I was thinking it would be cool if there was a section for different regions of the country/ world. For example there could be a thread for the southwest, new england, midwest, northwest, bigger states like callifornia could have their own. Having these sections would allow for reviews of headshops, suggestions of safe places to smoke, a place for activists to organize around local issues. I have seen it work very successfully on other forums. there is more discussion/support for this idea in this thread: http://forum.grasscity.com/apprentice-tokers/536058-walgreens.html
I think its been propoed before, but there are social groups for every reigon already, and i think regional sections would just turn into hook-up sections anyways.
Do you have any clue how much that would clutter the forum, not to mention all the extra work for the MODS, who do this for free, I think maybe SJ & RMJL chip in and get a bucket of chicken for a few of them and bottle of Wild Irish Rose....anyway, it would just make the forum cluttered IMHO, not to mention the beginning of threads like; "I'm not sure which region I'm in?" "I go to college here but live there, so which should region should I pick" etc... There are review threads for different regions. There is a section pretty much for anything and everything on here now. I just thinkit would be huge clusterfuck to say the least breaking it all down in sections by region, then just imagine the flame threads b/c one person does not like or wants to talk shit about another's region or city or state.
i dont see how one more section under "chill out zone" or wherever would cause clutter. All it would be is one more section on the main page with different sub sections once you are inside it. I think people will figure out which region they are in. If someone is from say chicago but going to school in seattle, im pretty sure they can manage to figure out where to post their question about a good place to smoke this weekend. This would be a way to keep shop reviews organized. As i mention in the other thread, it could also be a place for people do discuss pot friendly jobs. I think the majority of people on the city are mature enough not to troll a region just cause they dont like it. As for mods, I havent really been keeping track of how many there are or where they are from, but id guess there is at least one from every region. And i know there are forum veterans who contribute a lot to the community who could be made mods of their region. Here is a forum that i believe does regions pretty well. if you will notice, the front page is pretty clean, the regional sections (or "local get togethers") is just another section. Ive been there for years and no flame/troll problems i can remember. TotalRuckus • View forum - Local Get Togethers
Not to be an asshole, but that seems to be a rather small forum(~7000 members compared to GC's 230,000 members), this is the 260th(about?) largest forum on the web, so its a little harder to do. Also, if you think people will be smart enough to post in the right region, you probably also though people would know when to post in humor, or when to post in toking tools, yet the mods still work their asses off moving stuff around.
yeah i know its a smaller forum, but thats even more reason why it will work even better here, the regions will be more active. Of course people will be idiots and post in the worng place, but i think people will be better about it than they are with toking tools. Again, if the mods feel overworked, there are plenty of people here who seem to have been around long enough and contribute enough to be mods.
There are plenty of people who have been here for a long time. However, do they want to be mods? Also, SJ & RMJL, as well as all the mods are very selective in who become mods b/c it is a huge responsibility, and they want people they can trust, which is a big deal on a forum like this.
im sure they can find some of them that want to be mods. And yeah they should be selective. I think this is an issue best left to the mods. Since its their job, they should decide how its broken down and moderated.
It really doesn't even have to do with more work. It has to do with this community as a whole. We're a diverse group that comes together rather well, for the most part. We come together. It's one thing to have forums for different interests because people are still coming together. Having regional forums, to me, seems like a way to only bring people from certain regions together; to separate members from the whole. We're all stoners no matter where we live. If we run into other Blades along the way from our region, that's cool. The hook up potential is an issue too. We already get it in location threads. Thanks for the suggestion though. We've had others suggest it but it's just not something for us at this time.
in my experience it strengthened the community as a whole, not just regionally. But i can see your concern. Thanks for takin a look. keep on tokin