Hello, longtime lurker, occasional poster. Just wondered if any thought had been given to creating a new sub-forum for beginner triathletes. Especially with the closing of BeginnerTriathlete.com, and the front page of this site starting to have more beginner-friendly topics, it may be nice to have a separate subforum catering to beginners (similar to the old subforums for Lavendar Room, Women, etc.).
If we want this sport to grow, it may help to have a space for the beginners to congregate. The main Tri forum can be a bit tuned to the extreme pointy-end of the curve for AG’ers, even for a 20 year vet like me. Might be a nice way to reach out more.
@RJSuperfreaky Thanks for the note.. And happy to talk more. I think we just want to make sure that the new people feel like they can ask the questions and get good sold answers from the community to help them. We have a new feature that is launching soon where people can ASK an “Expert” and those would be actually real forum users that have elected to help other users with specific questions. Really at the end what I have learned is no matter where the Category is.. It really is the same people that are going to reply. Creating more categories just makes it harder for those people to find it… The women’s category is a great example of this.. like it or not those topics started getting way more engagment once we put it in the general thread..
Thanks for the reply, and I see your points. I think the “Ask an Expert” feature is a great idea! I also understand the traffic issues, and having a beginner forum where no one actually replies is no more helpful than the current standings.
That being said, I can say that sometimes the Triathlon forum can seem a little clique-ish and elitish for newbies. I’ve been doing tris for 20 years now, and I remember back in the early 2000’s coming to ST forums and feeling that it was a bit … rough for new people. BeginnerTriathlete had a much more welcoming feel (although it had its own issues with WAAAAY too many subforums). The ST forums still have a bit of that rough edge, though, even though most of us understand that it’s often much more bark than bite. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (earing a spot in “the club” can be its own draw), but having an on-boarding forum can help ease that transition.
Anyway, thanks for listening and great job with the site!