Hello everyone, :)

Lately I've been getting messages from several members with questions, comments, and compalints on how the Tampa/St. Pete forum is organized. So instead of getting loads of PMs, and not allowing other members to have a voice on these questions, comments, and compalints so I've decided to make this thread.

So, if you have a something ot say on how these forums are organized plese ask it here and not in an off topic manner via another thread. I've noticed some of that happening too.

Here are some things that I've had questions about:

-Should all museum threads go in the Skyway Cafe?
-What should be done with the Development News Threads, particulary the Tampa one?
-Should stadium development threads go in the main forum or the Skyway Cafe?
-Should TIA threads go in the S.C. of the main forum?

Also, I've noticed many threads have been going in the wrong forum. (or at least what I consider the wrong forum, there seems to be a real blurr in what goes where) :dunno:

Those are just some of the questions I have received. If you have any, please post them here. :hi:

The Tampa development list has bene changed to the "Tampa Development Master List" thread. I've closed it for now, but would like to unclose it eventually as long as people don't start discussing projects, and just post info on things that need to be changed or that help out and post info/renderings.

For now, if there are problems with the list itself, or the way I have changed it post it in here. :)

Edit- The last development news thread can be found here:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=450050

The Rays stadium thread doesn't belong in the Skyway Lounge. That'd development talk. Yes we've gotten away from the stadium talk specifically and we are rambling about economics but how many other threads have we gotten away from the subject on? Only to get back to it?

The Airport thread meanders around too much away from development. And really there is only so much development going to be tied to TIA.

Of course, I've got problems with all the transit threads getting dumped in the Skyway lounge. Some projects -- development of highways, roads, transit are development projects, no matter what you want to argue -- deserve to be highlighted while others that are just dump threads of wishful-thinking or catch-all projects per county could stay int he skyway.

I know there is a concern about clutter in the main forum and on the skyway lounge but isn't it important to remember that the most active threads or topics can rise to the top while unactive ones will sink off the main page? There was a time we needed a lot of stickied threads and right now -- with things slowing down -- the need isn't there. Sure, there are projects going on, others in limbo, others being newly proposed and debated while others are dead... Yet, honestly, when a WAL MART development thread is the top project being discussed in the main development forum right now, moving threads to this forum really isn't needed. The Skyway lounge should be for off-topic discussion, not a secondary development forum.

I want to publicly extend a major THANK YOU to FF for holding it down while I took a much needed vacation of sorts over the past few weeks (I needed to reset after the hellacious summer I had, topped off with losing my job last month. FF handled most things sfaik. Like me, he does this for free, and deserves a round on me (shhh!) whenever we FINALLY arrange a forum meet.

I know there is a concern about clutter in the main forum and on the skyway lounge but isn't it important to remember that the most active threads or topics can rise to the top while unactive ones will sink off the main page? There was a time we needed a lot of stickied threads and right now -- with things slowing down -- the need isn't there. Sure, there are projects going on, others in limbo, others being newly proposed and debated while others are dead... Yet, honestly, when a WAL MART development thread is the top project being discussed in the main development forum right now, moving threads to this forum really isn't needed. The Skyway lounge should be for off-topic discussion, not a secondary development forum.
It's not about traffic, it's an intermediate step in a longterm design. The Skyway Cafe was just a placeholder until the traffic counts grew a bit more. A transit forum will be created shortly, as will probably another forum or two not long after that... And one of these daaays, we might, just might, get our own URL and portal... But I'm not the only one who has to sign off on that, because the customized URL would be a first for SSC and requires a 'capitol expenditure'... lol... So, don't hold your breath on that last part, at least not just yet. :)


And yes, development is slowing... Which is part of why I created the Tampa forum; so that we could diversify our discussions without clogging the whole Florida forum.

Don't open the Tampa list thread please... In fact, all list threads should be closed. The only reason they haven't been closed, is because I haven't been getting things done in a timely manner... We have an entire forum to discuss the projects, and 10 powerful servers to do it on. Get informed, discuss, enjoy!

I think the TIA thread should go to whatever transportation-themed thread is created. I do not believe it should stay in the development forum.

And also. I think the Skyway Lounge (off-topic discussions) should be the forefront of the forum...just like how Miami has its forum.

And also. I think the Skyway Lounge (off-topic discussions) should be the forefront of the forum...just like how Miami has its forum.

I agree...

The thing is, if you're interested in off topic conversation "At the forefront" -- shouldn't you be on Tampaforums.com or something? General discussion is king and divided up here into subcategories.

The name of the site is skyscrapercity.com -- it's about development. Off topic in the Tampa forum is just gravy while the development talk is supposed to be at the forefront.

^^
If you look around the NASF section of SSC, there are quite a few forums that are set up similar to Miami's forum.

^The front forum in those cases is a catch-all forum. They have no Skybar, thus off topic discussions are kept to a minimum.... in theory.

Many subforums need to be created all over NASF, it seems.

^^
True...and I assume the mods are more strict about off-topic discussions in those areas?

I saw the mess that had to be cleaned up in the US Urban Issues Forum. I guess people were posting so much junk that you had to step in and put your foot down...then clean things up... :ohno:

That happens every few months, yeah.

^^
I don't blame you...

I also took a look at the Florida Forum and saw how many Tampa threads there were.

^The front forum in those cases is a catch-all forum. They have no Skybar, thus off topic discussions are kept to a minimum.... in theory.

Many subforums need to be created all over NASF, it seems.

Thus why the Off-Topic areas shouldn't be at the forefront (this is more of a reply to Ws, Jason, than you).


I commend you, Jason, for being able to put yoru foot down. I wish I had your resolve (because there are a few mockery forums over at FanHome that I would rather close and implement rules for -- but am stuck with odl time members and moderators who dicate what the rules shoudl be).

Don't worry John, I'm not angry or anything. So what if we have differing viewpoints on the matter. It's nothing that I'm going to start an argument over. :)

I was going to say, if Tampa wasn't linked to the Florida and Miami Forums, this is how it should be layed out

Main Forum: Tampa

*Stickies*
-Completed
-U/C
-Approved/Proposed

-----------------------------------
-Threads for each development

Sub-Forum: Skyway Lounge

**Keep the same way as now**

Sub-Forum: The Metro Development

*Stickies*
-Clearwater Thread
-St.Pete Thread
-Brandon Thread
-----------------------------
Everything else: Projects, other cities, etc

Sub-Forum: Transit and Recreational Development

-Tampa International Airport
-All Transit Discussions; Roads, Rail, HART
-Museums; Art, Children's. History


Think that can happen?

All development forums are named 'development news', regardless of where they are.

I like the Tampa/St. Pete forums set-up. I agree that the "Tampa Development Master List" should remain closed to discussion and any updates should be handled by FF or Jason. I am glad to hear there will be a seperate Transit sub-forum. I say keep the museum threads (only Art and History) in the main forum.

Thanks Jason and FF for all your work!!! Cheers:cheers:

I say keep the museum threads (only Art and History) in the main forum.



Any reason why those two museums and not the Children's Museum too? :dunno:

Hello everyone,

I would like to know what people's thoughts are on renaming the thread titles devoted to particular projects to become more uniform. For example:

Should "POSSIBLE RITZ-CARLTON TAMPA" become "Tampa: Ritz-Carlton" or "Tampa- Ritz-Carlton" if you prefer the hyphen. Or should the thread title contain more info on the project like "Tampa: Ritz-Carlton- Two 19 story towers, 269 hotel rooms, 176 condos, APR" Also, in the past, it's been said the info should be seperated by bars (which I don't know what key that is to make the bars BTW :nuts:) instead of commas.

Another example of a thread title that would be changed:

"Floridian Hotel Slated for Luxury." It could become "Tampa: Floridian Rennovation" or "Tampa- Floridian Rennovation" or the long, detailed title: "Tampa: Floridian Hotel- 19 stories, rennovation of historic hotel, 205 hotel rooms"

I wouldn't just change those two thread titles, it'd be any thread of a particular project that isn't in uniform of the style decided on. The point is to be uniform and make an easier to use forum. :)

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you. :)

That sounds like a great idea, do it, It would make searching for threads a lot easier.

GO FOR IT !!!
Florida Future:master:,
Our Tampa Bay Master and friend:bow:,
Sounds like a plan that makes more " sense ".:2cents:, :lol:.
many threads need a rename change in many other forums as well.
All here are for it, I'll bet:nuts:,
thanks for the thought.:cheers:

^Thanks for the feedback, guys. :)

Does anyone have a preference of which style of title they like the best, of the ones I mentioned in my post? Or does anyone have another style they prefer?

Simplification is prefered :)
Floridian Rennovation
and Tampa : Ritz-Carlton

^I was thinking simple too, all the numbers may make more of a mess then there already is. :crazy:

Simplification is prefered :)
Floridian Rennovation
and Tampa : Ritz-Carlton

same here,
J Brisco:),
our friend,
Simple is best.
Good plan and great thoughts !!!:cheers:

p.s. Everyone, my friends,
getting ready for my 3,000th POST, lol.

I like the information in the titles.....it is not needed for residents, but when I visit other cities forums I like to be able to scan for interesting projects, and the information on heights and such helps on that....

Steve

As I've said before, there is already a defined thread naming convention.

Look at any thread in the World P&C forums for examples (the rules of posting are there too). This what all project development threads must look like.

The naming convention I came up with was a compromise between what works best for the database, search engine spiders and what is practical (like what coding will actually fit in the field in the database).

^^
So basically, what is SSC rules...goes huh?

^Well of course the rules I write for the whole place are going to apply to the local forum that I am closest to. The problem is mine because I haven't been applying them, so nobody knows.

As I've said before, there is already a defined thread naming convention.

Look at any thread in the World P&C forums for examples (the rules of posting are there too). This what all project development threads must look like.

The naming convention I came up with was a compromise between what works best for the database, search engine spiders and what is practical (like what coding will actually fit in the field in the database).

So, should that naming convention be used? Or for now, should something simpler be used until I'm able (how do you make the "bars" or "pipes" you prefer to commas) or have time to expand it.

I personally feel for a local forum, all of the numbers in the title are unecessary clutter, that should be in the first post. That of course is coming from someone that already knows about each of the projects, but still. Sure we want to help outsiders not familiar with Tampa navigate the Tampa forum too, but that's what the development list can be used for if links are added for each project's thread in the list :dunno:

For the World forums I see the advantage of the longer version.

Either way, it needs to be changed to be more uniform. :)

^You must also remember that even in the local forums, the bulk of the page views come from people don't know that info, and are often directed here by a search engine.

Remember threads themselves come up on search engines, and the thread title is often the title of the result given there. A better made thread title inevitably places our results higher up on search engines. The more descriptive and concise the name is, the better.

Fine, then shall I begin changing them, with the template as the world forum threads?

ok sure. that's great. thank you.

Instead of putting TAMPA in front of each thread title. I think the district of Tampa the project is in should be put at the beginning of the title. :dunno:

Also, should public projects like the museums, or retail projects like IKEA be changed too?

First 3 pages are done. I did all private projects either residential, office or mixed-use. I didn't do retail projects or public projects.

Also, some thread titles have been reowrded, like the IKEA and Channelside thread.

The Museum of Art threads have been merged and the Macdill threads might be next.

When is the separate transit forum going to be created Jason? I've been waiting for the new forum layout for a while now.

For the meantime, I think the Tampa International Airport thread should be moved to the skybar.

^I put it off around the holidays when the forum was dead, and more recently I've been thinking about what I want the transportation forum to be comprised of... haven't fully figured it out... I'm slow sometimes. I'll definitely make something soon though.

FF- Dude, the renamed threads all look great.

Thank you!!!

^I put it off around the holidays when the forum was dead, and more recently I've been thinking about what I want the transportation forum to be comprised of... haven't fully figured it out... I'm slow sometimes. I'll definitely make something soon though.

Yeah. No big deal. I'm sure it takes much planning on your part. I was suggesting for the meantime however, if the Tampa International Airport thread could be moved to the skybar instead of being buried in the development forum?

I think the South Tampa Development thread that I created a while back is also buried within the development forum also. It only had a couple posts before going dead. Should all of the MacDill AFB development news be put into that thread? Or just make a separate thread for MacDill altogether?

Yeah. No big deal. I'm sure it takes much planning on your part. I was suggesting for the meantime however, if the Tampa International Airport thread could be moved to the skybar instead of being buried in the development forum?

I think the South Tampa Development thread that I created a while back is also buried within the development forum also. It only had a couple posts before going dead. Should all of the MacDill AFB development news be put into that thread? Or just make a separate thread for MacDill altogether?

We've got a couple of MacDill threads. I think I might merge them all into one "MacDill Area Development News" thread.

FF- Dude, the renamed threads all look great.

Thank you!!!

Yup. No prob. :)

We've got a couple of MacDill threads. I think I might merge them all into one "MacDill Area Development News" thread.


Sounds good enough.

it ain't that much planning. It just isn't that easy, because I'm using Tampa as a test mule for something I want to emulate with all new metro forums. I'm just being waaay tooo slooow about it. (but I have other things to consider, namely server capacity. No use adding a bunch of stuff which draws traffic that we can't handle)

^^
Yep, any website has to have sufficient server capacity to run. Especially large sites such as SSC.

Ok, I'm creating the transit forum overnight saturday. I'm going to be in there doing some other stuff, and it seems like as good a time as any. I may also create another forum. We'll have to wait and see. ;)

:cheer:

:dance:
Thanks, that should be fun...hehe, I have been looking for an excuse to use that emoticon..

Steve

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x304/wslupecki/TheTampaTransitUtopia2.jpg

The modified Tampa Transit Utopia header for the transit forum :lol:

ok, it'll be monday night... I have an uncle unexpectedly here from Pennsylvania for a few days, and he's staying at my place for the weekend.

can't expect the unexpected :lol:

I remember when my cousin stayed at my house one night. I got a phone call from my dad saying that she was coming by, and I had only one hour to tidy up the house. What a mess that was... :lol:

Yeah, the problem is that my pc is in the room he is staying in... and we don't like to make alterations to the forum while we're busy in the daytime, in case we lose something or whatever, and have downtime.

Jason and I were having a brief conversation on the Gandy thread about the proposed transit forum. It has come to his attention, that there are not a sufficient amount of related threads yet to place the transit forum online. I have highlighted what needs to be improved (that is my suggestions only) before the forum goes online (if he should put in online in the distant future).

Right now, the only REAL transit/transportation threads we have here are as follows.


TPA Airport
I-275 DT
Veterans Exwy
Crosstown Exwy
Tampa Gandy Improvements
I-4 (but that never materialized. Only has one or two posts)
Pinellas freeways (also never materialized. Only has a few posts)
HART
Local Road Closures List
Dale Mabry Palma Ceia Improvements (only has a half-dozen posts)
Several misc. threads that I cannot think of at the moment.


The I-4 and Pinellas Freeways threads need a lot more posts to survive. And we don't yet have a thread devoted to St. Pete/Clearwater Airport and PSTA (or TBARTA for that matter).

Anything regarding TBARTA is spread out within several small threads that need to be brought together. And of course the LRT discussions are also strewn throughout the forum.

Maybe make a Dale Mabry thread that would encompase the whole highway rather than just the Palma Ceia project? There is a bit of construction going on between Waters Ave. and Fletcher right now (re-paving, adding a much needed sidewalk).

Steve

I see two new sub-forums (transportation and entertainment) have been created.

And they will be worked on tonight. Feel free to move transportation threads in there if you want Jordan... The other one I'll mess with.

^^
Yippee!

I saw the new sub-forums as well. If Jordan does not get to it first, I will create a new thread for St. Pete/Clearwater Airport. I'll let you and Jordan handle all the TBARTA stuff though, for there are all those threads spread out through the forum.

Jason, btw. Did you get my P.M. regarding the renaming of the FL blackout threads?

^^
Yippee!

I saw the new sub-forums as well. If Jordan does not get to it first, I will create a new thread for St. Pete/Clearwater Airport. I'll let you and Jordan handle all the TBARTA stuff though, for there are all those threads spread out through the forum.
No, please do not start trying to do things that the staff does. Odds are high that I'll have to redo whatever you do anwyays.

besides, I just told you yesterday that I DO NOT want catch-all mega threads in there. If I do decide to have one, I will create it.

^^
If I was in your shoes Jason, I would not want another mega-thread period. Like that transportation thread that nearly went out of control. You know which one I'm referring to...

And they will be worked on tonight. Feel free to move transportation threads in there if you want Jordan... The other one I'll mess with.

Alright. I might do some thread moving throughout the day.

What's up w/ the new recreation sub forum? I know this sounds nit-picky but I thought that was what the skyway forum was for? Sorry, I'm kinda lazy and don't want to keep up with any more forums than I have too! But, if that is what everyone wants than I will deal with it.

This one will be for news, sports, politics... more like a typical skybar here, which don't normally involve transit and community discussions like it was doing. now that those kinds of discussions have taken hold, I'm branching them out a bit, so that it can grow and be more interesting for us all.

with development itself slowing down, this is a wise move from my perspective.

What about the summary for the Skyway Lounge? Shouldn't that be tweaked some to lessen confusion?

current:
Discussions about the Tampa Bay area community.... news, nightlife, attractions, sports, events, etc.

And another thing I've noticed. The Tampa International Airport thread has not yet been moved to the transportation thread. I'm not sure if anyone else had noticed that yet.

^Done.

thanks Jordan.

I say get rid of Jasonhouse. he takes this wayyyyy too seriously.

I'll never-ever be gone. I'm a co-founder.

good eye on the description... I thought that was updated... wonder where it went dammit?

Don't post often, but one thing that bothers me is that you have to backtrack from the Skyway forum to the Tampa/St.Pete forum to navigate to the other sub-forums. Would it be possible to create a direct link from sub-forum to sub-forum?

Thanks for bringing that up, Chum! I have been thinking the same thing!

^^
Me three.

While we're at it, the amount of single threads for newspaper articles has been growing lately. Usually they are articles about something we already have a thread for (i.e the recent article FloridaFuture posted about the Streetcar).

^^
Yeah, whenever possible, I just search for an old thread and post any new developments there.

Lately it seems the stickied St. Pete and Clearwater threads have been very quiet. I'm thinking we should do the same thing with the list there then what we've done with the Tampa Development thread/list:

Unsticky and lock the current threads and let them drop. Then post the new (I'll try to update them some over the next week or two) lists in their own locked, stickied thread.

All developments would get their own thread as we've been sort of doing anyway.

Any objections?

^^
Not a bad idea.

In the "Local Attractions and Entertainment" sub-forum.

Check it out! (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=633729)

Since there has been so much hijacking of certain threads for political discussions recently (and yes, I've been guilty of some of the hijacking), it seems that a thread is needed to discuss the politics of development in the Tampa Bay area.

From the thread, Should Florida have the chance to vote again for the US democratic presidential primary?

No, I think it'd be interesting to really get deep into the issues here - perhaps in a different thread. And if we're to have a political thread, perhaps we should avoid things like the War and keep it relevant - really relevant. I'd be happy to discuss why this election is crucial for those of us interested in the future of the city - Tampa as an example (of course, it's crucial for every global citizen, but to keep it pertinent, let's discuss local issues - masstrans financing, investments in public housing and education). I think it's becoming radically clear that America is undergoing a political splintering - there are no red are blue states, but there are suburbs and cities, liberal spaces and conservative spaces. Why not discuss why that is so, and why the status quo GOP agenda is exacerbating this disparity and why NO GOOD will come from a Bush clone (with more cancer and grey hair) - and keep it local.

If this is voted down, it'd be healthy to move things to the Skybar. But seeing as how we've got by far the widest range of forums for a metro area, let's start using them and discuss policy and politics - let's talk about why things are the way they are and why picking the best candidate matters. What do you say, Jason and FF? We've got real estate agents, lawyers, insightful observers, students - a good intellectual mix. Let's spice things up and try to have a mature discussion.

I'm all for using our forums, and out intelligent member base, to the fullest. However the topic itself seems to already be figured out and there would be little to discuss. Seems like to me the topic would simply become a GOP fest pretty quickly. Especially due to the fact that the vast majority of people on SSC are from one of the two major parties. (need I say which one?)

That said, I'd be willing to allow a type of thread that you describe as long as it remained strictly about how the election would effect Tampa and its development patterns. No abortion, no war, none of those topics.

However, you probably should get Jason's approval on this too.

I'm fine with the local angle proposed. One thread should be plenty I would think.

Jason and FF have given approval for this thread. Who else is in for this thread?

Hello everyone, a couple questions I would like to ask:

-Should the museum threads (art, history, children's) be moved to the Attractions sub forum? I guess they have remianed in the main forum because you could call them development. I already moved the Fire museum thread there since it was done with rennovation. The way I see it, if other attractions outside of downtown were U/C, they'd probably be in the Attractions sub-forum.

-How about a myspace and/or facebook for SSC Tampa? A good number of members have them and they could be used to get more members. :)

I know we have several smaller threads scattered around that deal with the same topic. For instance, there are a few miniscule Lowry Park threads, I think TBARTA has two threads (don't know why the second one was made in the first place). And even the TIA thread regarding the mergers, I think should be merged into the main thread.

Any other bits and pieces out there that could be put into one thread? Just like what was done with the Rays stadium threads?

I know there is little going on with development in the market, but the Skypoint thread is long past due to be moved off the construction forum. It's no longer "recently completed" and the conversation within the thread is no longer about the construction of the building as-so-much the going's-on's inside the building.

Moved might not be a proper thing to do as so much closed with people encouraged to go onto the skybar to dish about things with the building.

It's time to start closing some of the dump-all threads.

Trump Tower Tampa is dead. Period. If we want to discuss the lot, there should be a new thread. Skypoint isn't recently completed, it's 5 years old.

It'sjust a small bit of housekeeping, but please consider it.

Why bother? There's virtually nothing constructive to dicsuss about this region anymore, thus there are no discussions to maintain.

^^
Agreed, we really don't have any meaningful discussions going on here for the next several years. All of the developments we've been talking about are either done or dead. What is currently U/C is not hopping with activity.

Transit is pretty much toast for the next 50 to 60 years, unless some drastic miracle happens. The only major thing we'll see transit-wise is further de-funding and possible privatization. Even TIA has slowed down, the North Terminal will not be built til at least 2025 or 2030 and the legacy carriers are continuing to downsize and consolidate/merge.

And we can't forget about Dec. 12, 2012, when the world will end in a big fireball of Tea Partymania. :bash:

Development has happened without light rail and High Speed Rail and will happen. Now, would those things for the city increase the amount and size of developments, of course they would. But to suggest that Tampa might as well slide into the bay in total failure because light rail didn't get approved last year and HSR was cancelled by the bozo in Tallahassee is ridiculous.

Anyone have any comments on what should be done about the forum? I kind of feel like adding more area-related threads like "West Tampa Development and Discussion" and trying to limit the threads for questions and discussions.

Support or oppose?

Oppose, for now. There really are not enough people posting or enough projects going on to warrant separate forums currently. Maybe when/if development takes off again. Currently there are really only projects in Channelside and South Tampa areas, along with a few one offs in the other areas of town. IMO.

Oppose, for now. There really are not enough people posting or enough projects going on to warrant separate forums currently. Maybe when/if development takes off again. Currently there are really only projects in Channelside and South Tampa areas, along with a few one offs in the other areas of town. IMO.
Not separate forums, separate threads.

Not separate forums, separate threads.

ha, that is what I meant, thanks. :)

But, what I mean is that only about 10 threads have been active in all of November in the main forum, so I am not sure how much need there is for separate development threads. But whatever works!:cheers:

ha, that is what I meant, thanks. :)

But, what I mean is that only about 10 threads have been active in all of November in the main forum, so I am not sure how much need there is for separate development threads. But whatever works!:cheers:
Take developments in West Tampa for example. We have Victory Lofts, the new development south of it, the redevelopment push by the city, and we can include UT developments in there as well if we want to. It means that there would be a thread that will be more active and have more posts than a barely active thread with 25 posts to it.

I don't know if it would make discussions though confusing if we're talking about 4 or 5 projects in the same thread. The reason I would like to have separate threads for different parts of Tampa is because if someone wants to have an discussion or question about something going on in that region, I would rather have a thread where everyone can do that instead of making a thread of their own that will get a response and have a couple posts to it. Then it will just sit idle.

Alright guys as the new moderator I have a few ideas on how to organize our forums and I would like to hear suggestions and input from the rest of you as well. I changed the thread name to draw attention to the thread.

Current ideas:

Photo threads - Right now we are posting photos all over the place which is okay but lets say somebody from outside the area is visiting our forum well its unlikely they will check all the threads. I want create three photo threads, 2 already exist but will be stickies in the future. One is the Tampa photo thread, another is the St. Petersburg/Clearwater photo thread, and the last one is "The Rest of Tampa Bay" (we can work on the name lol).

Tampa Development Thread - I see now we have our developments scattered right now, I'm not a fan of it but as a mod I'd like to create a Tampa development thread to go along with the St. Petersburg and North Pinellas ones. I think we have enough developments to keep it active, not to mention seems like the rest of the city forums are doing it that way as well. If something maybe we can have a volunteer to post and edit current developments on the first page like the highly outdated one from 2008 that is a sticky.

Unbuilt Tampa Bay - Speaking of the development thread from 2008, I think it would be cool to develop a Tampa Bay unbuilt thread. Basically posting things that were proposed, cancelled, etc. I know with some of our long time members maybe we will luck out and have someone post stuff from bayciti from back in the day.

Organize Tampa Bay Transportation Sub Forum - I want to merge and create forums for specific parts of the Tampa Transportation Sub Forum. I'm thinking the Tampa Bay Interstate Thread because we don't really have many interstates going through the area, I think one thread would be good enough. Tampa Toll Roads thread, Hillsborough Road Thread (for roads in the county, news ,etc) and same would go for Pinellas, Pasco, etc. I'd like to do the same for the Pinellas and Hillsborough thread just call them "Pinellas Transit Thread" for example.

I think that is all for now, any ideas, suggestions, or criticism is welcome. Thanks :cheers:

The entire section should have been consolidated to just a main forum, and a single 'skyway lounge' subforum years ago, when the recession killed construction activity. Considering how dead the forum remains and likely will remain, I would still consolidate if I was still admin.

The focus should be on community building. Encouraging threads discussing local points of interest, local events, planning and transit participation and so on.

Also, the primary job of the mod is supposed to be to keep threads like the development news thread up to date, updating info, fixing dead links and so on. If the mod doesn't keep up the development thread, then only the thread's creator can edit the thread, and that rarely works for long.

Alright guys as the new moderator I have a few ideas on how to organize our forums and I would like to hear suggestions and input from the rest of you as well. I changed the thread name to draw attention to the thread.

Current ideas:

Photo threads - Right now we are posting photos all over the place which is okay but lets say somebody from outside the area is visiting our forum well its unlikely they will check all the threads. I want create three photo threads, 2 already exist but will be stickies in the future. One is the Tampa photo thread, another is the St. Petersburg/Clearwater photo thread, and the last one is "The Rest of Tampa Bay" (we can work on the name lol).

Tampa Development Thread - I see now we have our developments scattered right now, I'm not a fan of it but as a mod I'd like to create a Tampa development thread to go along with the St. Petersburg and North Pinellas ones. I think we have enough developments to keep it active, not to mention seems like the rest of the city forums are doing it that way as well. If something maybe we can have a volunteer to post and edit current developments on the first page like the highly outdated one from 2008 that is a sticky.

Unbuilt Tampa Bay - Speaking of the development thread from 2008, I think it would be cool to develop a Tampa Bay unbuilt thread. Basically posting things that were proposed, cancelled, etc. I know with some of our long time members maybe we will luck out and have someone post stuff from bayciti from back in the day.

Organize Tampa Bay Transportation Sub Forum - I want to merge and create forums for specific parts of the Tampa Transportation Sub Forum. I'm thinking the Tampa Bay Interstate Thread because we don't really have many interstates going through the area, I think one thread would be good enough. Tampa Toll Roads thread, Hillsborough Road Thread (for roads in the county, news ,etc) and same would go for Pinellas, Pasco, etc. I'd like to do the same for the Pinellas and Hillsborough thread just call them "Pinellas Transit Thread" for example.

I think that is all for now, any ideas, suggestions, or criticism is welcome. Thanks :cheers:

I love the idea of a singular photo thread. We have way too many photo threads are are just sporadically sitting here and there.

Whatever active developments we have should be merged together in some form. Again, we have way too much clutter.

The "Unbuilt Tampa Bay" thread seems to be a great idea as well. Just for the sake of discussing what we didn't get.

Transportation/Transit threads need to be cleaned up. When Jason had the dump-all thread closed, that should have been a first step to finally cleaning up all of the sporadic transportation threads, but it didn't do much of anything in the long run. Being that I'm such a transit buff, I would suggest the following improvements in that area:

*Keep all of the interstate discussions together: Like you said, we don't have a lot of interstates, and now I wonder why I even created the Pinellas Freeways thread.
*The toll roads: I kind of disagree with the merge proposal. We'll be talking about the Veterans widening quite a lot once it is underway and I don't see any sense in creating another megathread that will just be sidetracked by other projects. For now, I would like to see threads regarding the Veterans, Selmon, I-4/Selmon Connector kept separate.
Transit: I think that transit issues should be grouped by county. One thread for Hillsborough, one for Pinellas, and then one for the northern counties since there isn't much to talk about in those areas. I think we should also have one dedicated thread for rail discussions.

Just my 2 cents here.

The entire section should have been consolidated to just a main forum, and a single 'skyway lounge' subforum years ago, when the recession killed construction activity. Considering how dead the forum remains and likely will remain, I would still consolidate if I was still admin.

The focus should be on community building. Encouraging threads discussing local points of interest, local events, planning and transit participation and so on.

Also, the primary job of the mod is supposed to be to keep threads like the development news thread up to date, updating info, fixing dead links and so on. If the mod doesn't keep up the development thread, then only the thread's creator can edit the thread, and that rarely works for long.
Good points. I agree with everything but I think I will leave the subforums alone for now, but definitely going to be re-organizing threads and such. A lot of cleaning up to do so I'll need some time lol.

I love the idea of a singular photo thread. We have way too many photo threads are are just sporadically sitting here and there.

Whatever active developments we have should be merged together in some form. Again, we have way too much clutter.

The "Unbuilt Tampa Bay" thread seems to be a great idea as well. Just for the sake of discussing what we didn't get.

Transportation/Transit threads need to be cleaned up. When Jason had the dump-all thread closed, that should have been a first step to finally cleaning up all of the sporadic transportation threads, but it didn't do much of anything in the long run. Being that I'm such a transit buff, I would suggest the following improvements in that area:

*Keep all of the interstate discussions together: Like you said, we don't have a lot of interstates, and now I wonder why I even created the Pinellas Freeways thread.
*The toll roads: I kind of disagree with the merge proposal. We'll be talking about the Veterans widening quite a lot once it is underway and I don't see any sense in creating another megathread that will just be sidetracked by other projects. For now, I would like to see threads regarding the Veterans, Selmon, I-4/Selmon Connector kept separate.
Transit: I think that transit issues should be grouped by county. One thread for Hillsborough, one for Pinellas, and then one for the northern counties since there isn't much to talk about in those areas. I think we should also have one dedicated thread for rail discussions.

Just my 2 cents here.
I think I will definitely do a Tampa Bay Interstates thread, merge and close the rest. We don't have many toll roads either but maybe I'll keep those separate for now. I agree with the transit threads.

For our Skyway lounge I am also thinking a Tampa Bay Business thread for business news in the area. A Tampa Bay Politics thread for local politics. Lastly I am debating this one but a Tampa Bay Sports thread for all the sports news and talk to be in. I would especially like opinions on the sports one.

^^
Great idea!

Sports seems ok with one per team in my opinion. If traffic ever picks up, that's the way it would need to be... And you don't want to get stuck having to split threads later. That crap is tedious.

i would enjoy the sports threads, i think they deserve their own threads

Seperate threads it is.

Might I suggest one single thread in the Transportation/Infrastructure forum for all news related to bicycle and pedestrian improvements? There's quite a few things to post about that I don't think merit their own thread.

Tampa Bay Pedestrian/Cycling Discussion Thread sound okay?

Works for me!

I am going to be creating a Tampa Development News Thread soon, all the new developments and discussions for Tampa will go there. This means the Channelside development thread will be closed and will be together with the rest of Tampa. I am thinking however to possibly keep Westshore and Tampa threads separate, opinions?

WestShore developments should definitely be kept separated from everything else. Consolidating it will create a thread that is way too crowded.

Good points. I agree with everything but I think I will leave the subforums alone for now, but definitely going to be re-organizing threads and such. A lot of cleaning up to do so I'll need some time lol.


I think I will definitely do a Tampa Bay Interstates thread, merge and close the rest. We don't have many toll roads either but maybe I'll keep those separate for now. I agree with the transit threads.

On second thought, perhaps we should have a consolidated toll roads thread, even though our main discussions will be of the I-4 connector and the Veterans expansion.

WestShore developments should definitely be kept separated from everything else. Consolidating it will create a thread that is way too crowded.
See I think it might work, I mean if cities like New York can have one development thread I think we could too lol.

^^
True, if you think one thread will do, then go for it and see how it pans out.