public groups and new section

[disgruntled]

hi, i was thinking of adding a couple of things to the forum, but i wanted to find out if you guys think that it would be useful or not before i do.

1) i was thinking of adding a new section to the forum for instructors. it would be a place for to discuss class ideas, teaching strategies and discuss how to run a dojo.... i do not know if the forum is big enough for this to be useful... but that might also attract members...

2) i was thinking about playing around with the public group feature. this is a tool that allows you to create a group that others can request to join. i think its purpose is to create member lists that would be subject specific and does not really have any other features...... i could make private forums for groups, but i think that might get excessive and would be a nightmare to mod, not to mention discourage public discussions that attract new members.... so the feature might have limited use for a smaller forum. but it might be neat to create groups that are based on location, or groups for instructors, people who compete, people trainning abroad..... any kind of group that might help people network.

[sirdarksol]

I think the instructor section is a good idea.

Groups, not so much. Since they serve as subject specific, and since there is already something of a rift between different arts, it might encourage those rifts to broaden. I could be wrong, but I think we should get a solid base of people and get a feel for them before we play around with something like that.
This is, of course, just my opinion, and if the two of you like the idea, it won't be that hard to watch for and attempt to curtail any "karate vs tae kwon do" group wars.

[disgruntled]

yeah that is why i did not want to do style based groups... just things that could help people to network. but you brought up some good points.