Calling all 'General Cycling' thread starters!!!!

[snorri]

who cares what's in what section? seriously, get a life.

I care!
It is a pia to go into a section and find posts not relevant to that section. Also, I have discovered interesting threads in sections that I would not normally read because I am not interested in the subject of the thread title. Commuting is a prime example, I don't commute, and as commuting is mainly a city dweller thing, I have little interest in the minutae of cycling to work in a city. However many general cycling interest topics are posted in that Section.
Looking at the first four threads in Commuting as I post this, "Lights on rural roads", "Cycle lane...", "Should I have a word...", "Do I call police" not one is commuting specific, they raise issues affecting all on road cyclists and should in my opinion be in the General Cycling section.

 

[lukesdad]

Well, I think maybe two reasons, firstly I don't tend to see them, when I posted about only just having found the health and fitness section I was deadly serious, sad maybe, but true. I refresh the forum by clicking "Bikes and Cycling" above "members" at the top to the right of "Forums", this, as I said means that more than half of the subsections don't show.
The other reason, which is a more personal one I guess, is I'm not confident enough in my knowledge to post in something titled "Technical" so I'll tend to avoid it, however if it were on my radar more then I may well delve into more often and wouldn't be scared of it.

yes I can see that the tech title may put some off.

 

[MacB]

I'll likely put it back to Beginners - it seemed to work better that way.

Ah, so it's all your fault, do we need another section headed 'Shauns Ideas Nursery' just to sanity check for you?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Isn't the problem to do with the word ''General?'' When we have a health problem, often our first point of call is our General Practitioner and if it can't be solved at the GP level, it is then referred by the doctor to specialists. It's only sometimes that patients can perform their own triage in advance (eg, ''I've chopped my finger off, I better go straight to accident and emergency!''). Analogously, General Cycling is always going to tend to be the first point of call.

Sticking to my somewhat laboured analogy, if you got rid of General Cycling, you could have a ''where should this post go?'' forum, where members could do their own helpful form of triage without taking up mods' time.

 

[Mugshot]

My four penneth which isn't really worth a dime is that as a newer member I see;

Racing
Mountain Biking and Offroad
Touring and Expedition

As more specialist interests

But would see;

Know How
Bikes, Accessories, Kit and Clothing
Health, Fitness and Training

as more relevant to the catch all "Bikes and Cycling" title.

Also what's the difference between "Riders Tales" and "General Cycling", what should be posted in each?

 

[Crackle]

I'll likely put it back to Beginners - it seemed to work better that way.

What might be a more positive use of this thread (in addition to the OP's suggestion) is a consideration of how best to organise and name the cycling-specific forums.

General Cycling is probably a big part of the problem as it covers, well, everything - so it may well help if it is renamed to Beginners again and then anyone wanting technical help might feel Know How is more appropriate.

Do we need a general cycling forum if we have all other aspects covered in the more specifically named forums?

Do we have any gaps where new forums would be useful?

What do you think?

Cheers,
Shaun

I raised this last night in Chat after mentioning it on Tundras thread in an effort to give you some feedback.

It's quite tricky because it's basically right. Percieved problems, which I think most agreed on, is that it potentially waters down threads in Know How, Accesories and elsewhere. Nowt wrong with that a few have said. Well, the only negative is that this sub-forum may not quite attract some of the posters who post in specific forums and we know that quite a few people just aim to read some sub-forums and not others. I looked and quite a few people only post in General Cycling, which again is neither a criticism or approval, just an observation. If people are happy in one sub-forum, all well and good.

The other percieved problem is the amount of threads which seem to degenerate into abusive arguments, not discussion but full on arguments. Exactly why, not sure, perhaps because it's less self-policing as it has a different readership, dunno though.

So, how can a change be made to make it the same but better. Well essentially it's a beginners sub-forum is it not, at least everyone thinks it is, so it should reflect that but also reflect that beginners doesn't just mean new but less experienced. So a name change needs to reflect that and disourage it's use as a catch all forum.

No bugger had any decent suggestions so you're stuck with mine. I came up with Starting Out or Starting Out and Moving On - a forum for expanding your horizons into cycling. Maybe not perfect but you get the gist...

It was also thought, that as it's a forum which new members are likely to hit and new people to cycling as well as the Cycle Chat the modding needed to be subtely different. Namely, quicker intervention on threads which are degenerating and movement of threads which are best answered elsewhere, with a quick note to the OP as to why it's been moved.

So not huge changes but enough to subtely shift the emphasis.

 

[Cubist]

We could have a section where you could put questions on what section you should put your new threads in.

I used to work in incident rooms where ALL documentation in has to be filtered by a "Receiver". Perhaps Shaun and the mods could simply have an "inbox" and, working in shifts, send the threads to the most appropriate section themselves.

 

[MacB]

I used to work in incident rooms where ALL documentation in has to be filtered by a "Receiver". Perhaps Shaun and the mods could simply have an "inbox" and, working in shifts, send the threads to the most appropriate section themselves.

 

[lukesdad]

I also think action should be taken swifter in GC, its our shop window to new members. There is a fair bit of bullying going on in there lately. This maybe tolerated in other parts of the forum, but it should nt be in GC IMO.

 

[Crackle]

Oh yeah and Shaun. Macb only needs two forums. For Sale and Know How, he said you can block the rest as far as he's concerned.

 

[lukesdad]

Oh yeah and Shaun. Macb only needs two forums. For Sale and Know How, he said you can block the rest as far as he's concerned.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Macb only needs two forums.

That's not the only thing he needs.

 

[Shaun]

Okay, good, some positive feedback that we can use and work from.

I think a rename of this forum back to the original "Beginners" is a good move so I'll get that organised.

In terms of managing the various forums/threads etc. for content and placement, that will have to wait until I've got the forum software migration complete as it is taking up virtually all my free time at the moment.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[CopperCyclist]

The OP was serious comment. Why don t you go back and read it again, and come back to the table when you have something sensible to offer.

GC is a lot of peoples first contact with CC, It needs to be sorted.

Which is why in a way I think it's not an overly bad thing for the GC topic to be a little more 'diverse'!

 

[lukesdad]

Okay, good, some positive feedback that we can use and work from.

I think a rename of this forum back to the original "Beginners" is a good move so I'll get that organised.

In terms of managing the various forums/threads etc. for content and placement, that will have to wait until I've got the forum software migration complete as it is taking up virtually all my free time at the moment.

Cheers,
Shaun

Going back to "beginners" is the right move I think, after all GC could cover all the cycling related topics we allready have.