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Successful and Strong Forum websites: Urban Toronto is a great example...

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Long Island Mike

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Everyone: After a longtime personal absence - I have an observation about UT that it has enjoyed continued success and is a strong group of forums.

What makes a successful forum website work well and flourish? Is it a good relationship between UT's owners, moderators and membership?

I saw what happened to a forum site when there is token moderation at best in some subjects and when some members "bully" or intimidate
other members - especially newbies - at the now-defunct "Philadelphia Speaks" website. The problems got so bad that the ownership "pulled
the plug" on the site due to trouble especially in political - namely US national - and other numerous controversial topics.

I recall that UT had a good balance of moderation that kept topics "on track" and that problems were dealt with rationally.

I now realized that I did miss the UT Forums and am glad to see that this site has been very successful.
Adding to an interesting and good conversation is one of the best aspects of the UT Forums.
I hope to contribute to UT from time to time in 2021...Long Island Mike
 
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Most forums I frequent have waxed and waned, but UT seems to be stronger than ever. One thing I find surprising/odd about UT is that a given discussion needs to be contained to one thread, even on general topics that have been discussed for over a decade. It makes those threads essentially undigestible.
 
afransen said:
One thing I find surprising/odd about UT is that a given discussion needs to be contained to one thread, even on general topics that have been discussed for over a decade. It makes those threads essentially undigestible.
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Oh man, I know I'm just missing your meaning by overthinking this or I'm just dumb (bit of both, let's be honest) but what exactly do you mean by this?

Also, welcome back @Long Island Mike !!
 
SunriseChampion said:
Oh man, I know I'm just missing your meaning by overthinking this or I'm just dumb (bit of both, let's be honest) but what exactly do you mean by this?

Also, welcome back @Long Island Mike !!
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A thread on bike lanes/cycling infrastructure exists, and therefore all discussion of bike lanes not in that thread is essentially off-topic (though may be humoured by the mods for spell). And this is one of the few forums where mods strictly enforce staying on topic in a thread. I can see why that is necessary for the enjoyment of others but tends to be a discussion/tangent killer. I mean, how many threads remain active with thousands of posts that were started 15 years ago.

And on the indigestible threads topic, if you wanted to read the CIBC Square thread, not only would it take you a weekend to read it, the first post is about something totally different than what actually was built. You have to just off the forum (to the UT project database entry) to understand what the heck is going on.

I wonder if half the reason why this forum is still quite active is the amazing amount of highrise construction taking place in the city.

I can't really say that any of these things are wrong, UT's forum has remained quite active for a long lifespan.
 
afransen said:
I can't really say that any of these things are wrong, UT's forum has remained quite active for a long lifespan.
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Yeah, you'd know eh? ;)

2002....I was still in high school!

Thanks for expanding on your thoughts though. I understand what you mean now.
 
afransen said:
A thread on bike lanes/cycling infrastructure exists, and therefore all discussion of bike lanes not in that thread is essentially off-topic (though may be humoured by the mods for spell). And this is one of the few forums where mods strictly enforce staying on topic in a thread. I can see why that is necessary for the enjoyment of others but tends to be a discussion/tangent killer. I mean, how many threads remain active with thousands of posts that were started 15 years ago.

And on the indigestible threads topic, if you wanted to read the CIBC Square thread, not only would it take you a weekend to read it, the first post is about something totally different than what actually was built. You have to just off the forum (to the UT project database entry) to understand what the heck is going on.

I wonder if half the reason why this forum is still quite active is the amazing amount of highrise construction taking place in the city.

I can't really say that any of these things are wrong, UT's forum has remained quite active for a long lifespan.
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Don't forget about transit construction and Rob Ford's crack cocaine controversy.
 
afransen said:
A thread on bike lanes/cycling infrastructure exists, and therefore all discussion of bike lanes not in that thread is essentially off-topic (though may be humoured by the mods for spell). And this is one of the few forums where mods strictly enforce staying on topic in a thread. I can see why that is necessary for the enjoyment of others but tends to be a discussion/tangent killer. I mean, how many threads remain active with thousands of posts that were started 15 years ago.

And on the indigestible threads topic, if you wanted to read the CIBC Square thread, not only would it take you a weekend to read it, the first post is about something totally different than what actually was built. You have to just off the forum (to the UT project database entry) to understand what the heck is going on.

I wonder if half the reason why this forum is still quite active is the amazing amount of highrise construction taking place in the city.

I can't really say that any of these things are wrong, UT's forum has remained quite active for a long lifespan.
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re: indigestible threads topic - I would think most individuals who found UT didn't start from the beginning of any thread - it is there serving as a record and as historical context for what was (and stuff that you wouldn't have known about if a thread is contemporaneous to only the current proposal/information).

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
re: indigestible threads topic - I would think most individuals who found UT didn't start from the beginning of any thread - it is there serving as a record and as historical context for what was (and stuff that you wouldn't have known about if a thread is contemporaneous to only the current proposal/information).

AoD
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Most forums manage this by archiving old threads and allowing new threads to take their place. This can become a problem is very busy forums with many transient users who start the same type of thread over and over (as you see on reddit). You see it every now and then that someone jumps into a thread and asks a question that was addressed a few pages earlier, but when you see a thread has hundreds of pages they don't even contemplate going back to read up. As I said, I don't know if it is the wrong approach, I just find it unusual.
 
A fantastic resource to learn more about our city and its travails, but not enough political diversity on certain issues.

edit: lately the mods have gotten really jumpy about removing posts lol
 
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afransen said:
Most forums manage this by archiving old threads and allowing new threads to take their place. This can become a problem is very busy forums with many transient users who start the same type of thread over and over (as you see on reddit). You see it every now and then that someone jumps into a thread and asks a question that was addressed a few pages earlier, but when you see a thread has hundreds of pages they don't even contemplate going back to read up. As I said, I don't know if it is the wrong approach, I just find it unusual.
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One the strictest (maybe strictest?) forums I belonged to was Television Without Pity. They had a 5/5 rule. Before posting, either read the last 5 pages or last 5 days worth of posts, whichever made sense for the thread. I saw someone refer to the moderation there as 'fascist', but I found it nice to not be on a forum full of trolls and people repeating things over and over that had already been posted (like UT).

And like this forum, there weren't signatures. I've been on some sci-fi and gaming forums that become unreadable because every member has a signature full of gifs and jpegs and quotes that take up half a screen.
 
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