Incorporating Place Guides into the Regional Forums?

Talk Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by EgadBananas, Nov 17, 2013.

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  1. EgadBananas

    EgadBananas Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2009 Louisiana

    As I'm sure is the case with virtually every regional forum, there seems to be no shortage of redundant posts about people wanting travel tips for a city they're visiting. No one seems to do any sort of research to see if the same questions have been asked previously, and worse, BA has a good Place Guide section that goes widely unused. I wrote up an extensive travel guide for my area, but Todd isn't able to sticky it because it is biased and promotes outside sites, which I totally understand.

    But, it got me thinking; why not incorporate the Place Guides into the regional forums? For example, making a section right above the forum posts designated as a destination travel guide with links to Place for each state in that Regional forum. Though I've always preferred using Places, it seems a lot of people just shoot straight to the Regional forums. Incorporating one into the other may kick start an increased use in Places, as it should be.

    Would something like this be practical or even plausible?

    Cheers,
    Evan
     
    #1 EgadBananas, Nov 17, 2013
  2. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    This could be achieved with sticky threads for each regional forum, which would simply point to Places and any related City Guides for that particular regional forum.

    Sounds like a simple solution, but ...
    • Many don't read sticky threads.
    • Some people want/enjoy/need a discussion on where they should go.
    That said, it couldn't hurt.

    Any other solution would require a considerable amount of coding and couldn't be considered until the site redesign or after it.
     
    #2 Todd, Nov 17, 2013
  3. EgadBananas

    EgadBananas Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2009 Louisiana

    A simple sticky thread linking people to the Places/City Guides would be the perfect temporary solution (if a more in depth addition is practical after the redesign). Sure, not everyone would read it, but safe to say that the first post in a forum is one that virtually everyone at least notices.

    I don't wish to remove fruitful discussions, but vast majority of the threads seeking info go as follows: "Visiting New Orleans next week, where's the best place to get draft and bottle beer?" 15 redundant replies follow suit: "Avenue Pub for draft, Stein's Deli for bottles, call it a day."

    These are the types of threads that can be answered by the Places and City Guide sections...and like I said, increased traffic into those sections are a win win for everyone.

    Cheers,
    Evan
     
    #3 EgadBananas, Nov 17, 2013
  4. mrcraft

    mrcraft Grand Pooh-Bah (3,396) Dec 15, 2012 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I saw your thread in your regional forum, and I thought it was wonderful.

    I, too, wanted to see if we could reduce the number of redundant threads in our Regional - Pacific forum. I took a different approach, and it actually works okay (for now). I took most of the threads I could find via search or memory from the past 18 months or so, and created a list of hyperlinked threads. These threads contain vast amounts of useful and current information. When a poster asks about places to visit in Los Angeles or Orange County, we try to answer specific questions, but also paste this link, so we don't have to recreate the basic answers over and over.

    http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...ty-beer-guide-consolidated-ba-threads.122008/
     
    #4 mrcraft, Nov 17, 2013
  5. PaulQuinn

    PaulQuinn Initiate (0) May 27, 2011 Canada (BC)

    Northwest forum has a very good thread for Portland as well. The thread is very helpful, but since it's creation it has slipped to the second page which probably not so many people visit.

    I believe that sticking that kind of thread would be really helpful. Even if only a small part of the people searching for info would read them, it would be more than it is now. After reading, if the person still wanted to ask something they could just reply to the thread, or even create a new one if they so wish. The end result can only be an improvement.
     
    #5 PaulQuinn, Nov 18, 2013
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