The science boards

Moriarty

I really think the science boards are suffering from the split that was done a few months ago. There isn't enough traffic to justify more than one in the first place and with the current segregation I think it may be discouraging more/new people from looking at them. They're all looking distinctly sad with 2/3 threads active each (maximum) from the last 10 days.

How about sticking them all back together again? Pwease?

simu

Hmm, I have to say I agree. It was easier keeping track of what was going on when there was only one science board.

Dave

Yeah, the engineering board gets absolutely no traffic. I'm all for this.

ecksor

The engineering board was created after the split.

Woden

and where are majority of the posters that said pwease sir can we have an engineering board we need so bad pwease pwease.

i'll tell ya, there no where to be found, not posting on the forum thats where. but i'm not bitter

yes i also think the science boards should be put back together and that there is no need seperate sections not just for the traffic but also because the lines that divide the sciences aren't as rigid as those individual boards, many times biology will overlap with chemistry and what not.

and we should be promoting harmony with in the factions of science or some equally hippy like idea.

data

davej

I too agree with the above sentiments. I'm a regular reader (and irregular poster) of the science boards but i've found myself discouraged from checking them out since they've been split up..

davej

GuanYin

AFAIK originally the idea of a science was split because there was talk of a news/review front end system coming in and it probably would have been a good selling point.

I'd talked briefly to Regi about getting sponsorship for this idea (I know that some government/education types are looking for an Irish newscientst type site to sgowcase Irish science) and if as was briefly discussed, the idea of boards looking to branch off into news/review/discussion branches for technology/science etc ever did happen then those forums would probably serve a purpose. But not heard anything on the news/review and I just haven't seen Regi.

As it stands, the Biology/Med, Physics/Chemistry and Science forums do exactly the same, if not a little higher in posting than the Science alone did. But I assume the admins will let me know what they decide.

I'd suggest Maths stays though. Engineering is Data's baby.

DeVore

This whole area is really yours, Data's and Ecksors, I havent been paying a great deal of attention to it as you guys seem to have it in hand. I'm sure ecksor will have a good idea what to do, if anything...

DeV.

ArthurDent

Reunification would get the thumbs up from me too, way too cumbersome and slow moving at the moment.

AD

Dave

Originally posted by ecksor
The engineering board was created after the split.

It doesn't matter it's still in the science section.

ecksor

Well, so is the astronomy forum and that's not about to get merged into the Science forum. The point is that it isn't affected by the split in terms of traffic or management.

Woden

Originally posted by Dave
It doesn't matter it's still in the science section.

where else would you put it though? i don't think it warrants enough usage to pull it out out science and into sci/tech. a point you make yourself as it has no traffic. however it wouldn't be completely comfortable filed directly under science imo.

ecksor

Originally posted by Dataisgod
where else would you put it though? i don't think it warrants enough usage to pull it out out science and into sci/tech. a point you make yourself as it has no traffic. however it wouldn't be completely comfortable filed directly under science imo.

Agreed. We laboured over that point when it was created and I settled on where it is now. The options are, scrap it (which would be a shame, where did all the supporters of this forum go?), leave it as is, or (Cloud's suggestion) move it up out of Science and under Sci / Tech directly.

As for the other forums, I'm keeping Maths separate for definite since it has been a help for maths discussion in my estimation and I like having a maths forum. astronomy / space was around before and more than justifies itself and has a bit too much history to be going messing with it during every reshuffle

That just leaves the other three, which was the main split anyway since maths had already been created by Cloud.

Moriarty

Anything happening with this?

GuanYin

Originally posted by Moriarty
Anything happening with this?

Exactly why or how is this urgently bothering you?

I plan to have a chat about this with ecksor and regi next week (and maybe Dev if I catch him online).

I still think there is the chance of a front end link for boards if they are interested and I actually came across boards while I was in the middle of planning something similar myself. I actually have the code for such a site (well a custom SQL database and php frontend) but in the end work commitments from all involved prevented us ever doing anything with it.

If it goes ahead, the science forums may be a different place, if not and the traffic isn't there, I'll ask ecksor to change it back.

As it is, the only forum with a real down in traffic is science. Just sub the forums and you won't have to worry about the extra click anyway.