Originally Posted by RichMSN

If it cannibalized an existing forum to the point where the existing forum no longer has any (or any meaningful) traffic, then obviously there shouldn't have been a new forum, just a refocus or rename of the old one.

I would also try to get some feedback from those who are posting (via PM and post in the forum itself) as well as try to drum up some qualitative data from those who may not post very often but who benefit (or claim they do) from the forum.

I do not consider clutter or segmentation to be a major problem within FT as it currently sits, however, there is a risk that too much specialization could minimize the impact FT can have going forward. For example, I just had a walk-through of the Midwest regional board and it has virtually no traffic whatsoever. I have little confidence that posting a question there will yield a quick response -- I could be very wrong, but this is the kind of feeling newbies would have and perhaps they would decide to find another board outside of FT to ask the question.