bituminous coal forum??

what happened to the bituminous coal forum? many members here use it and can offer valuable advice to others. plus it keeps soft coal questions and answers from confusing people on the other boards because of the different burning characteristics.

I'm going to post this in the general forum now because I wqant some input to see what everyone thinks.
The Coal Dude...

Well it wasn't getting used, I moved them into the General Section. One thing I've found about forums is you want to keep the main Forums to a minimum. Matter of fact I'm about to remove the Poll section too.

I'll add it under the general topics to post any questions about bituminous there.

I also feel the bituminous forum should be restored because it has a

different following than any other forum. By putting it in general it will

not be very accessable so even used less.

Bitminous burners need a seperate area because their needs and help

are different than the anthracite community and you had provided a place

for us to post when needed.


Thank You:

BigBarney

I found a better solution for classifieds section so I can remove everything but a link to it from the frontpage. That was really my concern as I've seen too many forums that frankly had way too many sections. So I'm going to put this back this, maybe add a few others such as flue/venting section which someone else recommended in a previous post. That seems to come up quite a bit so probably deserves it's own place.

In the meantime before I get around to doing it If anybody has any suggestions for what you think should be added let me know.

This is what I'm thinking, last major change I promise so I want some input.

For the forums on the top the following:

Coal News and General Discussions
For the latest news on anthracite, your thoughts and opinions etc. A place for topics like "Pictures of your Stove" . How much you paying etc. Just like a "back porch for discussion and interesting things such as the new poll for a self starting stoker.

Anthracite Stoker Usage
Questions about stokers

Anthracite Hand fired Usage
Questions about stoves

Mechanics, Venting, Flues, Plumbing
Questions about venting, flue maintenance, coal storage and bin building.

Using Bituminous coal

General Questions
Anything that doesn't fit in the other categories.

Any suggestions? Don't do it? What do you think? Add subtract, what's needed and what isn't. I don't want to get it bloated on the front page because this forum is still relatively small. Generally these thing are discussed by the admin and mods but I have no mods. So I need some input.... I know what Berlins opinion is.

It looks like a very usable format. I'm not having any problems with it the way it is right now. I do understand that you want as few catagories on the first page a possible, otherwise the catagories near the bottom of the page tend to get ignored.

I say give it a go, if it works for you!!

I would suggest your own very-visible link to your coal ordering site. so that a potential customer can easily ask you a question that relates directly to your coal delivery business. Since this forum is an off-shoot of your business, I certainly think it is appropriate to have your link readily available. Maybe your own 'banner ad' at the top of the screen?

Thanks again for hosting, maintaining and moderating this forum It is a great wealth of community knowledge [the coal-burning community]

Greg L

Thanks for the response Greg, actually I'll be adding some other things to the front page. Just haven't figured out what yet. Latest Poll, last five topics posted etc. I'll be adding some Google ads too for the transient traffic, they won't be visible to registered and logged in users.

As far as a link to my other site I'm really not concerned about that, they all find it eventually. Kind of hard to miss when it shows up in most search results.

Removing the classifiieds is going to free up a lot of space though and since they really aren't being used heavily a simpler solution by itself is preferable.

This setup would seem to be very useable and the new additions are a

help to define each area better. Hope to see the implementation soon.


BigBarney