Trail Conditions

[ThisBudsforMe]

Hello, it has been long time since is used this site and frequently referenced the Trail Conditions. i may be going blind but do not see this in the forums

Wayne

 

[TomK]

Shortly after the new management took over, the Trail Conditions forums for each state disappeared. They had not been getting much traffic. Apparantly, folks are using Facebook and sites like

NewEnglandTrailConditions.com: Hiking Trail Conditions For All of New England, Every Season of the Year - NewEnglandTrailConditions.com

so I suppose the new management decided to get rid of them. As far as I am aware, users were not consulted regarding this decision.

TomK

 

[David Metsky]

They had not been getting much traffic.

Let's be honest, they were dead. And they had been dead for a long, long time. Other sites have more traffic and more engagement.

 

[TomK]

Let's be honest, they were dead. And they had been dead for a long, long time.

Well, I was trying to be charitable... But yes, to be honest, they were pretty dead - IIRC, a few state forums hadn't had a post in years...

But I didn't think it would have hurt anything to just leave them be. Although I think Tim once said that they were a magnet for spam, which needed moderator attention, and if that was the case, I can't quibble with getting rid of them.

TomK

 

[David Metsky]

Although I think Tim once said that they were a magnet for spam, which needed moderator attention

It was maybe 2 or 3 spam posts a week, but very sporatically. If they were magnets, they were pretty weak ones.

 

[peakbagger]

I thought it was an issue when only members could post on except the trail conditions that were open to the public?. That is obviously not the case now that the member approval is no longer needed. Obviously, I am new at the moderator game with no training, but the forum software seems to filter out most of the spam attempts at new sign ups and sends them to be approved or disaproved. Its pretty rare that they make it in past that step. I have had to manually remove one or two new members that made it past the vetting. In a couple of cases I have my suspicions but they havent arisen to the point where I have removed their posts.

I think the problem with the former trail conditions is that its format was poor. There was a suggested standard format that could be cut and pasted, then edited but it was easy to miss key information. I think Rocket 21 just got frustrated at the clunkiness and set up New England Trail Conditions to make it an easier format to enter and find info, but he would need to comment on the details.

 

[TomK]

It was maybe 2 or 3 spam posts a week, but very sporatically. If they were magnets, they were pretty weak ones.

In May 2019, Tim said:

I hid them to see if anyone noticed. They receive less than 2 posts per month for valuable information yet receive dozens of spam posts per week.

Tim

If it went from dozens of spam posts per week in 2019 to 2 or 3, it is another sign that these forums were dead...

TomK

 

[David Metsky]

When your forum isn't even worth spamming, you know it's not very popular.