Great to see you post in here and thinking about making some changes. 

If I were king I'd pare it down to TT, State forums (good for finding local races), Race reports, Classified, Challenge, and COJ. 

Of course the coaching options/threads would stay......and they'd probably be more profitable without the mentor groups that basically provide that service for free from what I can tell.

The above being said, I don't really have an opinion on mentor groups......except that it looks like a way for like minded people to have a space without dissenting opinions, or to get very specific answers to their "coaching needs" without hiring a coach or buying a training plan.. I don't even know if that's true since I don't go there, but that's what I get from them whenever someone describes their experience with the groups.  And it just seems to me that "mentor" means coaching....even if it's a diluted version.  BUT......keep them or not, I don't care.

Overall, I'd try to include a thicker skin for anyone who wants to be a member.  I learn the most from the threads where there are wildly dissenting opinions. 

I think that is nonsense.  Splitting Ironman from a triathlon forum at this point is just stupid.  This forum really got started with a few people doing ironman and inspiring the heck out of everyone else before it was such a mainstream thing. 

Splitting everything up and demanding such ridiculous political correctness has castrated the forum in my opinion

see, I'm not good at saying things nicely

IM is not triathlon anyway.  If it's not Draft legal, it's not racing.

I'm in favor of mentor groups. They build community and accountability a little bit differently that TT.

How do they build "community" if they are closed?  I'm just asking, because from my viewpoint, admittedly as an outsider, they don't build community at all, they build cliques.  As a former administrator of a popular message board, I can tell you that cliques are the start of the death toll for most message boards.

I think that mentor groups keep people coming back to the site. People check in with each other their and they build relationships on a more personal level (my dog is sick as well as what's your longest run before an HIM). I think that they fulfill a different need.

My issue with Mentor groups are that once they get started, if you aren't there for the first few days, you get swallowed up. I have tried to join groups before and have found that he same people join the same groups over and over, which is totally fine, but it makes it hard to jump in. When I was in a mentor group, I never went into a different mentor group to even look around, always felt like they were off limits once they were closed.

IMO, I am not a fan of the mentor groups, but I know a lot of people that love them, so I guess my post is really of no help!

I believe this is the biggest challenge to this discussion thread in general. Everyone of us has a different need for the site, be it discussion, support, logging, learning, etc. Some folks simply use the logs, others the articles, others TT and others the coaching.  How many people have stated in this thread that they no longer do triathlons, yet still use the site?  The list goes on and on and to try to fit the entire site into my vision or use pattern is a bit limiting.

I hear what you're saying and that's why I think Ron will have trouble doing anything with them.  But to LB's point after poking around in them last week a lot of what I think is good for the site disappeared in them.  People starting threads following someone on race day, or generally rooting for someone.  Discussions about training and racing in general.  I was shocked by both the new people and the BT "veterans" who only seem to post in their mentor group.  If Rons goal is to get BT more active or for people to see how thriving it is, wouldn't that be better back in TT?

I agree.  It's like the Kona TV coverage.  It's more likely to inspire than intimidate.  Plus, as LB said, pare down the forums to only a handful.  I think I was one of the proponents in the past for creating more, but we live and learn.  

I'm not convinced the state forums are needed.  Just post in TT about local events too.  That seems to work fine on other sites.  The advantage of having them in the main forum is that they're going to be seen by more people, so they'll get more responses.  For example, I live in PA, but have done several races in MD, NY, and WV, but I rarely look in those forums.  If someone asks a question about one of the races I've done there, but in TT, I'd probably see it, and respond.  In the current format, I wouldn't even see it.

I don't have too much of an opinion about the mentor groups, because I've never participated in one.  On one hand, they do seem to create some cliques, and take some traffic away from TT, but they also provide a "safer" environment for people who may be shy about asking what they're worried is a silly question publicly.  It may be the situation that with the current number of sub-forums, they contribute to the dilution of conversation, but by consolidating the public forums, their impact won't be felt.

I'm not sure that it would go back in TT.  I suspect a lot of it would leave the site entirely.

There was a TDF thread? I would have been all over that

Hello, TAN.

I left due to personal issues, but now that it's Ironman WI week over here in my neck of the woods, I jumped on BT in the IM WI thread and WI forum to see how the future participants are doing , but I'm quite surprised at how dead it is in those areas.  I wasn't expecting that and am quite bummed, much the same as seeing COJ is doing.  Things have slowed.

I hope you are all doing well, though.

The event specific threads really are pretty dead the past few years.  Is everyone posting on FB?  One thing that this site has going for it over FT is SEARCH if you have event specific question.  Good luck finding the info buried in a FB group.

What do folks think of the state forums?  Just lump them into TT?

I like the state forums because I can see who is in my area by looking in there every now and then.  That  being said, it that forum becomes a casualty of re-alignment......no big loss.

I'll weigh in on the State forums.  As LB stated, they are a great place to learn about and discuss local races.  IMHO, questions like "where is a good place for an open water swim in Two Dot, Montana?" are better in a state specific forum or else it will cram TT with threads that are only relevant to 3-4 people.