Canadian Forums

[EJB]

There have been a few occasions when members here have asked why there are only two forums for the vast nation of Canada. Recently on the East Canada forum there was a member who asked for a separate forum for our Atlatntic provinces.

May I make a suggestion for diving up the forums:

Atlantic (Provinces of NFLD, NS, PEI, NB)

Quebec (as you know the main language of this province is French, there is some participation here but there are over 7 million people in the province and some of these people would join here and contribute as they do on info-scan)

Ontario (Over 9 million people live here, most of them near the Great Lakes) (I would push for a Toronto or Greater Toronto Area aka GTA only forum but lets not be radical)

As for the west, I leave it up to the fine Prairie and West Coasters if they think the forums should be divided. As you might have seen Vancouver is a large city and each of these provinces do have experts.


Each and every state has its own forum and to be honest some of these states are tiny in population and in size compared to our provinces.

There are more than enough moderators here to do the job and few of the newer ones like Tonsoffun (RON) is a super guy and does a great job, perhaps it might be time for some more new blood as well.


Just my 2 cents.

Eric- GTA Ontario

 

[mciupa]

Really the only way this could come to fruition is if the areas outside of Ontario posted more.
If it doesn't happen, I'm sure we'll stay status quo

An Incident and Breaking News forum always attracts posters.

Maybe there could be regional Incident sub-forums(organized per Eric's suggestion)within the Eastern and Western Canada forums for this purpose.

 

[colby4601]

This is so unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with the way things are now.

As for an Incident and Breaking News Sub-forum, I could go for something like that.

Why don't we create a sub forum for every city, town and hamlet in Canada as well?

 

[EJB]

This is so unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with the way things are now.

As for an Incident and Breaking News Sub-forum, I could go for something like that.

Why don't we create a sub forum for every city, town and hamlet in Canada as well?

You are entitled to your opinion albeit IMO it is kind of harsh.

There are more people in Toronto than there are in Manitoba and Sask, there are more people in Toronto than there are in Alberta (GTA, anyway).



I think that Quebec and Ontario are large enough and warrent their own forums, as you saw with the threat of encryption of agencies in and around the GTA on these forums there are a great deal of us in the area and many of us are passionate about this site and forum.

I strongly feel that Quebec is absolutely under represented here. There are some mods and DB people who have done an amazing job here but we hear of very little from our second largest province.
Perhaps with their own forum there will be more 'action' from scanner fans in the area.

 

[EJB]

This is so unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with the way things are now.

As for an Incident and Breaking News Sub-forum, I could go for something like that.

Why don't we create a sub forum for every city, town and hamlet in Canada as well?

I dont think we need any breaking news sub forums, Colby, there is a place for things like that but I dont feel it is right for anyone to post stuff like murders and car crashes and stuff like that. There is one on Yahoo for Ontario and I do not post to it anymore.

Private groups or twitter accounts are ok I guess. The technology has made it very easy to give out info like this quicker.

 

[EJB]

Really the only way this could come to fruition is if the areas outside of Ontario posted more.
If it doesn't happen, I'm sure we'll stay status quo

An Incident and Breaking News forum always attracts posters.

Maybe there could be regional Incident sub-forums(organized per Eric's suggestion)within the Eastern and Western Canada forums for this purpose.

I think we should go big or go home Mike. How many of us regular posters in the eastern canada forum are from Ontario? 40, 50?

I also think that a Quebec only forum would draw some info from Infoscan and possibly get some cross posting. They could even type in French, all should be welcome.

We are worthy of your own provincial forums just like any of the US states.

There are great guys and girls here who can moderate new forums, some new blood would be appreciate I would think.

 

[WayneH]

This is so unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with the way things are now.

That could have been said quite a while back before the forums grew to what they are now.
--

I think this is a good idea and I appreciate it being brought up. My thought is to add sub-forums to West and East with the different areas. Take a look at the California forum for an example. I did this late last year as a test and I prefer it better.

I think some (or many?) have learned that if you are resistant to change on this site you best ready yourself for disappointment.

I can't guarantee anything but it's possible it could happen if the content demands it.

 

[colby4601]

I'm not saying that we need to post about murders and things of that nature, but when you have a working fire, pursuit, large accidents, it's not a bad idea.

Yes, Ontario and Quebec are large provinces, but BC is pretty bloody big too. Just because a province is large in size, doesn't mean it should be entitled to it's own forum.

There is hardly enough posts, threads and traffic within the forums that it is so clogged that we need to split everything up.

That's just my take on it.

Things can be found fairly easily and there really isn't any congestion. Obviously though, it's up to the powers that be.

 

[WayneH]

I'll be conferring with others but you are correct in that if there is not enough traffic in the CAN forums then I may not add additional ones.

 

[EJB]

That could have been said quite a while back before the forums grew to what they are now.
--

I think this is a good idea and I appreciate it being brought up. My thought is to add sub-forums to West and East with the different areas. Take a look at the California forum for an example. I did this late last year as a test and I prefer it better.

I think some (or many?) have learned that if you are resistant to change on this site you best ready yourself for disappointment.

I can't guarantee anything but it's possible it could happen if the content demands it.

Wayne: I appreciate my voice being heard on this matter.
Thats all I ask.

Eric

 

[BC_Scan]

Here we grow again ?

Yes I appreciate this idea, and all in favour of it, I enjoy reading what goes on in the rest Canada,even though I live in the best coast, when I travel across this great land I would want specific information pertaining to a given province and this would make this easier to find, case in point I was reading the thread about (new p25 system to be enc...) and found out in thread 12 that PEI is looking at a new 700 mhz system, so seeing as 2010 Olympics is wrapping up with Bell the service provider it might make sense to pick up on this used system ? Thanks Eric for this idea, and let's push it forward.

 

[EJB]

Yes I appreciate this idea, and all in favour of it, I enjoy reading what goes on in the rest Canada,even though I live in the best coast, when I travel across this great land I would want specific information pertaining to a given province and this would make this easier to find, case in point I was reading the thread about (new p25 system to be enc...) and found out in thread 12 that PEI is looking at a new 700 mhz system, so seeing as 2010 Olympics is wrapping up with Bell the service provider it might make sense to pick up on this used system ? Thanks Eric for this idea, and let's push it forward.

No thank you's necessary, it was brought up in the Eastern Canada forum and the mod there mentioned that this forum was the place to bring it up.

Hopefully something will get done, its up to the bosses of this site, I just appreciate them listening to our suggestions.

PEI needs a radio system, lol they have less people there than thety do in my GTA burb!

 

[DaveNF2G]

As a non-Canadian, may I express my support for this idea as well?

I think there should be at least separate forums for Ontario and Quebec provinces, and probably BC as well. Most of the population of Canada lives in those three provinces. Foreign visitors to Canada like me would also find the specialization helpful.

As someone already pointed out, there are over 50 forums for US states and possessions. Why not give Canada its due in forum space as well?

(...and look how balkanized the Tavern is now.)

 

[EJB]

As a non-Canadian, may I express my support for this idea as well?

I think there should be at least separate forums for Ontario and Quebec provinces, and probably BC as well. Most of the population of Canada lives in those three provinces. Foreign visitors to Canada like me would also find the specialization helpful.

As someone already pointed out, there are over 50 forums for US states and possessions. Why not give Canada its due in forum space as well?

(...and look how balkanized the Tavern is now.)

Well said Dave!

If I had my way there would be forums for the 4 Atlantic Provinces, Quebec & Ontario. I rarely check out the Western Canada forums but it seems like there is a lot of activity in every province save BC. That said make a Manitoba-Sask forum and maybe a Alberta forum tied in with B.C.

 

[Jay911]

I don't want to speak for anyone else, but my wild guess is that the BC folks hang out on their own website/forum moreso than they do here.

 

[hfxChris]

As far as the eastern part of the country goes, I can pretty much tell you the Atlantic provinces board would be nearly dead - pretty much all of the discussion from this region takes place on another website, and even then there isn't a whole lot going on there. So, I dunno.

 

[ObiHann]

I can speak for a few people here and say that because you lumped all of Canada from Ontario to NFLD as one, we don't frequent here. We stay in our own little site that gives us our own space. The attitudes you guys seem to have, that Everyone is from Ontario, and nobody else matters is a very American-centric attitude, its the same as saying we are all one province and it doesn't matter. Is there honestly no American board on this site that is quieter than others, or are they all constantly flooded with posts?
I'm starting to do into a little rant here, but what I am trying to say is the concept of Eastern Canada is flawed by design, given the population of Ontario and Quebec, the rest of us get silenced, and our numbers see very very tiny in comparison.
The most effective way to handle this is a Ontario/Quebec forum, this will obviously be very popular and busy, than Maritimes forum, though it won't be as busy, it will allow for us to have our own place and our own discussions. I have seen many posts started by Maritimers that get picked up by Easterners who provide faulty information that is only relevant to Ontario.

*Rant Over*

 

[Jay911]

I can speak for a few people here and say that because you lumped all of Canada from Ontario to NFLD as one, we don't frequent here. We stay in our own little site that gives us our own space. The attitudes you guys seem to have, that Everyone is from Ontario, and nobody else matters is a very American-centric attitude, its the same as saying we are all one province and it doesn't matter. Is there honestly no American board on this site that is quieter than others, or are they all constantly flooded with posts?
I'm starting to do into a little rant here, but what I am trying to say is the concept of Eastern Canada is flawed by design, given the population of Ontario and Quebec, the rest of us get silenced, and our numbers see very very tiny in comparison.
The most effective way to handle this is a Ontario/Quebec forum, this will obviously be very popular and busy, than Maritimes forum, though it won't be as busy, it will allow for us to have our own place and our own discussions. I have seen many posts started by Maritimers that get picked up by Easterners who provide faulty information that is only relevant to Ontario.

*Rant Over*

Whoa - I won't speak for others, but as far as I know, there was never any malicious intent in the way the forums were allocated. Let me provide a little history: Back in the early days of RR (when it was just becoming RR, having transformed from trunkedradio.net), there was only the "Canadian" forum, one forum for the entire country. I (and others) successfully argued for a split that divided the forums into two. At that time, two forums was all that the site admins would agree to. The rationale for doing so was that there was not enough traffic (messages) to warrant every province and territory having its own forum. It was a challenge to convince them that there was enough traffic to support a Western forum to be split off. The end result was what you see here now, with one forum for all those of us west of the Great Lakes, and another for everyone east.

I admit I don't frequent the Eastern forum as often as I do the Western one (though I do pop in from time to time, as I am from the East originally), but I haven't seen these posts that you mention that involve Maritimers getting overrun by people giving "information that only applies to Ontario". Can you provide some examples? Due to the population of this site and where it's located, and the fact that the site has its origins in America, you're going to see things like this, though, no matter what forum you're in. Countless times, I've seen people from Canada and/or other countries talking about some kind of aspect of scanning - in the Canadian forum, their own country forum, or some of the non-location-specific stuff like the specific hardware/manufacturer forums, etc., who subsequently get lambasted by people citing American chapter and verse on why it's "illegal" for that person - who isn't in America - to even think of doing what they're talking about. It's a reality on this site, because of the nature of its demographic.

Respectfully, as someone who's gone through the experience of negotiating a board split here, my best advice is - if you want a Maritimes section, prove to the admins that it'd be warranted, by generating enough traffic (posts/threads/topics). Now, previous discussions in this thread seem to imply that the traffic rules may be less important now and that we may soon get boards for every province (or at least more defined "regions" of Canada than just east and west), so it may be a moot point. But what I'm saying is, show them that it's needed, and that makes your argument (for a split) that much stronger.

 

[hfxChris]

The attitudes you guys seem to have, that Everyone is from Ontario, and nobody else matters is a very American-centric attitude, its the same as saying we are all one province and it doesn't matter.

I don't think I've ever seen that sort of attitude from anybody in the eastern forum...

 

[WayneH]

Since I'm not familiar with Canadian territory and what happens in the Canada forums I'd like to solicit comments from people via private email (in my sig). I'm not looking to add forums just because the geography is there; I want the forum discussion to govern what gets its own forums.

So email me please if you like this idea and have input. Thanks!