# Success of Side Conversation and Sweet Dope Chicago? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 2, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485 "2009-06-02T15:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/1 "2009-06-02T15:46:36Z")
I rarely check out these areas, but did today as I am desperate to avoid work. 😛 Looks like they are not really getting much custom. I wondered if there has been any administrative discussion as to the benefit of continuing these “side conversations” and “sub-forums”? **The Barn House** averages maybe 1 new thread per week,with few threads generating more than 10 replies. **Sweet Home Chicago** gets a new thread maybe every other day, again with few threads reaching 10 replies. **Diner** gets fewer than one thread a week. The most active of these seems to be **Questions, Comments for SD Chicago Columns** , with a couple of new threads a week. I guess it may not really hurt anything having these down at the bottom of the list where they are easily ignored. But if the topics were included in the “main” forums, at least there would be more of a chance that I would see and participate in them more regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/2 "2009-06-02T16:51:25Z")
One major problem is that when the Barn House forum was originally included with the other “main” forums, there was an uprising of members here bitching, moaning, whinneying, mooing, and clucking their Airing o’ the Grievances to complain about pretty much everything under the sun remotely related to how Ed the Evil thrust this new forum on them. I suggested back before it started that the Barn House could be transmogrified into a general DIY/Home Repair/Home Economics/Gardening forum, with threads on those topics moved there. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/3 "2009-06-02T16:54:39Z")
Was it ever expected that they would get more traffic than this? They’re specialized forums, after all, it seems to me that’s the amount of activity one would expect. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/4 "2009-06-02T17:25:07Z")
Why does it matter if there are new forums (fora?) It’s not like they took others away to make room. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/5 "2009-06-02T18:01:27Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > One major problem is that when the Barn House forum was originally included with the other “main” forums, there was an uprising of members here bitching, moaning, whinneying, mooing, and clucking … Are you seriously suggesting that the reasons these forums get little play is because of posters’ (IMO legitimate) reactions to them? Surely at least people who have joined since their debut would be unlikely to be overly influenced by such ancient history, no? > [@](#): > > Why does it matter if there are new forums? Well, independent of the “self-promotion” aspect of the Barn House, I think at least some of the “mooers and cluckers” thought these forums unnecessarily and undesireably fragmented discussions, and cluttered the menu of choices. Makes it a _tiny_ bit more difficult to determine which forum to post in, and is _very mildly_ inconvenient to have a few more forums to check out to see if there has been any action of interest. As the old saw goes, there is a reason Google’s front page is so sparse… Even if these “negatives” are extremely small, I would suggest they ought to be determinative unless there were greater benefits outweighing them. As it has played out, it doesn’t impress me as tho there would have been any problem including the threads in all of these new areas in the previously existing forums. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/6 "2009-06-02T18:13:51Z")
**Una** , I believe, was saying that the assorted barnyard sounds resulted in the splitting of the forum into a different house, so to speak; I don’t think **Una** ’s comments were intended to have anything to do with why the fora get little play other than to note that at least one of them was originally included higher up the page, where it would be expected to get more play, and this decision was roundly heckled. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/7 "2009-06-02T18:20:40Z")
Thanks for the explanation, DSY. Didn’t catch that the first quick read through. I guess I may be in the minority, but the position doesn’t really influence me (a la ballot position). In fact I rarely check out ATMB and the 2 Comments forums, even tho they are in the first 3 slots. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/8 "2009-06-02T18:28:37Z")
And then there is the fact that some people have been begging for separate forums for politics, cats and giant zits on the back since forever and they are being told that it is somehow not possible or desirable. These dead forums must be a bit of a slap on the face for them. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/9 "2009-06-02T20:54:32Z")
I don’t know (and truly don’t care since I have no interest in them) whether it makes a difference, but the Side Conversations and SD Chicago aren’t as obvious as the main fora, **particularly** if I use the Forum Jump drop down to go from forum to forum. Using the drop down, I have to scroll to see any fora other than the main ones; the drop down shows all the main fora then the heading “Side Conversations” and nothing else unless I scroll (which I don’t). It’s not a complaint since I don’t give a ----, but they might be more popular if the display was adjusted to make the individual non-main fora more obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/10 "2009-06-02T20:58:19Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > **Una** , I believe, was saying that the assorted barnyard sounds resulted in the splitting of the forum into a different house, so to speak; I don’t think **Una** ’s comments were intended to have anything to do with why the fora get little play other than to note that at least one of them was originally included higher up the page, where it would be expected to get more play, and this decision was roundly heckled. Yes, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/success-of-side-conversation-and-sweet-dope-chicago/498485/11 "2009-06-02T21:34:57Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Yes, thank you. 's ok. It’s nice to be right for a change. 😃