Tulsa Now Forum

[SXSW]

When you type "Tulsa Forum" into Google this is the site that comes up first.  So potentially new Tulsa residents and people interested in the city could use this forum as their 'front door' to Tulsa.  In that case how can we make this forum more relevant to Tulsa?  Can we structure the site differently in a more user-friendly way?  Can the moderation do a more effective job of putting topics in the appropriate subforums and deleting spam posts?  How can we recruit more active posters?  There is plenty of room for improvement and I welcome your suggestions.

[guido911]

When you type "Tulsa Forum" into Google this is the site that comes up first.  So potentially new Tulsa residents and people interested in the city could use this forum as their 'front door' to Tulsa.  In that case how can we make this forum more relevant to Tulsa?  Can we structure the site differently in a more user-friendly way?  Can the moderation do a more effective job of putting topics in the appropriate subforums and deleting spam posts?  How can we recruit more active posters?  There is plenty of room for improvement and I welcome your suggestions.

Not sure if I ever told you this, but you are a heck of a great advocate for Tulsa.

[SXSW]

Not sure if I ever told you this, but you are a heck of a great advocate for Tulsa.

Thanks, I do what I can.  

There are many just like all of us who advocate Tulsa and we need them here on this forum.  There used to be many more active posters here and it would be great to have them back, and to truly be the internet 'voice' for Tulsa.  Like I said when you type in Tulsa Forum into Google this is what comes up.  OKCTalk, when they aren't constantly acting insecure about how OKC compares to Tulsa, is a very active forum with lots of great discussion.  There is no reason why they should have a more active forum.  Another great forum that is well-moderated is Urban Ohio, mainly because the development threads are always updated and don't stray off topic like on a certain site..

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php

[TURobY]

I feel that the National & International Politics section is inappropriate on this forum. I rarely see much in that section which directly applies to a Tulsa-based forum. I personally know at least two posters who stopped visiting this forum as soon as the National & International Politics threads became the primary focus for this forum, and I know that my participation on this forum greatly decreased as well. If you want to discuss national politics, there are several other forums in which one can debate. The TulsaNow forum, in my opinion, is not the place.

[kylieosu]

I feel that the National & International Politics section is inappropriate on this forum. I rarely see much in that section which directly applies to a Tulsa-based forum. I personally know at least two posters who stopped visiting this forum as soon as the National & International Politics threads became the primary focus for this forum, and I know that my participation on this forum greatly decreased as well. If you want to discuss national politics, there are several other forums in which one can debate. The TulsaNow forum, in my opinion, is not the place.

Totally agree.

[Conan71]

I view that along the lines of saying: "I don't turn on the TV because my service provider carries MSNBC".  People can choose to ignore the parts or sections of the forum they don't like and pay attention to what they are interested in. 

IMO, it's not a matter of people over-utilizing national politics on this forum, more a matter of the local sections being under-utilized, or dominated with negative banter about Tulsa when they are utilized (i.e. the bashing of the BOK Center, dredging up the idea of Brady being a racist everytime the Brady District is mentioned).  I think there's simply a tendency for personal paradigms and politics to make it into on-line discussion, even on local sections.  It's pretty difficult to talk about a grocery store in north Tulsa without the conversation eventually turning into blaming a former mayor, current councilors, or the current administration.  More locally focused forums have been tried and they don't exist anymore.

If people don't want to read Guido, fotd, Gaspar, Wevus, myself, etc. on national politics, they don't have to click on that section.

[custosnox]

I think it woudl go a long way to make new people more welcome here.  It seems that when we get new posters that some people try their best to show them that they (they being some of the established posters) are the elite and try and put down anything the new posters say.  Of course, the national politics section seems to be an area where this happens quiet a bit.  In any case, I really think it would go a long way for posters here to NOT try so hard to prove that they are better then anyone who is new.

[custosnox]

If people don't want to read Guido, fotd, Gaspar, Wevus, myself, etc. on national politics, they don't have to click on that section.

Or pick and choose which threads to look at.  I personally try not to open a thread started by Guido or fotd, though I fail from time to time to overcome myself.

[TURobY]

If people don't want to read Guido, fotd, Gaspar, Wevus, myself, etc. on national politics, they don't have to click on that section.

Easier said than done. I utilize the "Show unread posts since last visit" link, since I don't have time to manually search every forum section.

[Conan71]

Easier said than done. I utilize the "Show unread posts since last visit" link, since I don't have time to manually search every forum section.

Same here.  Besides I was born to participate in freak shows, so it's kind of unavoidable for me. I come from a long line of carnies, there's no use in resisting.  Personally, I liked the old forum format before. 

[RecycleMichael]

Same here.  Besides I was born to participate in freak shows, so it's kind of unavoidable for me. I come from a long line of carnies, there's no use in resisting.  Personally, I liked the old forum format before. 

I wouldn't call myself a freak. I prefer abnormally engaged.

It is good to hear of the carnie lineage. I always respected that side of you.

[stageidea]

I would like to see maybe a new more modern theme used with the forums. It is somewhat old school.  Maybe even run a contest to design a new look.  Maybe even go with something better than SMF such as Invision Power Board or something.  But of course that could just be the web geek in me and it is fine the way it is.   

[Townsend]

If people don't want to read Guido, fotd, Gaspar, Wevus, myself, etc. on national politics, they don't have to click on that section.

I've attempted that.  Some of the posters tend to spread their political views into the other parts of the forum.

I hope you're successful with this.

[SXSW]

I would like to see maybe a new more modern theme used with the forums. It is somewhat old school.  Maybe even run a contest to design a new look.  Maybe even go with something better than SMF such as Invision Power Board or something.  But of course that could just be the web geek in me and it is fine the way it is.   

SMF would be better than the current format.  One thing that bugs me, and this can easily be fixed by increased moderation, is that Development & New Business should remain just that while anything else should be in either Other Discussion (non-development or political issues) or Chat & Advice (need services, information, etc.).  Also, creating a section for photos like what you see on City Data would be nice.  Streamlining the forum would be a major improvement.

[Nik]

Speaking of new boards, I've always been a fan of vBulletin which appears to be what OKCTalk uses as well. Another board I'm on that uses vB has various forums that you can opt in, which sounds like it would resolve the complaints about the Nat'l Politics thread. Users would have to individually opt in to see that forum.