[sluttycub]

If you look at a map from some place far away, with no knowledge of how the state works, your assumptions might be correct. I live in central Ct and New York is 2 hours away, Boston 2 hours away, Springfield 1 hour away, Brattleboro Vermont - under two hours.

The highway system in Ct is so overcrowded that going across the border to southern NY during any commuter time adds at least 45 minutes to that trip.

New England is a huge area geographically and combining it together makes little sense. No one in Northern Vermont, New Hampshire or Down East Maine is going to be looking at southern New England as a viable hunting grounds for hookups. You have California split up into different areas for just that reason. No one in San Francisco is going to drive to LA for a hummer, the same applies to someone from Bar Harbor driving to Boston for the same thing.

I suggest that you combined the forums in a hope to make them all appear busier. More states combined should equate to more traffic on each forum, making it seem like there is more activity than there really is.

There are lots of things you could do to make the sight busier and perhaps making the sight easier to navigate, more user friendly, and responding to your target audiences concerns would do the trick.

Telling TV Slut how to better use her time borders on the rude. If she wants to track the posts and their responses or lack thereof, more power to her. You have proof she is reading all the posts.

The new format has kept me from using the sight in a long time, and continues to be a fustration. Craig's list, and other sites allow users to pinpoint exactly where they want to search, post, etc. Why can't CFS adopt that kind of approach?

[Keith]

Originally Posted by sluttycub

New England is a huge area geographically and combining it together makes little sense. No one in Northern Vermont, New Hampshire or Down East Maine is going to be looking at southern New England as a viable hunting grounds for hookups. You have California split up into different areas for just that reason. No one in San Francisco is going to drive to LA for a hummer, the same applies to someone from Bar Harbor driving to Boston for the same thing.

I've lived in New England and when I did, on more than one occasion I was more than willing to cross state lines to get some. The comparison between New England and Northern and Southern California (I've lived in both those places, too) just doesn't hold up for me. It takes about 7 hours to get from SF to LA, driving fast and with little traffic (like that happens often!). In 7 hours I can get from Provincetown to Montreal, allowing me to cross over a great deal of New England on my way to another country.

Again, speaking as someone who has lived in San Francisco and San Diego, and also Provincetown, when I lived in San Francisco it was a very narrowly defined world. No one would think of heading to Fresno to get some. In San Diego no one would think of going to LA to get laid because the traffic is bad and the mindset of each city tends to look down on the other. On the other hand, my impression of many New Englanders was that going from Provincetown to Providence to Boston to Portsmouth was not a huge stretch. It might not happen weekly, but for the right guy it did -- and does.

Those who have pointed out they weren't consulted are right: we did this based on traffic patterns -- both real traffic/commuting on a highway and also web traffic within any given forum. The Connecticut forum is popular, while the southern New York forum is lonely. Also, as I stated earlier in this thread, a person who lives in the heavily populated portions of southern and western Connecticut are often commuting into NY to work or play. Or at the very least, the populations on both sides of each state line are larger when combined, thus increasing the odds of finding the right trick if you look just a bit beyond your state.

We've asked for advice on many topics over the years and about the only time we ever get anything out of anyone (with a few individuals being a blessed exception) is in the form of criticism. For example, this thread is longer than any positive, constructive advice I got when I recently asked how to improve our sex listings. For that, we got a total of 3 comments and that took weeks to get just 3 comments.

It isn't that we don't appreciate being told when we're wrong, or to receive suggestions on how to make it better. But sometimes you think, my god this person is taking this -- whatever this may be -- just a little too seriously. I mean if a guy is looking at our boards and wants to get sex in Connecticut, he'll figure out that just because we've combined southern NY with his state doesn't necessitate that he cross a state line, though it does open up some potential from some hot and horned up New Yorkers. It is not, however, the end of the world nor a reason to put us down with petty comments.

I know that TV Slut isn't going to like this format. I acknowledged in a previous posting to this thread that our point was to make the forum work more for those who lived in the more heavily populated areas of Connecticut. TV Slut lives in a small town near Rhode Island so regretably this isn't that advantagous for him. Maybe combining Rhode Island with Connecticut would have been more appealing to TV Slut, but then Greenwich Slut (just a made up name!) might be the one protesting.

Originally Posted by sluttycub

The new format has kept me from using the sight in a long time, and continues to be a fustration. Craig's list, and other sites allow users to pinpoint exactly where they want to search, post, etc. Why can't CFS adopt that kind of approach?

I'll give you an example of why you sometimes have to weigh the comments against what you know to be true. Recently I had a guy write me about how he stopped using us because our moderator was heavy-handed. His solution: to extoll how great Craig's List was. Of course I know, from using CL myself, that the notion of moderation with a heavy hand is alive and well over there. Absolutely any anonymous individual can flag any ad without explanation. Try getting the owner of CL to respond personally. On the other hand, I value the men (and the few women) who come here and I try and make sure we always listen and when appropriate, respond. That doesn't mean we can always make changes to acccomodate every point of view, though sometimes we do. But often when we make changes sugggested by others, somebody else tells you how you've destroyed this or that with one move you made at the suggestion of another. Sometimes there just is no way to please everyone.

I didn't mean to offend TV Slut, but I confess that his comments just struck me as not especially helpful. My reply wasn't helpful either and I'm sorry, but sometimes you just get tired of being told how wrong you've done this or that with virtually no applause for something you might have done right over the last 12 years of keeping this site online.

sluttycub, I am sincere in telling you I appreciate your thoughts. You didn't have to take the time to write this and it shows you value this community. For now, we need to give this some more time to see if it works. I'm still weighing this and nothing is final.

Thanks,
Keith

[sluttycub]

Originally Posted by Keith

" On the other hand, my impression of many New Englanders was that going from Provincetown to Providence to Boston to Portsmouth was not a huge stretch. It might not happen weekly, but for the right guy it did -- and does."

"Those who have pointed out they weren't consulted are right: we did this based on traffic patterns -- both real traffic/commuting on a highway and also web traffic within any given forum. The Connecticut forum is popular, while the southern New York forum is lonely."
Keith

Thanks for your response Keith, I am not against change in general, and I am usually more than willing to go along with the new. I had not been on the site for a couple of weeks and when I logged back in, I couldn't find my message board, and when I did, I was disconcerted.

Perhaps there is a way to create message boards for larger geographical regions, New England, The Tri-state area, The four corners, etc... for folks that are willing to travel to play, and individual state message boards for those not so inclined.

Many of the men I have met through CFS are "finding" time to play in a busy work schedule, many are married, or are otherwise "entangled" and are looking for NSA playtime that can be covered up with excuses of errands, traffic, working late, etc. The single guys, with the freedom to play where and how they want do not seem to be well represented here. Perhaps there is some stigma attached to using this site for them, or maybe they are more likely to use a "dating" site with the idea they may meet someone special.

Finally, I do understand the frustration you must feel. I am the president of a large gay men's group and no matter how many times I ask for ideas the response is disheartening, but the criticism that comes with change is huge and sometimes violent. I suspect you have rather broad shoulders and normally this stuff rolls off your back but we all reach our breaking point.

Please keep an open mind on making more changes to either reverse this new format or to tweak it to be more accomdating.

Thanks for your efforts, Happy Hunting

[Keith]

I'll actually be in Connecticut in January for a brief visit with a trucker friend who lives up there. Maybe some of you would like to convene and we could have a dart throwing contest with me as your target? Just a joke -- well the darts idea is at least.

By the way is that Waterbury ABS really as hot as it sounds?