Sub-forums

[Nifty-Chicken]

Some really good ideas, thanks! We'll add them to our list for consideration when we do our next review for changes.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Given the current legal issues concerning keeping Muscovies domestically, is that one forum you can add now?

Are you familiar with what I'm referring to? http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/RegulationsPolicies/reg2010/Muscovy%20Duck%20Final%20Rule%201%20March%202010.pdf

I think this would be a "hot topic" for keepers of Muscovies to be discussing, but it would be easy to get lost in the general duck thread.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

We probably won't be adding it any time soon, sorry. Regarding the discussion on domestic scovies, I believe you are referring to the items discussed in this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=304055

 

[Nicola]

Have you had a look at some of the BYC sister sites? TheEasyGarden.com or SufficientSelf.com about the gardening..

 

[kstaven]

Quote:
You will find that topic is picked up by the sufficient self sister forum.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

@Nifty Yes, the topic you linked is the topic I'm referring to. You also made my point. If the thread topic were in a muscovy forum it likely wouldn't have been buried, overlooked, hard to find. It is encouraging that the issue didn't go unnoticed/unaddressed here, but I did not find it when I did a search, further I would have expected to find it in a muscovy/duck thread. Anyway, I look forward to the site upgrades as they happen.

Concerning new forums, sub-forums, is the draw-back a financial one for new soft-ware? I'm wondering how we as members can help improve the site.

@Nicola, yes, I have seen the sites. Thank you. I came across sufficient self a few days ago; I saw the gardening one today.

@kstaven Please understand, with regard to birds (primary) and gardening (secondary) I don't want to surf from site to site when there is a bird forum right here. It seems odd to me that all aspects of bird discussions are welcome here, down to bird shaped soap, bird embroidered towels, and bird sculptures, but a forum (sub-forum) on gardening with birds, targeted to the bird owner verses targeted to the gardener (note the emphasis on the BIRD side, not the gardening side) is seemingly un-welcomed here -- or at least that is my impression from this thread.


@Nicola, @kstaven with regards to gardening, my handle reflects the name of my property. We have been "gardeners" for several generations and owned/operated a specialty nursery for over 20 years. I'm not inclined to spend time on hobby gardening forums. I do want to spend time concentrating on birds, raising, breeding, discussing. I would prefer to discuss gardening with birds with bird people (who also garden) NOT garden people (who happen to keep a few birds). The emphasis, understanding, and expertise that I am looking for is on the bird side, not the garden side.


Perhaps I have articulated my point in a way that someone understands. At this moment, I think the point is lost as I don't read anything that indicates anyone understands the difference in emphasis, nor the fact that I don't want to toggle from forum to forum to discuss a specific issue that fits well here. If there were a gardening with birds forum on all three sister sites, I predict the emphasis/approach will be different on all three sites thus the discussions and goals will be different. I'm sure all points of view are valuable, I just happen to want the point of view/discussion to be with bird people.

Well, that's it. I've made my pitch for whatever it's worth, understood or appreciated or not.

Nifty, thank you for the conversation, to the others as well.

 

[FireTigeris]

I understand you, I have asked for subforums and additional forums/subforums myself:

-Predators and Pest-
Dogs (My dog, your dog, they all have teeth)
Free Range Losses (so NOBODY has to post "well that's what happens when you free range/ It is the duty of the human to protect all the birds (even the really dumb ones)"
Human (kids crushing chicks, thieves, bum deals on websites)

-Pets and other Animals-
Rabbits
Horses
Dogs (with as subforum for all working dogs, IE: headers, LGD, hunters, retrievers, ADA dogs...)

-Random Ramblings? / Hobbies? / Stories of my chickens?/Other Pets-
Gardening
Rainbow Bridge/ Pet Angles (for people to post the 'I want condolences and a place to put picts of my dearly beloved pet...)

-Breeds and Showing-
Subs for the most popular breeds (Muscovy, Runners, Marans, EEers...)

-Buying Selling and Trading-
section for trades/egg trains (I want X I have Y,Z,A,B,C and egg trains/swaps)
section for 'shops' where the same things are for sale all the time in high quantities, (Soaps, towels, jewelry, drawings on commission)
section for farm equipment (tractors, seed, plants)
section for chicken/poultry equipment (egg turners, incubators, candling lights, plans or kits for coops, heat lamps, fixtures for lamps, egg creates, labels for egg creates, chicken aprons/saddles and diapers)


But the software -CANT- at this time, there are ppl working in the software community on bringing working subforums to this software, but its in very early stages- and when it crashes the whole (test) forum is down for days at a time and the info in the subforums is *GONE* so instead of being hard to find.

(took .20 seconds in the Google custom search- (at the top of each page) there are threads teaching how to use search- terms I used = Muscovy Law- currently 6th down from top)

...It would no longer exist...*poof* (unless the backup happened to catch it first) The community of ppl who use this software have alphas and bets that are -not- supported by the software (company) itself.

Until the software is capable of handling sub-forums there will not be any. the community is too large for that type of crashing and loss of information.

So the only recourse would be forums, but that would make the load time longer for ppl with slow connections also it would -further- clutter the Index page, there are already lots of categories, I already have to scroll to get around the index page, even with categories that 'collapse' I would -LOVE- for the Marans info to be separated into discreet topics with one 'chat' topic and one 'critique my bird' topic

then where the 'search' is useless right now (searching within a particular thread for particular info) that would be avoided.

It -IS- too much to go through that entire thread but there are on other options at this time.

As for the gardening thing, gardening does not change that much if you do or do not own birds, you will have to keep the poultry out, and you will have to let the manure compost first... there really doesn't seem to be that much else- if you are worried if a plant is toxic to a bird, search the plant's name and the birds name and see or post a new thread...

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Quote:
Please know that I fully understand the requests. If it turns out we don't implement any of the suggestions you (or others) have proposed, it doesn't mean that we don't understand... it may just mean we either don't agree that the pros outweigh the cons, or can't make the changes right now.

We encourage feedback and suggestions and greatly appreciate them. We hope our members recognize how tricky it is to run a forum with 80,000+ members and trying to make decisions that are best for them all individually and as a group. All decisions have both good and bad consequences in the short and long term and it's our job, based on our 11 years of experience running communities, to try to make the net positive decisions.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
Please know that I fully understand the requests. If it turns out we don't implement any of the suggestions you (or others) have proposed, it doesn't mean that we don't understand... it may just mean we either don't agree that the pros outweigh the cons, or can't make the changes right now.

We encourage feedback and suggestions and greatly appreciate them. We hope our members recognize how tricky it is to run a forum with 80,000+ members and trying to make decisions that are best for them all individually and as a group. All decisions have both good and bad consequences in the short and long term and it's our job, based on our 11 years of experience running communities, to try to make the net positive decisions.

I do understand. As I said, I also appreciate the conversation. If there is a way we can all work together to make improvements that facilitate quality discussion, I'm all in.

Thank you, again.

 

[FireTigeris]

Here it is; From the OWNER:

The discussion of sub-forums has come up quite a few times over the years. Unfortunately this forum software doesn't support them, but we do keep the suggestion on the list if / when there comes a time that we can add them and it makes sense.

<snip>

We won't be adding a gardening forum to BYC. We made that decision long ago not to be an all things forum to all people and gardening would definitely lead us way down that path.

The forum staff have discussed creating sections for different breeds, but so far the cons have outweighed the pros, but we do re-evaluate these kinds of things from time to time.

Splitting up the "ducks" section is something that may make sense at some point since that section has grown rapidly. When we do our next forum section review we'll need to determine which forums to add, remove, split, and merge.

Ok, so I explained what I knew about sub-forums and people asking for more forums, because -I- asked for more forums, and sub-forums myself... which means we -agreed-

because I have had discussions about this in the past with Nifty in the "Things we'd like to see added to the forum in 2011" thread.

If you want to talk gardening with people that do chickens mostly, start a thread, it would be in the 'hobbies' OR 'Random Ramblings' but there are similar topics in the 'Coop & Run - Design, Construction, & Maintenance' section also-

I have not read about anyone hear -yet- NOT composting first, or being able to grown young plants in ground level beds with chickens in the same exact space, the 'scratching' behavior and the eating anything green tendency are bad for a growing garden... I actually used the search and pulled that up... over and over, people with chickens keep the birds out till after harvest and let the chickens winter in the garden area, come spring they lock them (the chickens) out and replant... chicken manure sold in bags is composted already, from winter to spring planting is enough time-

So I'm biasing my -opinion- on gardening on what I read here, if its wrong, most of the gardener info here will be wrong too.​