News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 8.9K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.1K     0 

W

wyliepoon

Guest
I've offered a few suggestions on how to make the forum better in the past to BC (one of which was realized- the City Photos section). I guess now that Ed is running the forum, I would like to propose some more changes.

1. Section for non-Toronto urban issues

I know this is not SSP where we'll have a forum section for every part of the world, but the reality is that many people on this forum are experts on urban issues in other parts of Canada, or other parts of the world (like cdl on Europe, myself and Alvin on Asia, tayser on Australia, etc.). I think it would be nice to dedicate a section or two on non-Toronto urban issues, say one Canadian Urban Issues section (for discussion on Canadian cities), and one World Urban Issues section (for discussion on cities around the world).

2. Section dedicated to news articles

One of the big reasons why this forum is healthy right now is because of the daily dose of newspaper articles that dedicated forumers are posting. However, recently it seems like there is a problem with the re-posting of articles on the forum. I try to avoid double-posting an article by carefully checking every thread, and every page on every thread to make sure the article has not been posted already, but that takes up a lot of time. I've also noticed that some people (myself included) have posted articles inappropriately.

My proposal is to create a section just for urban issues-related articles found in the major newspapers (Star, Globe, Post, etc.). Forumers who want to post an article will post it here first (with the article heading as the subject). A thread in another section can reference the article by making a link to it. This might take a while to get used to, but I think it's worth a try.

3. Change "City Photos" to "City Photos and Videos"

Just keeping up with the times. With everybody using YouTube now, it seems like City Photos should be expanded to include posts of videos of the city.

4. Section dedicated just for forumers

A section for forumers to talk about personal stuff- personal updates, advice about careers, homes, cars, love, etc. This would also be a good place for organizing forum meets and activities.
 
A few thoughts on your ideas wylie.

1 - I don't know if dedicated sections are really all that necessary. If anything the 'Buildings and Architecture' section covers most of that. And in cases such as transit or rail projects across Canada or the World, there seems to be little problem just making a thread in the 'Transportation' section.

2 - I think the idea of referencing the article within the title of the thread is a good idea. It would make it a lot easier to be able to see what was posted. Also with more 'official' threads being made, this should help make it easier to know where a posting might be.

3 - Sounds reasonable.

4 - Isn't that what 'General Discussion' and 'Out and About' are for?
 
Antiloop,

I actually would like to see #1 realized most out of the four ideas. You're quite right that the Architecture and Transportation sections have many threads about subjects on cities other than Toronto, but I think there is room for a section on non-Toronto urban issues.

Just look at some of the threads in General Discussions... "Anyone here spent time in Amsterdam?", "Ottawa...second to Calgary in head office growth", "WSJ: Fake Towns Rise, Offering Urban Life Without the Grit", "US cities vs. Canadian cities generalization", etc. This stuff can go into the new section(s).
 
I agree with your #1 suggestion particularly. I'm always interested in reading about other cities and a specific place for such posts would work well.

Not so sure about the "personal stuff" ... it could go into General Discussions which I take to be a bit of a catch-all location at present.
 
A few suggestions I can think of off the top of my head:

*It's great that the www.urbantoronto.ca domain is finally working again (as it makes spreading the word about the forum that much easier). However, it now seems that regardless of which thread you are on, the address bar always says www.urbantoronto.ca This makes it difficult to link and such.

*Note that someone has puchased the domain www.urbantoronto.com as some sort of shuttle bus service for T.O.'s clubland. It may be worth looking into copywriting the name "Urban Toronto" before it gets taken (if it hasn't been already). If it has, maybe a new name should be in oder? Wired T.O.? Torontopia?

*I really do like the "one thread per project" idea for all the reasons stated. I really think the P&C section needed a bit of order and guidance. Although, I also think that the rest of the forum works best as a general free-for-all (within reason).

*I think UrbanToronto needs to work with the rest of T.O.'s online/blogger community. While they may be seen as competition to some, I think with all the cross-posting going on between them, it only makes sense for exposure reasons to help float all boats. Therefore, I'd think links to BlogTO, The Spacing Wire, Paved and Torontoist should be available from UrbanToronto's homepage. I think doing this, would help in the process of attaining 10,000 members.

*EZBoard used to have it so you could e-mail individual threads to people, but that option has since been disabled. It could come in handy again to get the word out about UT.

*Eventually an "article" and "photoblog" section would be good. Not just a new sub-forum, but a whole new section on the website, removed from the forum where members can post articles they've written about the city and perhaps a photoblog where some of the better pictures from the main forum can be hosted indefinitely (both at your editorial discretion of course).

*Your current idea of getting photographer and reporter volunteers is a good one! Perhaps one day "Urban Toronto" will be able to get media acreditation for press conferences, construction site tours, etc. Having 10,000 members would indeed make that much easier.

*Since the Adminstrator has access to everyone's e-mail addresses, start a database of people who want "Urban Toronto Action Alerts" whenever something is happening that the Adminstration feels the whole forum should know about instantly. This could be political in nature or just to get the word out about a pub meet or something too.

*Get the word out to columnists, politicians, architects and developers that we are watching them, talking about them and critiquing their every move! Haha.

*I know it might seem teenagerish, but start a MySpace "Urban Toronto" profile. It's currently the #1 website in the world with millions of people going there daily. Moreover, it's not only individual people with profiles, but bands, comedians, cities, social groups, politicians, the TTC, etc. It could also bring a fun tangent to the forum as well.

That's all I can think of for now!
 
One more idea. I would like to have poll features in the official threads in the Projects and Construction section that would allow forumers to rate the design of the project, say, out of five.
 
Polls are kinda irritating because whenever a new vote is cast, the thread is marked as having a new post.
 
A section for forumers to talk about personal stuff- personal updates, advice about careers, homes, cars, love, etc
Click to expand...
I have long wanted to propose a Dear Fiendish love and relationship column, sort of Dan Savage meets Cary Tennis...
 
I agree with items 1, 3, and 4 although I am slightly concerned that, with item 1, straying too far from the Toronto focus might simply create another forum like all the other skyscraper and city forums out there that are about every place and everything. I would vote against item 2 though since I think articles should be part of a discussion rather than be the discussion... I worry that a forum titled Newspaper Articles would simply lead to a mass posting of newspaper articles. Also, I think that posting the articles in the first place is probably walking a fine line legally speaking... possibly copyright infringement and definitely not helping to support freely available news sites that rely on ad revenue to stay free. Creating a place purposely for the intent of posting copyrighted materials taken from news websites could have legal ramifications for the forum admins.
 
Actually considering item 4, I would say I agree with Antiloop... General Discussions seems like as good a place as any for discussions about other topics.
 
One addition that may be worthwhile is a section, or at least organization, of any EA's that are currently taking place in Toronto or GTA. Often times they now have their own websites, or are hidden somewhere on city and provincial websites. It would be helpful to have easy reference to them so that people could either comment on them in a thread or send off their own thoughts and opinions directly too the source.
 
We will be moving the forum shortly and I've duly noted the comments here. Would love to get more ideas before we make the move.
 
I think #1 is generally covered by the rest of the sections, and Buildings and Architecture in particular. With a non-toronto section, Buildings and Architecture would be redundant.
 
I think to an extent, number #4 makes sense. The "forum" section should be things like semi-personal announcements (ie moving to/from Toronto, new gig, etc) and forum meets and/or gatherings that could become meets. It would be a place for things like the AP/BB threads, and the threads that become AP/BB threads.

General discussions would be things like non-political light news, observations about other cities (besides photothreads), basically things that fit into it already except the above.

I like how "out and about" came onto its own, for example.

---

Would a new forum host be able to have tags that would specify threads better and make searching easier?

I think for something like Projects and Construction, tags could include "Office", "Downtown", "NYCC", "Mississauga" etc, to find things quicker and reduce the "where is this again?" posts. City photos (which is really a mix of Toronto and other cities and occasional rural photos) might me another one where tags would be useful like "City updates", "905", "Other Cities", etc.

---

Finally, threads do go off topic. To an extent, I think it is okay, and this annoys some people more than others. Natural conversations often stray, threads often become a gradual shift as comparisons, or precedents are invoked. But if something goes way off topic, there should be a link to a new thread in the originating one, and vice versa, to make carrying the conversation easier (and not killing it) without disrupting the original intent of the thread (and killing it).

A mod or admin should put a message in saying "This thread's conversation on Y has drifted from topic X. This conversation continues in Thread Y (and a link)"
 
The fleur-de-lys are a nice touch, but just not very... Toronto.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top