[Alan G]

Is it just me or did people prefer the Information Wanted section the way it used to be, when it wasnt broken down into sections and then further into sub sections?

Although I can see the advantage of having it broken down into region/country sections for those people seeking out information for a specific country, I'm not sure it works as well for people who are posting requests for information.

By that I mean, using the example of a posting I've just added seeking out bird info for Krakow in September, that for anyone to respond they'd need to access the 'Rest Of The World Index' thread, then the 'Europe' index and there they'll see posting as, being the latest one in there, its title is shown at the top.

But, its worse again, for anyone whose requested info prior to my request as they'll require people to actually then open the Poland sub-section up to see the individual info thread by thread thats in there.

Personally, I can't see me popping into single country thread relating to countries I've visited unless I intend to revisit them and if I'm not alone here, then people may find their requests going unanswered and missing out on valuable info..........seems long-winded to me and I can imagine a lot more requests not being seen by people who could offer assistance?

Whereas when it was all in one generic thread anyone and everyone popping in, in search of advice could see a thread they could offer info on and simply respond.

Of course, I could be alone in this thinking........

[IanF]

The forums are organised this way so anyone at a later date visiting say Poland can locate those threads in that particular forum.

Most people use the site by looking at 'New Posts' or 'Todays Posts' so regardless of which forum a thread is posted it will appear on that list - unless for some reason someone has unsubscribed from that forum - in which case they'd be unlikely to reply anyway.

I think the system works for anyone posting a thread and asking for information - especially if they request notification of replies to the thread they've posted. It also works well for people who may reply to that thread using the 'new posts'.

For those who may be researching older threads when considering a visit to a particular area it's a little more involved looking through the forum list to locate that country - though using the 'search' facility is likely an easier means.

It's just a little more tedious when posting the request for information to search out the correct forum to post in.

[rezMole]

Yes, I think I agree with you on this Alan. I posted to request info for i trip to Norfolk i am shorly taking. The thread seems "dead". Last year I did the same and had loads of replies - this year, just two. It seems the solution would be to "bump" the post so that it is always "new" - but i'm sure people would get annoyed if everyone started bumping posts just to keep them at the top.

[Alan G]

Ian

I personally think a better way to search for information would be to use the Search Engine but in its current form I find the BF engine extremely poor.....if not useless in some cases?

A search for ''Rock Bunting'' (off the top of my head) returns all threads with the word ''Rock'' & ''Bunting'' in it.........of which there's probably be 1000s........and hardly any of them of any relevance to the searcher?

Worse still, its hardlines if the word(s) you're searching for is contained within in a long thread (Durham/Northumberland Local Patch thread for example :) ) as it only returns the thread the word(s) are contained in and not the specific postings - and you end up having to trawl through page after page in order to find the words that are highlighted.

I hold high regard for the information that seasoned BF travellers have in their memory banks, but I still maintain my doubts that many will regularly access the threads of each country they've visited simply to see if anyone's after help.........and requests for information will pass many people by.