DefinitelyDressage.com

Ok. I think that I have received enough interest that I will keep this open.
Now, I am using the original forums that Mark set up way back in the day from Ultimate Dressage.
Do we need to make changes there?

We could potentially consolidate/combine some?

Yes, I agree. Any thoughts?

You could probably have a training forum and collapse the young horse and cross training into that.

Breeding and confirmation could combine with vet forum into something around horse care.

Facilities and transport could combine with tack and equipment to something about horse and farm equipment.

You probably only need one classifieds section and not sub sections with it.

Blobs suggestion is great, IMO.

I agree it would be very helpful to consolidate the categories quite rigorously. Personally, I miss stuff because it's not in the ones I regularly visit, because there are so many options. and I might not post a question because I'm not sure how many people will see it.

I'd collapse all the not-horse related categories into the Observation lounge--most of them could be covered in individual threads rather than having their own forum (the cookbook forum, for instance--once upon a time we had a long-running "what are you cooking tonight?" or something of the kind, which was useful and fun--when it got made into a forum, people stopped posting in it.) And I'd have "Training," "horse health" and "other horse related topics" as separate fora, maybe keep the menagerie separate. And if you want a current affairs category, keep that separate, too.

Just some thoughts...

I simply use the search menu and click on Active Topics to see what had been posted recently. I agree with consolidating the forums. I like the what's fir dinner idea. I wish people would post more baking. Lol

I agree with the suggestions to greatly collapse the number of subject areas. Like the cooking thread, I think health and fitness could just be a pinned ongoing thread, and people can always post additional topics in the observation lounge.

Is Horse of the Month still used/needed? Maybe move to some type of "Best of..." archive. Also, could any obviously continuously running threads (i.e. 'game camera', which I love!) be clustered at the top of the forum list? Not sure if that makes sense.

A thought on possible consolidation:

Riding & Training (would include dressage training; young horse)
Horse & Farm Care (would include vet, farrier, grooming; tack, facilites, and transport; senior horse)
Rider Needs (would include apparel, senior rider, fitness)
Observation Lounge (including cooking and political forum)
The Menagerie


Just a suggestion, feel free to ignore all of it!

ETA: just saw some changes have been made already! So definitely feel free to ignore!

blob, keep the thoughts coming. I'm watching this thread with interest.