mdrejhon
Senior Member
My vote is keep this thread separate.
Besides, it will increase web visitors and earn more ad revenue for the owner of this website.
(for explanation how, see "side note" below. I have a revenue-generating forum elsewhere.) Sometimes thread merging is important but this ain't nearly one of these cases.
And if there's too many threads, simply split "Transportation" into multiple "Transportation" subforums. Two or three; don't oversplit too quickly. The name of the game is that it increases number of web visitors.
(for explanation how, see "side note" below)
For example, I don't want to read about the jets/nojets debate.
Many others don't want to, either.
The ped tunnel is a relaxing topic that deserves to be separate.
I love the ped tunnel idea and I'll participate in this thread.
We have witnessed 4 new people coming to this thread who avoid the other thread.
See, an expanded UrbanToronto audience on a subtopic.
More people attracted, more people hanging out, more people clicking ads.
Side note:
I am a forum moderator at other websites. I run a blog/forum that earns money, so some advice to the operators of this website. It's a fine line. In my experience, excessive thread-merging can reduce advertising revenue. There is sufficient people liking this thread (more people like this thread, than dislike this thread), and it is a fresh breath of air from the jets/nojets controversy that I don't care to participate or comment on. Thread merging makes some people happy but often slightly reduces traffic because some people find such threads too big and just ignore those threads and only focus on threads of their own interests.
The more threads of interest, the more people -- to a certian point -- then when a forum gets crowded, split the forum (e.g. split "Transportation" into multiple sub-forums) -- e.g. when enough people complain, simply rough-out separate areas (e.g. stations/hubs/ports, provincial transport, municipal transport, or existing vs. new proposed/construction, etc). It's really tough, I know. A rule of thumb -- empty nightclubs don't attract many people, but overcrowded nightclubs don't fit people. You want a forum quite busy, but not too busy, to maximize number of visitors, without feeling overcrowded or too quiet. So you don't want to do excessive splitting nor merging. And the rationale of whether to keep threads merged versus simply splitting the top-level forum (e.g. "Transportation") into two or three general very clearly-delinated Transportation-related groups (not too many groups though; or people get confused). Either way, if many people prefer this thread to be merged, then go right ahead...
In splitting "Transportation" it may be a challenge to figure out how to split it, but it could be rail / bus / air areas, or transportation versus station/hub/airport/etc - or public transit versus other options (bike/walk/airport/etc) -- or Toronto versus outside-Toronto -- or provincial/federal/international(Metrolinx) versus municipals -- or city versus interregional -- It can get somewhat controversial to decide how to split a "Transportation" forum -- it can get quite contentious in my past experience but it can dramatically increase forum membership -- and increase advertising revenue -- and make a website more viable -- but it is VERY difficult decisionmaking for a forum owner. Anyway, in about 10 years, there will be a MASSIVE EXPANSION of rail transit and we might have many more people here, then.
It is my experience, watching advertising revenue flowing in, that 100-post kitchen sink threads doesn't pay website bills as reliably as still-popular surgically specific threads (especially if post count suddenly becomes 200-300 posts instead of just 100 in 1 thread). That means more funds for UrbanToronto to do more videos and pay more reporters, etc. And when a forum gets too busy (people complaining about too much forum traffic), it does better to split the top-level to two or three areas instead of one. I don't think UrbanToronto is at that point yet, but might be when a lot of Toronto transit comes online in the next ten years. Generally the guideline is if it takes less than 24 hours for threads to fall off the bottom of the screen, your forum is too busy and it's time to split the topic. Thread merging is an alternate move if the priority isn't keeping the bills paid but from a website-expansion perspective, it's not the best move.
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