Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I was considering splitting it up by region but it became a little confusing. Mostly because there are regions that just don't have PPKers. So I'd appreciate any suggestions for how to split it up to make it a little easier to navigate. Major PPK cities and then everything else? But then what about PPK countries? I just don't know.

Could you do:

Eastern US (Ma, NY, NJ, DC)
Western US (Ca, Or, Wa)
Other US
Canada
Europe
Asia
Australia
Central and South America
Other

Major PPK cities and countries, then merge some into regions if it wouldn't be confusing? The midwest could probably function as one section without getting hectic.

I'm pretty sure there are ppkers in every region of the US as long as you're talking about Northeast Southeast Southwest Midwest West. No suggestions for other countries, though, because I'm geographically dense and don't realize how they split things up and where most people are located.

Us Australians and New Zealanders already decided to post in the same thread so the NZers don't get lonely, it would be nice if it could stay that way.

How about having a stickied thread for more major cities that get a lot of action so if you want to search for a city, you get one major thread instead of lots of little threads? There could still be multiple threads for different topics/questions about a particular city, but one main one. That would have really helped me out when I moved to California. I think there may have been some (or one) like this in the old forum, but I really don't know because I didn't live in one of those places. I'm not sure how you would decide which to count as the main one--the first one, one you create, or whatever. I'm not sure about dividing it up into different subforums (not sure if that's the right term), but maybe something similar to what Tofulish suggested.

Mason-Dixon Line Split
Red States and Blue States
Mississippi Split
Chipotle Grill States and non-Chipotle grill states

I second the continent separation as proposed by Tofulish.
You could have a
North America
Central and South America
Europe
Asia
Oceania
Africa
split, and then within North America
Canada
Eastern US
Central US
Western US

I think I'd split it into meet up threads and general threads.

So, if you wanted to plan a meet up in NYC you'd put it in the meet up section but if you were just going to NYC & wanted to ask about where to get cake / were just chatting about say, a new NYC restaurant, that would go in the other section.

this sounds good. everything else sounds chaotic, US wise. though clearly if OZ and NZ like to be together...

-Texas
-Everyone else

I think that makes a lot of sense.

1. Meet-ups

2. General:
(a) US
Eastern States (DC, Ma, Me, Nc, NJ, NY, Fla)
Western States (Ca, Or, Wa,
Other/Midwest (can you really call Tx or La midwest?)

(b) Europe

(c) Asia and the Antipodes

(d) Canada

(e) Other (South America/Africa) (sorry Torque and andi-vert!)

This makes a lot of sense to me!


I think for a regional breakdown of the US it makes more sense to go with traditionally recognized regional breakdowns.(this is a link) I don't see a single region on that list that at least some of the PPK isn't from. And, being from the Midwest I really hate the idea of everything being broken up into east coast, west coast, everything else.

You beat me - I was going to suggest:

Us
Them

Yeah maybe Oceania or even Australasia?
ETA I like Tofulish's example

Here's my prob with US regional breakdowns: it doesn't really solve the problem of everyone having to put their city first in thread titles, ie [NYC] Best Thai Food. And there are going to be some areas that just don't very much play - according to stats only 2% of traffic comes from South & Central America. So it doesn't seem all that more convenient than having it how it is now. I don't feel like a city thread is a good way for n00bs to navigate because if it gets to page 23 is a new person going to read the whole thing to find resources?

So that is why I was thinking of having sub-forums for major PPK cities, and then dividing up the rest somehow. But yeah, it gets complicated.

So if it were something like:
Cities: Chicago, LA, NYC, Philly, Portland, SF, (etc)
Countries: Australia/NZ, Canada, England, India, Mexico, Japan (etc)

Then...I don't know...just work shopping here.

Funny enough I did divide the Square into meet-ups and then everything else, but that didn't make sense because sometimes a meet-up is a series of events that may have to do with restaurants & bake sales & hiking. It just didn't end up making sense.

as someone who doesnt really use the square since my city is ppk friendless, I think there should be sub forums for the few largest cities. NYC, Portland, San Fran Frisco, London. Then maybe a subforum for travel to far off places, for tips. Then one forum for the rest of the world where we will still need to write [Buf] before our threads.

The only problem I see with singling out the biggest cities is that - from my experience pondering where to move - a lot of ppkers think their city is The Most Important PPK City.

Also, when you start to break it up too much, it's harder for people who've actually been to all of those cities to go into each forum to weigh in with what they know - which might be really useful even if they've only been once or if they're a current local or if they've lived there for most of their lives. You'd really have to keep it down to like..top 5 or something.

I'm with you. There are only a few cities that actively meet up, get a ton of visitors, and have a ton of people moving there. They need sub forums. For everyone else, we can use the new improved searched function!

Definitely not. TX and LA would be Southern.

How about less about region and more splitting up by content.

Ex: Neighborhood guides, Events, and maybe I'm coming to visit.

It was hard to weed out the guides before. Though I suppose if it was divided by region and then guides that would be cool too.

If you're splitting it into countries can UK & Ireland stay together rather than being split into England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland & Ireland?

Yes, this. If would be daft to have them separate with a couple of people rattling around in each one.

I don't know about anywhere else, but I think the SF Bay Area is probably a better category than just SF - but I guess that doesn't quite solve the [] problem either. Oh geez.

Does the Square get enough traffic and turnover to justify all the divisions? I never felt overwhelmed by skimming through the thread titles that didn't interest me. And if the search function is up and running, it would seem even less useful to have city or region specific rooms for people wanting to travel/research/etc. I like the idea of city guides in theory, but it also doesn't make sense if it devolves into a chat thread about tots and whistle tips.

What about standardizing thread titles, which sometimes kind of happens, in a stickied rules post?

[City-Meet up] Orgy at Isa's House! 12/31/10
[City] Restaurant awesomeness!
[Country] I'm a tourist! Help me!

Perhaps city/country guides can be something incorporated into the new theppk.com, like a resource area. Like Happy Cow, but more personable (narrative and lists?) and not looking like Geocities 1997.