[IAN JAMES THOMPSON]

I'm just wondering why some county's in the UK & Ireland by County Patches have very few posts and threads in some of the different county's, while others have lots of posts and threads.
One example is I've asked a question about the Isle of Wight where I'm hoping to be going on a bird watching annual holiday with my Newcastle Upon Tyne RSPB Group in June 2016 and as of yet I haven't had one reply. There are very few threads and posts in that section. I can just live in hope that I receive a reply from someone and I'll be most grateful if that happens.
Ian.

[MSA]

In Dorset and Hampshire, for instance, there are lively Yahoo email groups for each, so news tends to be circulated that way; Birdforum is not necessarily all that popular with everyone in those groups, so whilst some info gets reposted here, much does not. IOW may be similar?

[Phil Andrews]

I think there may be a number of reasons why some areas have little activity on BF, of which MSA has already touched on a few:

(1) Few active birders in the locality
(2) A well organised ornithological group with its own forum (Suffolk is an example of a bird rich county with very few posts on BF but an active SOG site)
(3) Well maintained bird information websites eg CBWPS and Cornwall Birding in Cornwall
(4) Other information / discussion groups via Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook etc