hey paul i've gotten contacted by a quite a few folks who were interested in attending the atlanta gtg this past weekend but who were unaware it was even going on. now that the gtg's are in their own forum, off the beaten path, so to speak, it's all that more unlikely that folks are going to see the postings about them. do you think you could put some kind of scrolling banner with gtg info across the top of the pages? even just a list of current/upcoming gtg's that's printed across the top between the forums breadcrumbs and the membership info on the right, above the "my talkbass/ rules/faq/cup" bar. a gtg isn't something that folks are going to be necessarily looking for out of the blue, so only having the announcements for one nestled away in their own forum outside the main ones is going to defeat the purpose, i think.
How about a little thing, that tells you about the GTGs in your area? Based on GeoIP info, and/or location info from your profile... that way I won't be bothered with what's on the other side of the globe.
there aren't that many get togethers scheduled at one time, i don't think a scrolling banner that listed all of them would be so bad.
I agree the GTG threads have less overall visibility, with an extra step needed to go from the OT sticky to the GTG forum. The reason I put it in the lounge, is because I thought a GTG forum should be independent of BG / DB distinctions. Maybe I'm off on this - should we put a separate GTG forum in the main forum list (say, right above Off Topic), on both the BG and DB boards? I know I'm being optimistic about DB GTG's... Maybe just a BG GTG forum, and leave OT in DB open to GTG threads if needed?
i don't think they should be in OT. it just clutters it up. there could be 5 or 6 threads at one time. I like the idea of a scrolling banner if that is possible.
I think having a seperate forum for GTG's is a good idea. Makes it easily accessible and people will see it everytime they peruse the forums. Above OT would be cool.
A scrolling banner is an interesting idea, but I'm a bit concerned about the balance of information to page clutter. Adding scrolling animation of any type to every page might be too much clutter for some people's tastes.
maybe not a scrolling banner what about a spot on every page dedicated to links to upcoming GTGs.. like right under the "Latest Supporting Member" spot?
I went ahead and moved the GTG forum into the main Bass Guitar Forums category (right above Off Topic). It really does make sense to have a separate GTG forum on the DB and BG sides, now that I think of it... Heh Anyway, the GTG forum will have a lot better visibility now.