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ChineseIntroducing the MetroRiderLA Forum
In an attempt to further the discussions started on the blog, and enable MetroRider’s to share their thoughts in a public forum, MetroRiderLA is proud to introduce the MetroRiderLA Forum for Transit Oriented Discussions!
While blog posts often spur heated discussions, the topics are limited by the choices of the blog author and the time constraints he may face. The forum offers every reader the opportunity to spark discussion on whatever topic may be on his or her mind, whether it has been written about on the blog or not.
Read a news article that you think people should be talking about? Post it here and get the ball rolling. Had an experience on a bus that just blew your mind? Tell your story here, and find out if others have shared a similar experience. Got an idea you think could revolutionize transportation in LA but don’t know who to tell? Tell us!
For example, as I’m sure you’ve noticed we haven’t had a blog post on a pretty major topic in LA transit that came about recently… Metro’s 2008 Long Range Plan. To be honest, it’s a pretty huge topic and I just haven’t had the time to put together what I would consider a legitimate blog posting for it. But people want to talk about it, as seen in the comments of the March 10th Morning Commute post. With the forum, discussions that you may want to have that aren’t represented by a full fledged blog post can now happen in someplace other than an unrelated blog comment thread. Right here, for example.
Six categories have been created in order to help narrow the discussions:
- Transit Talk: general discussions about mass transit in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
- Other Modes: the Transit Oriented Lifestyle is about a lot more than just mass transit. Bicycling, walking, and other modes should all be discussed here.
- Uncar Los Angeles: LA without a car is pretty of unheard, but it’s totally doable. This is the place to talk about all aspects of a car-free LA.
- Tips, Tricks, Cheats and Resources: long time transit riders have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves or special resources they use to help make the ride easier… share those things in this category.
- MetroRiderLA: for discussions relating to the blog and this forum. Suggestions, compliments, and even criticisms are welcome.
- Whatever: This is the place to talk about anything and everything that’s not necessarily transit related.
So that’s it. I encourage everyone to take advantage of this little forum experiment. If it’s successful I think it will be a great addition to the LA transit community, and a nice extension of the discussions on the MetroRiderLA blog. But the thing with these forums is, they only work if people actively participate in them, so don’t be shy. Apply for a membership account and start posting today!
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
I’m there.
Pretty nifty! I’m not sure if I should really get attached to any more online forums at the moment, but I may look into joining up soon in any case.
Nice work guys!
It’s an experiment, we’ll see if it sticks… Are there any other transit forums (not blogs) you go to Eric? I’d like to check them out if possible, just out of curiosity. LA actually has a forum already, the Transit Coalition Forum, but my problem with that forum is that it has so many damn categories that it’s really hard to follow a discussion because it’s tough to see where new conversations are happening.
It will be interesting to see the difference in the two boards, and how they will differentiate from each other, or how they might compliment each other.
The main difference, technically, between the two forums is that the MetroRiderLA one has far few categories and the categories are sort of pushed to the background. The conversations are the first thing you see, with the categories being used almost like tags for organizational and archival purposes. Plus the MetroRider one has a cool glossy yellow banner
In the end it’s all about giving people a chance to talk… so it’s up to you guys to define how the forum works.
At the moment, actually, none of the forums I visit are have anything to do with transit/TOD. Which is one reason I will probably have to give in and make an account here soon.
Not sure how much I can offer to the conversation since I’m only a bit familiar with LA, but it’s certainly a good opportunity to learn more.
Well I made a category called “Transit Talk” which can include transit discussions that don’t have to be LA specific. The transit happenings, innovations, and news in the Bay Area (and elsewhere) ARE of interest to transit riders in LA because because we can learn from what you guys are doing (or not doing). As long as topics are presented in some sort of contest where the relevancy to Los Angeles can be found, I hope we get discussions from people all over.
Awesome! I just applied.
Sweet!
Since this is a lifestyle blog, I’d really like to get convos going and hear stories on the forum about how transit integrates into your daily lives. Like say if you go to a bar today to celebrate St. Paddy’s day but you do it car-free, tell us about it. Right now there’s a little conversation going on in the forum about Metrolink usage… and it’s pretty cool to hear how others use transit in their daily lives.