New Sub-Forum Idea

Over the last couple of months I've had several suggestions for new sub-forums. The most recent was from Paulfreespirit, who wanted to see a UK spirituality forum. There have also been suggestions for a lifestyle forum and a drugs forum. I was thinking, perhaps we could meld these ideas together into a general British Hippy lifestyle forum, covering a broad range of topics relavent to that lifestyle including parenting, food/diet, health and wellbeing, drugs and spirituality. What does everyone think? Further suggestions are welcome, and as always I want to keep this process as open and democratic as possible. My suggestion for moderator would be Dapablo, he's been around here quite a while, posts regularly, is responsible, wears the hippy badge quite well and knows his stuff when it comes to drugs and parenting. What do people think to that? Any other suggestions? And also, what would a good catch all name be for the forum? I was thinking something like 'The Campfire'. What do you think? Let me know, and once we've made some decisions, I'll get onto it.

 

A more dedicated sub forum for life and problems.

 

Hmm...Not sure about the name. Perhaps something more direct, and something that you know exactly what the forum topic is from the name.

 

Well I like the name, sounds inviting And the idea is a good one, but perhaps divide it into two subforums somehow? It seems just a little too broad to be in one subforum, so maybe one devoted to things like parently, well being, health, ect, and another for spirituality/drugs? And yes, Dapablo would make a great mod for that, so go on then!

 

Not sure if you saw my reply to your earlier suggestion, but I mentioned that the Karma Kafe is the ideal place for that. You can set yourself up a thread and talk about your life, problems etc, and people can ask you questions in that thread. Check it out For sexual/sexuality issues there is always UK Filthiness. Otherwise, there are specifically dedicated forums where a range of problems and issues can be raised on the rest of the Hipforums site.

 

A direct name might be more difficult with such a broad forum. Also, I was hoping not to have yet another UK Something Something Something forum. Something a bit more themed might be good. Plus the subtitle text can describe concretely what the forum is for.

 

We could have a couple of new forums, but would there be enough demand for it? Making the forum active and engaging is the first aim.

 

Perhaps a poll is the first step or Hipforums uk consultation. ?

 

I raised the topic of having several new forums a little while back. Everyone generally seemed to think having too many forums would be a bad idea. But the idea is open for discussion here.

 

How about a General forum? For threads that don't fit anywhere else?

 

I do tend to think that some of the Sub-forums are a little dead, and have no use really. Perhaps cutting down the amount of sub-forums is an idea.

On the other hand, a new forum would be good for those topics, but there's so many forums in the UK forum that sometimes it gets confusing as to where to post something, so it ends up on the main UK forum.

 

Nothing wrong with posting something in the main UK Forum really. Too many subforums would probably kill it off, after all. Music, Randomness and Karma Kafe are very active. Filthiness, Film and Photos are a little less active, but not dead. Some of the subforums not being active isn't a huge problem though. Protests, for example, is there to post things when events come up. Equally Arts and Crafts is a space that exists when artists/writers have something that they want to display. It could do with a bit more activity though, and really we need an active mod there to stir things up a bit and lead by example. Want a job Luke?

 

Chuckles, very kind words Mr P-P.

A suggestion - Life and Soul of the Party.

 

Maybe the answer is not to create sub forums but to use what we have at the moment and simply refresh, delete a few threads that have not been active for long time or are clearly similar to other threads. Maybe two new sub forums could be created just to give things a bit of a boost. I personally feel the Randomness forums are quiet most of the time. It is here that the action happens and also the music forums are particularly lively.

 

I don't know how to moderate a forum though.

 

I can teach you in five minutes. But the main task of moderation is not to move/delete/close threads. I end up doing that about once or twice a month maybe. The main job is to lead by example and to encourage an active forum. That requires a bit of creativity, but for someone like yourself, I can't see that being a problem

 

Agreed, in most cases new subforums are not necessary. We have plenty to work with. There's no need to delete inactive threads, but refreshing ideas are always welcome. I mentioned to you before about the trouble with one person posting too many new threads in a day. This will water down the content and means that you have a lot of inactive threads. It might also drown out other voices. But if everyone is active and posting, then there's no problem there really. I guess you've got a fresh perspective, having arrived a month ago. But there was practically nothing here about four months ago. All this has been built up from scratch. It's taken a lot of work from everyone. So from my perspective, things aren't dead. They've only just come to life!

 

Well, I don't mind. I was thinking of setting up a book swap club thing. So we exchange addresses and swap books with each other, and it could be like a circle thing. So if we have 5 people, we go around the circle, then we move on to another book and then discuss it! Sounds abit farfetched, maybe.

There would be a rule though, that only HipForum supporters can participate, and/or people above 500-1000+ posts.

 

Good name. But too similar to Parties and Protests perhaps?

 

Not a bad idea at all. Bokonon was thinking of doing something similar with music....