Me thinks it's time for a new forum. it's time to move the Spain subforum over to it's own address which will allow more flexibility in running it. It gets a lot of interesting posts but having everything from I want to move to Spain now to rants about what ever isn't working. It makes more sense to break this forum off and start anew

here are several excellent examples of country specific forums. If you'll notice the Toytown (www.toytowngermany) has 45 sub forums vs 2-3 here.

And for Madrid specific http://spaintalk.multimadrid.org/groupee/forums

Its ridiculous to have one forum only for all of Spain. Even splitting into 2-3 isn't enough. I would think we could have 25-50 subforums going all very active. As I said TT (as Toytown is known) has 45 active ones. MultiMadrid has a good 20 less active ones. This verus one for British Expats.

Anyone out there up to starting a new British Expats in Spain forum and moving everything over?

Not sure what will be gained to be honest.

Sorry mate it would be a disaster if we had a sub forum for every area in Spain and dilute the forum as a whole. I'm certainly not going to start checking 6 or 7 sub forums for messages .... I think it would destroy the atmosphere of the place completely. Look at the number of active posters there are on here in Spain. If we all went our different ways it would be a shame

Must admit that I like BE exactly as it is. If it is not broken then do not mend it comes to mind but I am a relatively new member and do not have experience of other sites.

Rosemary

Agreed - why spoil a good thing.

I don't think changing or starting a new forum will make any difference, peeps will always go off thread and if the rules are to stringent then they won't use it.

If peeps are unhappy with this forum and think others work better then they have a choice either stay with this one or don't contribute any more and move on.

This is really the only one I contribute to, I'm a member of a more local one but it does not have the same atmosphere so I use it for keeping in touch with what's going on in this area. Apart from all the peeps that use BE I also like the fact the it is a bright website, good clear graphics that I understand and to my mind extremely efficient moderators that give you room to breath and express your self. Ok we may not use it in the correct fashion, I can only speak for my self and say I'm just Mrs Jojo Bloggs who really has no idea how forums are supposed to work or how to use them correctly, to be honest I don't want to learn either. I use it to have contact with like minded peeps who I may have something in common with who can help to make living in Spain easier. I think if it were to change to what you are suggesting then most probably I would give up but hopefully still keep in touch with some of the wonderful friends I have made.

I think you should of asked admin about this first before posting this as it is their website.
They have just put in another forum for chit chat and there is already eight forums for Europe alone.
I am closing this thread until you have spoken to admin about it.
jdr

Thanks jdr

I reopened this thread briefly so I could respond.

Your post is spot on. After running this site for 7 years this is the conclusion we have come to. Too many sub-forums make it difficult to navigate and the forum seems to loose its "community feel"

The best forum and discussion boards are the ones that evolve with the needs of its members and that has always been our aim with this site. Forcing new sub-forums on a membership when there is no need is counterproductive.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words about this forum, we appreciate it.

Sue