Traveling Tae Scotland Section?

[Mike1]

I can see it now - the brandy-new Visit Scotland Tips & Ideas forum section, sponsored by Ferintosh! Hey, why was P1M running out of here so quickly???

Frankly, I think we can accomplish the same thing with a single, stickied post in Off Topic, reminding everyone to use the forum's Search function to read what's been posted in the past.

While there is really nothing wrong with seeking travel tips, we need to remember we are a kilt community and not a travel community. Do we truly need a travel advice forum? There have been some other suggestions that have held some appeal, but were not popular enough to warrant the establishment of another new forum section.

We'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see how everyone feels about the idea.

[cavscout]

I say do it. It's a good diversion from the rest of the forum and honestly, I have a lot more faith in the travel recommendations of our members than I do of the Board of Tourism office in any place.

And from a marketing perspective, it keeps visitors on this site so our advertisers get more exposure than if we all leave the site to look for information else ware that is abundant right here.

[Eujeankilt]

I agree, let's have a Scotland travel forum.

True, this is a kilt-wearers forum at first look, but it is a community of kilt-wearers. Any community has depth to it. We are more than our kilts; we ride motorcycles, own cars, travel, have hobbies and many of us have partners. I like this place because I can share this with you all and I can get to know more about others. Kilts brought us here but our interests keep us here (kilted).

Dale

[McClef]

Ah but Mike - the idea of such a forum is to encourage and enable kilted travel in Scotland!

So it's kind of killing two birds with one stone so to speak.

[wsk]

So, if this is a kilts forum, and as such we shouldn't have "off topic" sections, then should we not relegate Highland Games and Celtic Event Discussion : A place to talk about up and coming Highland Games or Celtic Events and General Celtic Music Talk : A place to talk Celtic music... to Off Topic as well?

Perhaps there could be a Kilt History and Heritage forum with sub fora that take on the various Games and Music and ancestral lands etc.

For the record I'm in favor of a Scotland forum section.

[Pour1Malt]

So, if this is a kilts forum, and as such we shouldn't have "off topic" sections, then should we not relegate Highland Games and Celtic Event Discussion : A place to talk about up and coming Highland Games or Celtic Events and General Celtic Music Talk : A place to talk Celtic music... to Off Topic as well?

Perhaps there could be a Kilt History and Heritage forum with sub fora that take on the various Games and Music and ancestral lands etc.

For the record I'm in favor of a Scotland forum section.

aye... guid points there... the Games an Music arr no kilts...

cannae think o' an argument agai'n that...

[Mike1]

aye... guid points there... the Games an Music arr no kilts...

cannae think o' an argument agai'n that...

You're absolutely correct and that elaborates what I was trying to say earlier. I don't know how far 'afield' things go before we start losing site of what we're here to do. In other words, where does it end?

"But there are a lot of people that enjoy rhubarb cream pie, so we should have a rhubarb cream pie forum section."

Here's an example of what can happen to an idea with loads of enthusiastic support. We looked at having a Pub section here on X Marks the Scot and since the appeal was pretty high, Highlandtide set up another forum on another site to accommodate those interested parties. That forum is just over a year old and sports a breath-taking total of 107 members with only 23 of them being active. And we still have members posting questions about whisky in Off Topic, when there is an entire forum section devoted to whisky at The Pub. What was really accomplished?

This suggestion for a Scotland Travel section is currently under discussion amongst the forum staff members. We've heard what you are saying, so let us see what we can pull out of our hats.

Here's what I see as a couple of possible scenarios for a Travel section -

We end up with two threads in the entire section and that only because the second person planning a trip didn't read the other thread before posting. We could easily achieve the same results with a single, static Web page and not tie up the database to do it.

Or there are multiple threads about planning a trip, which is really no different from what we already have now. And if the topic is as popular as you might think, then those threads would not be getting buried in the queue, they would always bob back up to the top.

These are the types of issues we are examining. We'll let you know a decision as soon as we have one. Patience...

[starbkjrus]

snip...

"But there are a lot of people that enjoy rhubarb cream pie, so we should have a rhubarb cream pie forum section."

...snip

I vote for that! Yes, rhubarb cream pie.

[Pour1Malt]

You're absolutely correct and that elaborates what I was trying to say earlier. I don't know how far 'afield' things go before we start losing site of what we're here to do. In other words, where does it end?

"But there are a lot of people that enjoy rhubarb cream pie, so we should have a rhubarb cream pie forum section."

Here's an example of what can happen to an idea with loads of enthusiastic support. We looked at having a Pub section here on X Marks the Scot and since the appeal was pretty high, Highlandtide set up another forum on another site to accommodate those interested parties. That forum is just over a year old and sports a breath-taking total of 107 members with only 23 of them being active. And we still have members posting questions about whisky in Off Topic, when there is an entire forum section devoted to whisky at The Pub. What was really accomplished?

This suggestion for a Scotland Travel section is currently under discussion amongst the forum staff members. We've heard what you are saying, so let us see what we can pull out of our hats.

Here's what I see as a couple of possible scenarios for a Travel section -

We end up with two threads in the entire section and that only because the second person planning a trip didn't read the other thread before posting. We could easily achieve the same results with a single, static Web page and not tie up the database to do it.

Or there are multiple threads about planning a trip, which is really no different from what we already have now. And if the topic is as popular as you might think, then those threads would not be getting buried in the queue, they would always bob back up to the top.

These are the types of issues we are examining. We'll let you know a decision as soon as we have one. Patience...

ah but...

separating the topic frae Xmarks (like wuz done wi' the pub) is a sure wa' tae kill it...

ai wuz suggestin' that we have a section OAN xmarks fur travel..

similar tae Music an Games....no aff xmarks....

whit if Ferintosh became a sponsor like "Kiltgoodies"...

wuid there bae a Ferintosh sub forum?...

no as wide o' a subject as "Traveling Tae Scotland" but it may work for "Traveling Tae Ferintosh"....

whit think ya?

[Retro Red]

As someone who is planning to visit Scotland for the first time this October (Clan Donnachaidh has their annual meeting then), I would find a central location for Scottish travel tips helpful & timely.

I don't have a problem with it initially being a "sticky" post, Mike, but I think that very soon there'd be so many replies in that single thread that looking for useful information will be little better than using the current search function. I think a seperate section like the one for Celtic music or Highland Games may eventually be called for.

Which ever route is taken, though, I hope it starts up soon while I'm still in the planning stage.
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