Due to decreasing use over the years, I have decided to disable the forum functionality of the site.

Forums will still be available to view but new posts are no longer allowed.

Opinions needed (combining the forums)

Daylene Alford September 03, 2011 September 10, 2011

Forums

I have noticed that hardly anyone visits the canine and feline forums. I know it's a bit of a drag to visit the different forums when your main interest is horses. I have also noticed however, that when someone posts in this forum about something canine related they usually get a few responses. So I've been racking my brain wondering if things should be rearranged. These are the ideas I've been tossing around. 1) Leave things as they are. Hopefully things will pick up in the future. 2) Archive the current forums and start a combined forum. It would be https://colorgenetics.info/forum the old posts would stay you just wouldn't be able to add new comments Like I said I haven't decided on doing anything. I'm just considering options. Suggestions are welcome.

Monsterpony Sat, 09/03/2011 - 16:02

I will admit that I tend to forget the canine and feline portions of the forum. I think it might be interesting to combine them. You could leave most of the forum the same but have a seperate 'what color is my horse/dog/cat?" and "interesting color/pattern" for each specific species. I think the rest could easily be combined. In fact, I think having posts in the color genetics heading on all species could be interesting as we find so many analogous traits between species such as someone could post about splash being MITF and a rat/mouse expert would be able to add info on the same gene causing white patterns in their respective species.

Daylene Alford Sat, 09/03/2011 - 18:11

I don't want to just add the others to this forum. My reasoning is that this site is obviously dedicated to horses. From the equine in the url to the pictures on the side bar. I feel it would be out of place to add the other animals directly to this forum.

It may be possible to move the posts from this forum to the new forum but I would rather not do that as it would be a ton of work and it would be bad for search engines as alot of content would be changing urls.

Maigray Sat, 09/03/2011 - 22:02

I think combining might also be interesting, and I think it's a good idea. But you might also want to wait a bit before you do it. It does take time to establish forums.

Monsterpony Mon, 09/05/2011 - 15:24

Looks good to me. Would it be possible to add a genetics subsection in the general section for cross species genetic topics?

Daylene Alford Mon, 09/05/2011 - 16:40

I added an "Other Genetics" under general for anything that doesn't fit.

Good suggestion btw thank you.

Daylene Alford Sat, 09/10/2011 - 12:52

I'm bumping this back up to the top in case someone missed it. http://colorgenetics.info/forum

The way I would start the transition would be to post a notice (probably an annoying slid up type thingie) that this forum will soon be archived. Then after a week or so disable new topics but still allow comments. After new comments had mostly died off those too would be disabled.

rabbitsfizz Sat, 09/10/2011 - 13:28

It does seem a bit daft to me to piggy back a Forum that is not popular onto a Forum that is. I think you will actually lose people, by not having the Forum equine specific. I go to LB because it is a Mini Horse Forum, I would not go if it were a miniature animal Forum. Same with here- i do not actually have a lot of interest in other animal colour genetics, I have enough trouble trying to keep up with the equine ones. Plus, of course, I am NEVER going to get the hang of another new Forum, I hate change and, with the diversification, I would also be losing motivation.

Songcatcher Sat, 09/10/2011 - 15:04

I really agree with Jane. I get lost easily and have no interest in dog or cat genetics at all. Sometimes I have trouble finding my way back here. ~x(