IT's Time For TEXAS
 

Dear Members of TalkBoard,
I believe it is time for Texas to have it's own Forum under Travel and Dining/United States.
So many questions which pop up on FT relate to DFW, HOU, AUS, SAT, that I believe that many queries can be asked and answered in a dedicated Texas Forum. As a TravelBuzz Moderator, I am always wary of moving a Texas query to the "South." (which is where Texas enquiries now go).
Thank you for your consideration...
Obscure2k

Would this new forum carry the same provision as the state of Texas? That is, by the Annexation Resolution, Texas can unilaterally decide at any point to divide into up to five states.

;)

Seriously, as a native son of the Great State of Texas (proudest and grandest, withstanding every test), and a senior mod who has oversight of "The South" forum, I'd support this proposal. ^

Why are you wary of sending Texas queries to "South"? Has there been a problem with those queries not receiving an answer? Are Texas threads overwhelming the "South" forum? (Serious questions - not just playing devils advocate.)

At first glance, I wondered "why not just make a subforum under South?" but after looking at the Destination fora, it makes as much sense as Florida having its own forum.

While not a Travel Buzz mod, I can answer that one: it's because questions about a particular place are to go in the appropriate geographic forum.

Otherwise Travel Buzz becomes one big mess and the information one is looking for isn't in the logical place you expect to find it.

I understand they need to go to the appropriate geographic forum. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with sending them to "South"?

Here is an example of a thread which would be well-served by a dedicated Texas Forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=842280

I didn't realise TX was a hot travel destination. :p
Airport is probably a different story.

The airline forms, notably AA, probably have a lot of TX-centric discussion, too.

It looks like TB might soon be 2/2! ^

Perhaps O/T, but I would never thought of Texas as being in the South.

Yes, I know it was part of the Confederacy, but it seems to me to be a completely different world than Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia. When I think of Texas, I conjure up a mental picture of the West.

In fact, I sometimes think that Texas is not only a part of the West, but the entire West. Cowboys, ranches, trail drives, shoot outs -- the works.

Nevada? Casinos.

Utah? The Mormon Tabernacle.

Colorado? One heck of a lot of snow.

California? Almost as many nutcases as Colorado has snowflakes.

But Texas -- ah, there is the real thing. How about if we move Texas to the "West" and throw out all the other states? Nobody will miss Nebraska or Montana anyhow.

6 threads in the past month (3 active in the past 10 days) don't really strike me as a major demand for a new forum.

I tend to troll (not, not that trolling ;)) the West & South fora once every couple weeks or so to see if there are any TX questions I could possibly answer. I really don't recall encountering an overwhelming # of threads.

Did numbers start counting, pardon the pun, relative to forum creation? I understood there was no firm "metrics" used as a threshold for creating a forum so would these number mean anything to anyone?

FWIW it would seem a popular enough destination IMHO to warrant a more dedicated forum or sub-forrum.

My personal criteria for new forums remains unchanged:

1) Is there a core group of FTers anxious to take 'ownership' of the forum/topic/program?
2) Is there a good possibility that an active community will develop around the forum?

Having poked around a bit, I have yet to see either of those criteria met for a Texas forum. But my mind is certainly open to it if y'all can make a case/point me to evidence that I may have missed. :)

Agreed: while Texas may or may not fit in the South culturally, it certainly does geographically.

I use the number of threads within a known time period as a measure of 'business' so they mean something to me. I've got no thresholds which a suggested topic must meet (there are other criteria I can use in making my decision), but I know 6 threads in a month is not anywhere near the point at which I would consider a new forum required.

Even though about half the threads in the South forum seem to be related to Texas, I don't see the critical mass for splitting it. The total post count just ain't there.

I suspect that pretty much all the Texans who'd answer questions about their state know where those posts are, so having them as part of the South (U.S.) forum isn't a problem.

(The New England forum is more active than the South forum, and about half its posts relate to Massachusetts, but I don't see any need for a separate Massachusetts forum either.)

By that logic, New Mexico and Arizona belong in the "South" forum as well, since they are geographically as far south as current "South" forum states such as Oklahoma and Kentucky.

That being said, I think Texas is more "South" culturally than people realize, especially when you consider the parts with the majority of population. Personally, I don't see the need for a separate forum.

Completely unnecessary. Nice idea though.

Perhaps there would be more threads if there was a forum about Texas that people could find and go to directly?

I know that travel to Dallas, Austin (music, food!), Houston (on the way to MSY!), and other places have interest for quite a number of people.

Thanks, ldsant. I see that there is a specific Florida Forum, with even a sub-forum for Orlando. Yet, one could have argued that Florida should have been shuttled to the "South." I am not great at metrics so can't tell you all of the threads which should have been moved to TX. I do know that many posts in the AA Forum could have been re-directed to the Texas Forum. If a Flyertalker would like to do the math, I would be interested in seeing how many threads were curious about airports in FL and how many threads were folks curious about airports in Texas. I would like to leave Disney out of the equation.
Thanks..
O2K

While it holds up the midwest, Texas has always been historically considered in the South; probably goes back to the Civil War.

Does this mean you are volunteering to pay my moving expenses? I'll let you keep the miles since it would be on your nickel!:D I'll just slide across the Missouri River, to Iowa.

I worked as a seasonal at the Grand Canyon in 1981. I worked with a guy from Texas. Everyone in Texas is always talking about how big everything is there. So we were standing at El Tovar Lodge looking out into the Canyon and I said to him, "I bet you don't have anything this big in Texas." He didn't miss a beat and replied, "Nope, but we sure have enough dirt to fill it in."

Texas is a lot like Russia in one sense. It's so big that it tends to span several geographical zones.

In Russia's case you have "European Russia" and "Asian Russia".

In Texas's case, Houston has a Southern feel but there's no way that El Paso could be considered Southern. :) It's definitely a Western town. And I don't really think Southern when I think of Dallas. But that's just me.

I'd support a separate forum for Texas if there were more activity in the South forum. Or if Texas being located there was causing a serious issue of some sort for our members.

But so far I see no evidence of either. I appreciate the input thus far in this thread and will continue to monitor it in the future.

No, I think you mention it is in Western of the United States is AZ, NM, CA, NV, OR, WA, UT, CO, WY, ID. Where they are in the western of United States will be remain same exact. I don't think its not to being belong to South Forums but, it is part of another central States.

I should have to consideration will create new Texas Forums. I think its good logical choice will making decision for create new Texas forums immediately. I am knowledgeable where the appropriate right forums of Texas is ELP, HOU, IAH, DFW, CRP, DAL, AUS, SAT and other specific city in Texas. Because it was number of member who usually by TravelBuzz.

Actually AZ/NM/NV/CO are considered the SOUTHWEST portion of the US. CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, AS, HI are considered the WEST geographically speaking.

Sometimes less is more. There are examples where forums are worse off when one part secedes as the audience fragments and eventually the 'Texas' finds it only attracts the hard core users rather than the casual users.

Note the precipitous drop in activity on the Qatar forum when it seceded.
(No I'm not bitter! :D)

I had, but I was being too polite to point it out ;)

Agree.

Why not give every USA State a Forum.

Like FT needs MORE clutter!

Glen

Truly amazing - a Seniors Forum was created over 3 months ago and as of today there are <30 threads in the entire forum with viewership <200. Since this was created because a member of TB wanted it so much and others just "gave in" I'm not sure why all forums shouldn't be created that are suggested.

Doesn't seem right to use metrics when one wants to make it for their case but then others can ignore those such as above because they were so adamant about a forum.

I'm sure there would be more threads in Texas and the solo traveller forum that was suggested before. If you're going to use metrics then why not shut the Seniors Forum since it's less than 10 threads a month?

It's pretty obvious that TB's process for new forums is broken. But, do you have a better solution? Are you advocating giving forums to anyone who asks? (I actually don't necessarily know that this is a horrible idea to be honest.. there are only a handful of new forum requests a year really).

I am saying that those who continue to bring up metrics should look at the reality of forums they have created and not use that as their "standing point" for whether a forum is created or not. I already supported this suggestion at the beginning as I did for solo travellers.

Seriously - if we can have gaming, etc. then why not just allow forums that people suggest to happen - give them a 6 month trial period and then if they don't get a large following delete them?

I personally think they don't do this because they don't have the guts to shut down underperforming forums. This is because when they announce plans to do so you get all the sob stories from the folks that use the forum and it would be mean to close the forum. YMMV.

Personally, I never expected the Seniors Forum to have an influx of threads and posts. Lets be honest.... that is a subset of Flyertalk.... but that does not mean it is not valuable to that subset. And I am betting that the majority of the FT members who would be considered "Senior" members do not even know the forum exists.

I have yet to visit the forum as I do not believe it would be of value to me... but I do not feel it should be deleted just due to usage... never have felt that way.

But, I can see where a "Texas" forum could centralize subjects and get more "view time" than other forums.... but then again, there is a place for the posts that seem to be working.

Texas and Scotland have much in common, with a slightly different twist. Both are at opposite ends of the climate spectrum, obviously. They were both once fully independent nations in their own right. Whereas Scotland had the misfortune to be bankrupted by the Darien fiasco and forever subjugated to simpering heathens to the South by the Treaty of Union, Texas made the foolhardy mistake of hitching itself to a psychotic neighbor to the North. I can only imagine with envy the standard of living we would enjoy today had we allowed ourselves to develop as an independent Banana Republic. Emperor Lyndon Baines Johnson would have had us join OPEC, and we would have been the envy of tin-pot dictatorships the world over. Further, the Bush family would never have had a chance to Carpetbag its way down here from Maine/Connecticut.

To deny us our own forum would be tantamount to shipping the Stone of Scone back to Westminster, wrapped in a bow and accompanied by an apology.

If you excuse me, I must return to drinking heavily (another pastime enjoyed by the citizenry of both Scotland and Texas).

So you fully support a Men's Forum being established based on your argument and logic?

That had many supporters.

Glen

Yeah, the reaction to my proposal to close down the religious traveller forum was an eye-opener to me. It told me that closing forums is well neigh impossible.

So that being the case my own personal standards for creating a forum have risen a little. From like a 2 to a 3 on a scale of 10.

As for the seniors forum, I agree that it is off to a slow start. If action doesn't pick up there in the next 6 months or so I'll try to shut it down. But if so I predict that will end up like my experience with religion: hey, I don't post or participate there, but I still read it and want it...

Sometimes posters are so fickle! ;)

But there's a community of old people out there who like the idea of the forum existing. :)

Yeah, and that used to be enough for me. But I'm more at a point where if the community doesn't put its posts where its desires lie then the utility is lost.

It's like having a community center. Everyone LIKES the idea of the community center...whether they use it or not. Becasue one day (SOON, I SWEAR) they are going to start playing basketball (EVERY DAY!). So, when that day comes (AND IT WILL, I SWEAR!!!), they really want that center there. ;)

And if we have threads where people are asking for information, and those requests are going unanswered, then that is a definite sign of a failing board.

I usually believe that any board should get a year to prove itself. However, I don't recall since I've been on TB a board going so slowly as Seniors has, and if it doesn't start to show some green shoots soon, I would probaby be willing to lower my standard. It looks more and more like we did make a mistake in approving it. I'm finding a useful comparison with pets, which was approved about the same time, and which has clearly been adopted well by the members travelling with pets.

ALCO, I loved your analogy btw. But ti must be pointed out that Scotland doesn't have its own forum either ;)

The Men's Forum? My favorite topic arises once again! :D

As a long time resident of Texas I am against the idea of a Texas forum. We already have too many of you people moving here from wacko places like my native California. We want no more of "y'all". So please stay out, and if you were here at one time and left, then please don't come back.

M8