Think there might be the demand for an Aussie-specific planning subforum?
Think there might be the demand for an Aussie-specific planning subforum?
Maybe. I could not be relied on to keep it fresh - you probably haven't noticed but I find it hard to be regular. I could force all the planning staff at my place of work to participate .... bwahahaha ....
Maybe the Aussies aren't really ready for on-line forums yet. The PIA forums site has been a dud. I'm not sure of the reasons - maybe because it is restricted to members only? It certainly isn't moderated as well as Cyburbia.
You could build it and see if they come ..... (I see you as a Ray Kinsella type - or should that be Kevin Costner?) ..... you just can't rely on me. Sadly Mrs Rem says the same thing.
The forum section of PIA isn't properly designed and is not user-friendly.
I dont know if there are enough Australian folks on Cyburbia to justify its existance... but hey if you are going to create one i will use it...especially now im about the write a new DCP...
The PIA one is pathetic to say the least, i looked at the young planners forum awhile back and it had nothing. But i guess they are not publicised either so i dont expect much to ever come from them.
"Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?" Zoolander
Well, I created the subforum on a trial basis. It may take a while for it to attract some activity. Let's see what happens ...
http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=48
What? No China Subforum? Come on....we gotta tow the APA party line here and spend a great deal of time and money on China's planning issues.....I think......Did anyone go to the China reception in Vegas??? I'm sure that went off without a hitch...
The One running for the door at the end of the day....ducking for cover....
Last edited by The One; 07 May 2008 at 7:58 PM. Reason: Mention extortion again and I'll have your legs broken!
On the ground, protecting the Cyburbia Shove since 2004.
It's because:Originally posted by The One
1) There's no long-established users here that understand Chinese who can moderate.
2) Due to spam, users from many IP blocks in China can only create a Cyburbia account by sending me email.
3) There's several large China-based planning message boards that are better suited to serve the day-to-day needs of Chinese planners. The short list:
http://www.china-up.com/cupbbs/index.php
http://bbs.gongzi.cn/
http://bbs.upla.cn
http://www.plansky.net/bbs/index.php
http://bbs.upr.cn
http://www.hnup.com/newbbs/index.asp
http://www.wuplan.com
http://www.upo.gov.cn
http://bbs.tranbbs.com/index.asp (transportation planning)
Of course, planners from China can join Cyburbia, but they need to send me an email so I can create their account, and they need to be at least reasonably proficient in English if they want to get the most out of this site.
If there was someone here that is fluent in French who is an established user that could be a mod, I may consider a French subforum for the Quebec crowd. (Many years ago, Cyburbia had French and Spanish subforums, but they were unmoderated.) vBulletin can be set up for multiple languages, but it takes some work.
Considering the lackluster traffic of the Planning in the UK subforum, the mods and I are pleasantly surprised that the Planning in Australia subforum has seen quite a bit of activity in the time since it first went live. We're been contemplating why, and think that it could be because ...
* Australia, like Canada and the US, is a young country, and its cities and places face many of the same issues as in North America, so Aussie planners feel relatively comfortable on Cyburbia.
* Aussies tend to be informal, so a site that is unbuttoned like Cyburbia is a good fit for them to exchange and share ideas and advice.
Why is the UK subforum slow? My wild-ass guess: there's not much to talk about. Considering that what we call "current planning" and the planning process as a whole in the UK is uniform in every municipality/council (I think), so there's not really that much to share. The "what does your community do about X?"-type questions here just aren't being asked with the same frequency in the UK, because most of the answers will be the same. One UK planning news site has a message board, but discussion is rather dry, and posting activity slow compared to Cyburbia.
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