Local group forums

[mario.costasa]

There has been some (-ve) discussion on the national forums on local web sites and local forums and I have been trying to address the balance

Surrey has been very helpful in the set up of www.hertstrf.org.uk and Steve was the first person I called when looking for content.

I am also making sure trf.org.uk links to local sites and hopefully you already do the same as much as possible

However I have to say I am struggling a bit arguing the case for local forums instead of the Surrey section on trf.org.uk

This is for a few reasons;

Your posts are great and would help lead the way at a national level of what a healthy forum looks like

Visibility on some of your initiatives eg the lane clearing article

An immediate welcome to new members who hit the Surrey section of the national forum before they find here




Can you help contribute to the argument for local forums ( not websites) outside trf.org.uk and the group sections?

Mario

[Dave]

There are arguments to maintain both IMO.

The Surrey TRF forum is a home to many long term and valued members. It's hosted for free on Gigatech's servers and the Surrey TRF have extensive options regarding forum mods, attachments and features; such as Tapatalk and Daily Digest.

Lastly it is immensely high on Google Rankings increasing the overall reach. Local forums encourage local activity and availability of new blood to the TRF as a whole.

On the flip side our online activity and IRL hard work, as you say, would make the national forum look great. Sharp does such a great job and works so hard he's a dire asset IMO.

If the local forums were to be incorporated somehow in the future, some thought should be aimed at how it will benefit the local groups.

Just my opinion and not spoken on behalf of other members here.

[mario.costasa]

Google search rankings is something I used for the websites but not on the local forums. Great point!!

[steve sharp]

Mario,

Many years ago when we looked into moving to a forum we did consider using the TRF forum. We analysed the TRF forum and other local forums and held group discussions before we moved to our own forum. We did have some members that wanted to use only the TRF forum.

However after much discussion we set up our own Forum due to the following reasons:

~The TRF web site could not support the facilities that we required.
~We found the layout a bit confusing and wasn't sure how much we could alter it to our specifications. Happy to explain why I think it is confusing, but having trouble describing it on this post.

The national TRF forum has probably improved and we should really check it regularly. For very important issues, we do also post to the national TRF forum.

Regards
Steve