And said with pride. Nice addition Pete.

Very cool! Excited to see the new changes. :)

Cool!

Will we be given any rules for this forum?

Will some threads be moved to this forum or will they stay under General Discussion?

Great job, Pete! Looks really good and the development discussions in one place is really nice. Thanks for your work.

I, too, like the changes. However, perhaps we should take a closer look at defining the "urban core." I don't think the typical I-44/I-240/I-35 set of boundaries are the most accurate. For one, on the map it looks like an elongated oval and not a more evenly spaced ring that is representative of the city's organic history. Meadowbrook Acres is a decidedly urban neighborhood lying outside those boundaries. The Ridgecrest neighborhood on the west side of I-44 has homes that were built in the 20s and 30s. My own neighborhood is classified as an "urban" neighborhood by the U.S. Census, is just west of I-44. My question is: what defines the urban core of Oklahoma City? Highways? Demographics? Architecture? Density? Perhaps the line between urban and suburban is not so easily measured.

I agree somewhat krisb...

I would define anything within Grand Blvd the "urban core."

Pete changed how the forum topics are classified on OKCTalk. They are now separated into Urban Core and Suburban Development based upon the above geographic boundaries.

The separation between urban and suburban is not clear but we will do our best to make the distinction, even if it is a judgment call.

Hang in there while me move, consolidate and rename literally thousands of threads. Should make it much easier to find topics and information.

No problem, Pete. I'm cool with how you are reorganizing things. It just made me think of the larger philosophical question of urban vs. suburban.

I think I may need to start using the "What's new" button. 90% of the threads I read were under Metro Area Talk... are a bit more spread out now.

I love this new format! This is much more convenient, as for the most part I don't care what happens in suburban OKC. The only thing of significance for developments outside the core to me is the increase of tax dollars coming in.

I love this new format! This is much more convenient, as for the most part I don't care what happens in suburban OKC. The only thing of significance for developments outside the core to me is the increase of tax dollars coming in.

So Whole Foods and Classen Curve are irrelevant to you?

That's the goal, Platemaker!

What was happening -- obviously -- is that everything was getting dumped into one board. The site is big/active enough now that it became very hard to keep track of all the various topics. So, we had 25 forums and only a handful were very active.

So, we are spreading out the one big board into sub-categories and will make a strong attempt to keep all the development stuff organized. Typically, we had several threads about the same project because they all got buried deep in the one board.

And at the same time, are consolidating some of the other forums in the hopes the ones that remain will become more active as well.

It's all about critical mass but also keeping a balance. I think this is a step in the right direction but more tweaking is inevitable.


BTW, when I first acquired this site, we had almost 50 (!) forums and well less activity. After this process, we'll be under 20 which I think is about right.

So Whole Foods and Classen Curve are irrelevant to you?

Haha good point krisb you got me there. While technically outside of the loop, as you implied I still consider it an urban development. If Chesapeake developments are posted in the suburban section, I will indeed have a reason browse it. I was just pointing out how much easier it will be for me to navigate the site based on my priorities.

Aw Pete, you moved it out of the urban forum??? My feelings are hurt.

Aw Pete, you moved it out of the urban forum??? My feelings are hurt.

I would like to propose project Thread180 to revitalize our urban forum.

Well there are some development threads (at least for MWC) that are in the civic section and not the suburb section. I am assuming that they will moved to the right area when you get the chance. One thing though is that I can't see just the development in my suburb without searching through each unfamiliar thread title to see which area they are talking about. That's a pain. Maybe once you click into the suburb development, you can pick your city? Just a thought.

Pete, this is a horrible idea. I don't understand why you think we need all of these new fangled categories and stuff.

P.S. Might I suggest another for discussing other cities? (For those of us that need our Tulsa and Dallas fix, plus I have some pics from Stockholm today that I want to share..)

By the way Kris, perhaps it speaks to how urban OKC can be (or is) that there are quality urban areas outside the inner freeway ring. I'm ambivalent though because I do see your point as well.

Also, what about photog threads? I know I have at least 10 here, and more I can post from folders of photos I've saved up..

I agree, Spartan. Perhaps the future of urbanism in OKC is in the small pockets of urbanism spread throughout the city...like little urban villages, such as Paseo and the Plaza District.

I meant to say "small pockets of walkability/livability". Did we lose our ability to edit posts?

Yeah, it's hard to draw the suburban/urban line but I do believe those projects need to be separated.

We are planning to add a Photo Gallery forum. Just wanted to get things a bit organized before making more changes.

This really sucks, and it's not because I'm resistant to change. Why are there so many freaking forums. This is difficult for someone who has to work for a living and can't visit like 20 forums. HATE THIS. Please reopen the OKC talk forum. Please.

Why would you move the streetcar discussion out of the OKC Talk forum? This is insanity.

Can't say I'm too much of a fan, I liked having most of the topics in one place, and just going topic to topic down the line. Now I have to switch forums, remember where threads are, etc. Too much trouble.

All you have to do is use the New Posts or What's New button in the upper left of the site to see all threads and new activity consolidated.

And BTW, there are drastically FEWER forums than before. We once had almost 50(!) and now it's only about 15.

I realize that not everyone is going to like these changes but there are good reasons for them and after an adjustment period I'm confident the site will be better for them.

I don't want to see EVERY topic though. All I ever posted in or really looked at was OKC Metro Area Talk, Moore, occasionally Norman and the Current Events forum. Now I have to sort through a bunch of topics I really don't care about, or visit 8 different forums.

This really sucks, and it's not because I'm resistant to change. Why are there so many freaking forums. This is difficult for someone who has to work for a living and can't visit like 20 forums. HATE THIS. Please reopen the OKC talk forum. Please.

Why would you move the streetcar discussion out of the OKC Talk forum? This is insanity.

Guru, as a tip, you will be able to subscribe to certain threads and there is a forum feature where you can just view the threads you're subscribed to. You can also just view new threads I believe.

You'll grow to like it. And wonder how we managed without. It's craziness how everything was lumped into one forum. Other city boards have even more separation and it works very well, guru. I think activity will also jump because a good topic will be on the front page of a forum for longer. And if not, then I'll make activity go up myself..lol

I looked back at my notes and when I acquired the site a few years ago, we had 47 (!!) separate forums.

As of yesterday, we are down to 13 and I can already see the activity is spread much more evenly.

There was simply too much being dumped into one forum which resulted in multiple threads on the same subject and making it very tough to find anything.

Once we get a lot of the threads re-titled and people get used to the categories it will be much, much easier to find what interests you.

Peter, I for one happen to like the new set up. If a person just goes to NEW POSTS they have it all. You can't please everybody so you placate the majority.

I have to admit, I don't like change sometimes, but I'm sure 3 months from now everyone will be used to it and like it. There were some very diverse topics discussed in the OKC metro area talk forum, and I think it was time to divide topics up. Separating development issues and civic issues makes sense. But, there is some overlap too. Like, where would a thread on Penn Square Mall go?

Yeah, it's going to be tough to separate out some topics.

Penn Square Mall stuff is in Suburban Development, as it is outside the I-44/I-240/I-35 ring.

This new rearrangement makes it more difficult to keep with the most popular topics. Now I have to go check multiple forums. The other changes are fine, but get rid of the suburban/urban distinction please. How is the Whole Foods development suburban? THeir master plans seem to indicate the project being kind of urban in the long run... Anyway, I just like all the most popular topics in one place. THanks for everything you do. I just wanted to express my opinion.

Use "Thread Tools" for a topic you want to follow. I don't know if the email digests are set-up to mail yet, but that makes it easy if you just want to keep an eye on one (or several) threads. You can be notified with every new post or with a daily email with all posts in the thread that day.

The suburban/urban distinction may be the hardest thing to figure out. I think this is well-organized for a first shot. Pete may decide to tweak here and there as things pop-up but this is very nice, imo.

I can't find an edit button - but I didn't meant to suggest you would have to use email to subscribe to threads. You can also view your subscribed threads in your user control panel.

Anybody can start their own board if unsatisfied with this one.

Pete, I do wish the suburban towns were still in subsets.... I really don't care about Yukon or Piedmont (sorry), but I am interested in Edmond, Moore and Midwest City

Either have them all or have none.

Sorry, I don't like the new layout... I'm really kind of PO'd the Norman forum is gone. I felt like that was my little local community online, now all it is is a "Invalid Forum specified". Now all the suburbs get is a catch-all "civic matters" section. Ugh! I guess it's back to the City-Data forum for me.

Where did "faith & values" end up?

Faith & Values (along with Pets, Education, Money & Investing, Relationships, The Underground, Health & Fitness and Tech Talk) were consolidated to the Current Events & Open Topic forum.

Where did "faith & values" end up?

I could make about 15 funny jokes about this. I'm going to avoid the obvious and go with...somebody named "Wacokid" would be very concerned about this.

If people really wanted/appreciated those individual suburb forums, they should have used them more.

They all averaged under a single post per day and they often went a week or more without any posting whatsoever. Page views were very low as well.


Still, I may bring them back. Let's see how this goes for a while.

I could make about 15 funny jokes about this. I'm going to avoid the obvious and go with...somebody named "Wacokid" would be very concerned about this.

So let's hear some.

What? No tech talk? BOO! We geeks/nerds don't play well with others.

Tech Talk has been merged into Current Events and Open Topics. All the old threads are still there.

One of the reasons that page views were low on the suburb forums might have been that individual topics could not be viewed without signing in. In the morning when I'm running through the sites that I visit, I would check the MWC forum every morning, but did not click on a topic unless the title was especially compelling. I would usually wait until a day when I had more time and then log in and look at several threads at one sitting in the MWC forum as well as the the other suburb forums. Keeping the suburbs separate and opening them to viewing by anyone, might draw in more registrants and participants.


If people really wanted/appreciated those individual suburb forums, they should have used them more.

They all averaged under a single post per day and they often went a week or more without any posting whatsoever. Page views were very low as well.


Still, I may bring them back. Let's see how this goes for a while.

I have reestablished all those suburban boards and am in the process of moving the threads back.... It's going to take a while, though.

woodyrr, I didn't realize people couldn't see the posts without logging in. That should be no longer the case.

Yeah, Pete, I always wondered why one had to sign-in to see those particular threads. I realize now, since you didn't know, that it was just a glitch or something was ticked in vBulletin that wasn't supposed to be.

I also wanted to say again how much I appreciate the hard work that's gone into the new organization. It's done well, too; I think the tweaks with the suburbs will be a good thing. I also want to give a big thumbs UP to having a more general/generic kind of open topic thread. Having the tech talk and all the other chit chat makes it an interesting digital potpourri. Good job all the way around!

Sorry, Pete, but after giving this more time, I still do not like the new forum arrangement. It really takes significantly more time to find what I want. I used to just go to 2 maybe 3 forums and now I have to search through around 6. I appreciate everything you do, but think that this change has been for the worse.

Hey! The suburb area subforums are back! Cool. I was kind of PO'd when they were deleted but I will be patient and stick with it.


If people really wanted/appreciated those individual suburb forums, they should have used them more. They all averaged under a single post per day and they often went a week or more without any posting whatsoever.

Well, I haven't paid any attention to the other suburb forums, but I recall that the Norman forum was pretty active. I really like what I see there, and it's one of those pages I ended up bookmarking for my daily viewing. I really feel that OKCTalk's key to growth is by nurturing each of those local communities. The vast majority of OKCites live out in the suburbs, and OKC is so ridiculously spread out that we really need bite size pieces where we can mingle with our own. Here in Norman we have very little to do with Edmond, and vice versa.

Hey Pete--what do the forum activity trends look like since you've made the changes?

Activity is generally the same BUT with an increase in posting!

Also, posting is much more evenly spread across the the various boards...

So far, so good. We can certainly add more forums as traffic dictates.

Is there is way to make the Politics forum not show up in the results you get when using the New Posts link? That's really the only issue I have with the changes, I'd rather not have to see those threads in my unread posts listing.

Is there is way to make the Politics forum not show up in the results you get when using the New Posts link? That's really the only issue I have with the changes, I'd rather not have to see those threads in my unread posts listing.I never found it. What I do is "New Post" and then click "Politics" forum, if any, and then select "Mark This Forum Read" under Forum Tools pulldown. Then New Post again.

That is exactly what I do as well.

Is there is way to make the Politics forum not show up in the results you get when using the New Posts link? That's really the only issue I have with the changes, I'd rather not have to see those threads in my unread posts listing.

I don't believe vBulletin (the software used here at OKCTalk) allows you an option to hide a particular forum or sub-forum from view. Some forum software (Vanilla is one) will allow that kind of user control, but I don't think vBulletin gives you any options. I sure understand you though. They aggravate me sometimes and I'll only get pulled into them when I see something interesting. If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have the temptation to get pulled into the mess.

Just hit the little button on the far right of the blue bar for each forum. It will hide it from view. That is what I did for pretty much every forum before the re-organization.

Just hit the little button on the far right of the blue bar for each forum. It will hide it from view. That is what I did for pretty much every forum before the re-organization.

Unfortunately that hides the Current Events, A&E, Sports, etc. However, maybe a new section for "Premium Content" could be included and Politics lumped under that. That section has over 81,000 posts and is probably host to most of the hostility and other unpleasantries on this forum. Doing a Premium Content section, where users have to register (either for pay or free) to utilize that content would allow those of us that enjoy the other sections but prefer not to have that portion clutter our daily visits. In the end, it would also generate some more revenue fr the site as well to help Pete cover the costs.