REAL info or cheerleading?

[upstate29650]

If I'd never heard of these forums before & was new on planet Earth, I'd feel that Columbia, Little Rock & Atlanta were the centers of the known universe! (I'm using these cities as examples). It got me thinking...how much of the banter that takes place here is REAL, solid news about development, and what else may be news, but amounts to no more than a chance to say "My city is #1!" ?

Hey, if you feel the way you do about where you live, that's great! This poll is only my experiment in how others feel. Personally, I can cheerlead with the best of them!! Let your voice be heard!

[satalac]

well of course it's going to sound like cheerleading. people are going to talk about stuff that they know best, and most of the time it's that place where they live. our job as fellow forumers (i guess that's how you say it) is to take that knowledge and information and check it. it's true with any kind of learning.

[Lady Celeste]

I really don't have a problem with the cheerleading.....it's when you knock another city in the process.

One only has to look at certain threads on here and see that cheerleading can be all in fun....as long as you don't have to mention another city disparagingly. Browse the threads here and one will see that there are certain people who spend more time trying to make a city they do not live in look bad as they can. They do this instead of cheerleading for their own city.

Example:

Poster 1 (from Winston-Salem): I think Atlanta is the New York of the south.

Poster 2 (from some city not Atlanta): Oh no, Atlanta is too spread out. It sucks. I can't see how someone could even call them a New York. There are much better cities in the south than Atlanta.

as opposed to....

Poster 1 (from Winston-Salem): I think Atlanta is the New York of the south.

Poster 2 (from some city not Atlanta): Well my city sits on water just as New York does. We have many new intown condos under construction or proposed. Our nightlife is great and many new tourist attractions are being built in the city center. Our public transportation is being expanded and with new retail coming to the city, you will be able to live, work and play in town. I think my city could very well be the New York of the south.

To me the second scenario doesn't disparage any other city. Perhaps it's a little cheerleading for their own city but it places the focus on how great their city is as opposed to knocking another city. In the final analysis all they are doing is causing the reader to compare their city to Atlanta.....if a person is openminded and clear thinking, they will clearly see how progressively great Atlanta has become.

Just kidding......I was only cheerleading.

[NcSc74]

I like to keep up on developments back in Carolina since I live in the west. However I do get sick of the cheerleading. I think as southern forumers goes we all have a chip on our shoulders. I think the south has been the brunt of many jokes and now the region has become a hotspot for growth. I just want more realistic viewpoints and opinions could be posted without being branded as trying to trash another city.

Case in point Charlotte will never be a ultra-dense city. The growth most soutern cities see is because of what the people moving there wants. Lots of space a backyard and moderate weather. I have no problems with that. Yes southern cities do sprawl but hey most of them weren't that large back then when people were coming to this country. I encourge everyone to cruise to other forums and regions and see what they are saying about the "new south boom towns".

By comparisons most cities in the south still have a long way to go in terms of development. Some post in this forum are just a little too far fetched. It takes time to build a truly urban city. Lets not get to big for our britches. As for cheerleading yeah I can proven guilty at times but I try to stay realistic and not overemphasize the urbanity or importance of NC cities. If anything I am critic of the slow pace that the state has taken with transportation infrastructure, regional planning and marketing itself.

[Mith242]

Are you referring to most of the forums or just the Southern US forum? I also think some of this will also be influenced on certain areas that seem to have more people to log on from that area. For that matter some people post a lot more than others. I know we have a couple of prolific posters over on the Arkansas forum. I'm sure some people might check it out and think what's all this other stuff doing here in the forum. Some people prefer basically just development news and that's about it. Some people like me like to delve into other aspects as well.

[upstate29650]

Are you referring to most of the forums or just the Southern US forum?

Pretty much the Southern forums.

These are great responses! Keep em coming!

[RestedTraveler]

There's plenty of cheerleading, yes; however, when you've got something to cheer about, why not cheer?

I do find a lot of good information on here, too...especially for my neck of the woods (Greenville/Upstate SC). I can't even tell you how many times something's been discussed on U.P. only to be reported in the local news media outlets shortly thereafter. I feel like I get the scoop on what's going on because I'm plugged into U.P.

I'd have to agree with Lady Celeste. When the cheering turns to negative comments about one's own city or another city that it bugs me. Accentuate the Postive!

[Mith242]

I wonder if some of the cheerleading comes from the fact that for a long time the South was looked down upon. I think sometimes people in the South are trying to prove we aren't the dumb hicks in the old stereotypes of the South. So people are more likely to make a big deal about some of the info. Of course I imagine some cheerleading is just natural no matter where you're from.

[krazeeboi]

If I'd never heard of these forums before & was new on planet Earth, I'd feel that Columbia, Little Rock & Atlanta were the centers of the known universe! (I'm using these cities as examples). It got me thinking...how much of the banter that takes place here is REAL, solid news about development, and what else may be news, but amounts to no more than a chance to say "My city is #1!" ?

Hey, if you feel the way you do about where you live, that's great! This poll is only my experiment in how others feel. Personally, I can cheerlead with the best of them!! Let your voice be heard!

The thing is, the cities/metros represented here do not have a proportional number of forumers corresponding to the populations of those cities/metros; otherwise, we'd be flooded with news and events from DFW, Houston, Miami, and Atlanta. Even though it's somewhat calmed down now, not too long ago it seemed as though every few threads on the Southern USA forum were about Charlotte, and if not, the "Charlotte boosters" managed to sneak talk of Charlotte into the thread. As the number of forumers on the site grows and other areas get representation, we'll hear more info from those areas, which is really a good thing. Many times the progressive efforts of smaller cities/metros are overshadowed by discussions about 50+ towers and the 4th professional sports team that the bigger cities/metros brag about.

All in all, the two (real development news/cheerleading) are inseperable. As long as the cheerleading is grounded in reality and forumers don't get into too many heated urinating contests, then we should be OK.

[NcSc74]

The thing is, the cities/metros represented here do not have a proportional number of forumers corresponding to the populations of those cities/metros; otherwise, we'd be flooded with news and events from DFW, Houston, Miami, and Atlanta. Even though it's somewhat calmed down now, not too long ago it seemed as though every few threads on the Southern USA forum were about Charlotte, and if not, the "Charlotte boosters" managed to sneak talk of Charlotte into the thread. As the number of forumers on the site grows and other areas get representation, we'll hear more info from those areas, which is really a good thing. Many times the progressive efforts of smaller cities/metros are overshadowed by discussions about 50+ towers and the 4th professional sports team that the bigger cities/metros brag about.

All in all, the two (real development news/cheerleading) are inseperable. As long as the cheerleading is grounded in reality and forumers don't get into too many heated urinating contests, then we should be OK.

Well said. Most of everything people want will happen in time. It is ok to dream but I know I get just as much satisfaction from low-midrise infill projects than the tall scrapers.

[cheeriokid61]

Honestly, I think that the cheerleading is a lot of what keeps the forums going. Without cheerleading, I would never know about all of the condo tower going up in Charlotte or the new tallest proposed in Miami or Charleston's history - well actually, I already new about that. But you get the point!

Without cheerleading, most people would even care to look at what is happening in other cities. To me, cheerleading is just people saying "Come and look at what our city has to offer." Just sometimes they might invite you one or two too times.

[Hotlanta]

Example:

Poster 1 (from Winston-Salem): I think Atlanta is the New York of the south.

Poster 2 (from some city not Atlanta): Oh no, Atlanta is too spread out. It sucks. I can't see how someone could even call them a New York. There are much better cities in the south than Atlanta.

as opposed to....

Poster 1 (from Winston-Salem): I think Atlanta is the New York of the south.

Poster 2 (from some city not Atlanta): Well my city sits on water just as New York does. We have many new intown condos under construction or proposed. Our nightlife is great and many new tourist attractions are being built in the city center. Our public transportation is being expanded and with new retail coming to the city, you will be able to live, work and play in town. I think my city could very well be the New York of the south.

To me the second scenario doesn't disparage any other city. Perhaps it's a little cheerleading for their own city but it places the focus on how great their city is as opposed to knocking another city. In the final analysis all they are doing is causing the reader to compare their city to Atlanta.....if a person is openminded and clear thinking, they will clearly see how progressively great Atlanta has become.

Just kidding......I was only cheerleading.

C'mon Celeste! I know you were referring to me

[The_sandlapper]

I say if you got it flaunt it! And yes Columbia is the center of the universe!

[monsoon]

We mostly keep quiet about it and you guys never see it, but we routinely boot off, delete posts, and ban forumers that create. "this place sucks" or "my place is better than yours" threads to keep what I call childless boosterism and pissing contests off the site. We usually know by about the 7-8th post if someone is going to be a problem or not. They get a warning, which is usually ignored, and then they are gone. We got rid of one from Fayetteville, NC just a day or so ago. This is also why we frown on most teenagers posting here. They don't have the mental or social tools to handle the discussions that we like to see. There are some exceptions however so everyone comes here with a clean slate if they are 13 or older.

I also close down threads because they are going to lead to trouble. The recent "most backward state in the south" and "Charlotte vs Nashville" are examples. There are a couple of unnamed forums where this goes on and people have taken to rountinely insulting others and their cities, and when they come here they think that is the rule here too. Of course we don't allow it.

People get quite upset when we won't allow them to post newspaper articles here. Forgetting the legal issues with that, we don't want a site that consists of newspaper articles that don't lead to any discussion. They are dull and uninteresting and its our view point that if you make a post here it needs to be something that "you" want to say. (it is ok to reference the article with comment however) This is how real discussions are started.

We get spammers, bigots, religious zealots, revolutionaries, plain old ordinary assholes and endless others who create accounts here to push their agenda instead of coming here to discuss urban issues. Because UrbanPlanet has become a site on the Internet where we get a huge number of page views, there are endless attempts by some to benefit commercially from the level of exposure that we now have. The admins here spend alot of time with keeping these people off the site. We even get people who PM all of our forumers to say that UP stinks and come to their own new forum. This recently happened by a couple of disgruntled Jacksonville forumers and it took time for us to remove the spam posts and clean house so to speak. I could care less if people want to start a website, but they are not going to leech off UP and bother the good forumers here. It's our experience these places never last that the disgruntled forumers end up back here again.

Other sites don't moderate to this extent so we, and me personally, get called a lot of names by these people on other similar sites. Some of you posting in this thread have done that (yes we do know), but it really doesn't matter to me if we can keep the conversations here to something that reasonable adults might participate in face to face. We have been spammed, stalked, attacked and hassled by people who don't like our enforcing of the rules here, but we think it is a necessary function to keep UP a good place for most people to have discussions.

We created UP to provide an oasis from the conflict. We get dozens of emails and PMs each month thanking us for that and the site continues to grow each day. We are routinely mentioned in a positive light in the print media in many cities. So from this, I assume that we are doing something right by running UrbanPlanet in this manner. My suggestion is that if there is something here that you don't like or would like to see changed, please post it in the information section, or send a PM to one of the Staff. I promise it will be fairly addressed.

[Aporkalypse]

The thing is, the cities/metros represented here do not have a proportional number of forumers corresponding to the populations of those cities/metros; otherwise, we'd be flooded with news and events from DFW, Houston, Miami, and Atlanta. Even though it's somewhat calmed down now, not too long ago it seemed as though every few threads on the Southern USA forum were about Charlotte, and if not, the "Charlotte boosters" managed to sneak talk of Charlotte into the thread. As the number of forumers on the site grows and other areas get representation, we'll hear more info from those areas, which is really a good thing. Many times the progressive efforts of smaller cities/metros are overshadowed by discussions about 50+ towers and the 4th professional sports team that the bigger cities/metros brag about.

All in all, the two (real development news/cheerleading) are inseperable. As long as the cheerleading is grounded in reality and forumers don't get into too many heated urinating contests, then we should be OK.

Keep in mind there are a lot of other forums out there besides this one and that has a big impact. For instance, the Arkansas forum here is quite busy because there is a paucity of other forums to discuss these issues so people gravitated here. The DFW forum is completely dead, though. It's not because of lack of interest, it's that there are other forums specific for DFW out there that are much busier including one that has as much traffic as all of Urban Planet together. I read that board for my DFW news and read this one for news and opinions on Arkansas and Florida, two other places I am very interested in.

It's interesting but on metro-specific boards you seem to get a lot more urban vs suburban conflict and a lot less overt "cheerleading" as nobody's trying to prove their area is better, there's more rational discussion and less competition. However, the downside is that you really don't get to see what other parts of the country are doing which certainly is the best element of this place.

[monsoon]

The DFW forum is completely dead, though.

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that we are somehow in competition with these other places which we are not. Single city websites have their place in the scheme of things. UrbanPlanet as you have noted here serves a different purpose. And given that we have yet to be in business for 2 years I believe we are doing fairly well. Most websites do well to last 6 months.

The DFW forum will pick up in time, it's really something that we have not concentrated on yet. We do however appreciate your participation at UrbanPlanet.

[Mith242]

I won't use monsoon's post as a quote since it's lengthy but it does remind me that you don't always see people saying what a good job the Admin and Moderators do around here. Good job and keep up the good work! It is appreciated even if we don't say it as much as we should.

[Aporkalypse]

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that we are somehow in competition with these other places which we are not. Single city websites have their place in the scheme of things. UrbanPlanet as you have noted here serves a different purpose. And given that we have yet to be in business for 2 years I believe we are doing fairly well. Most websites do well to last 6 months.

The DFW forum will pick up in time, it's really something that we have not concentrated on yet. We do however appreciate your participation at UrbanPlanet.

I wasn't stating there was an implicit competition, just stating an obvious reason that some of the largest metros seem to be lacking in posters. I'm sure the same thing explains the curious virtual absence of posters from several of the nation's other largest MSAs. However, there are a lot of metros where this is far and away the main venue for discussing development in their communities - explaining some of the disparities (i.e. why there is several-fold more posted here about Arkansas than all of Texas, etc).

[monsoon]

If it is obvious I dont see how it can be curious. The Arkansas forum is only 2-3 months old and grew to its present size due the the desire of the forumers there to make it what it is today. There are plenty of other places for people to go and discuss their locales, but we offer a unique environment to those who choose to belong here, and more do so every day. Florida is a very busy forum despite there being other Florida forums on other well known sites.

If you want Dallas to be more successful here, please participate, let us know about your city, and let others know about us.

[Aporkalypse]

If it is obvious I dont see how it can be curious. The Arkansas forum is only 2-3 months old and grew to its present size due the the desire of the forumers there to make it what it is today. There are plenty of other places for people to go and discuss their locales, but we offer a unique environment to those who choose to belong here, and more do so every day. Florida is a very busy forum despite there being other Florida forums on other well known sites.

If you want Dallas to be more successful here, please participate, let us know about your city, and let others know about us.

I think when people see a forum with almost no posters in it, they tend to move on. The problem is that the dallas metropolis forum has hundreds of posters and dozens of new posts every day so people tend to gravitate there when looking for this sort of thing and it also comes up more in web searches. Again, I think if there was an Arkansas forum somewhere with the same volume people would've breezed by here and saw the lack of volume and moved on. There is no place like that, though, which is why people latched onto this venue. I agree about Florida - for whatever reason the stuff that for DFW is posted on other forums is posted here in the South Florida and Orlando forums for those respective metros.

I also wonder why there is such a heavy Southeastern slant here. I'm not sure why that it is but it would be nice to broaden it some.

[Mith242]

I also wondered about the overall success in the Southern area of the country on the forum. I wondered if some of this has to do with the fact it was started in this area and more easily branched out to other southern areas. Or it could just be one of those odd things that just happen.

[monsoon]

I think when people see a forum with almost no posters in it, they tend to move on.

We started with 32 members. The site has close to 7000 now. They all didn't move on. If your point is that you want to see Dallas more active here then it is up to you and the Dallas forumers to make it so. If instead you are making the point that UrbanPlanet is useless for Dallas, then fine however your criticism of UrbanPlanet is misplaced and I have to question your motives for dwelling on it.

We don't compete against other websites and have had a very good track recording of building up an area once we focus on it. Dallas just hasn't been on our radar screen yet.

[monsoon]

I also wondered about the overall success in the Southern area of the country on the forum. I wondered if some of this has to do with the fact it was started in this area and more easily branched out to other southern areas. Or it could just be one of those odd things that just happen.

We started as basically a NC forum. We have been spreading across the country from there.

[DruidCity]

I'm fine with some cheerleading. I like to take short road trips, and find good ideas on forums such as UP.

Areas like Arkansas, which are overlooked on most other "urban" forums, are well-represented here.

It's good to be able to positively discuss areas like Mississippi or West-Central AL with the online community here, whereas posting about areas like those on some of the "larger" forums elsewhere will be met with snide, condescending comments.

[Aporkalypse]

We started with 32 members. The site has close to 7000 now. They all didn't move on. If your point is that you want to see Dallas more active here then it is up to you and the Dallas forumers to make it so. If instead you are making the point that UrbanPlanet is useless for Dallas, then fine however your criticism of UrbanPlanet is misplaced and I have to question your motives for dwelling on it.

We don't compete against other websites and have had a very good track recording of building up an area once we focus on it. Dallas just hasn't been on our radar screen yet.

Sorry, I guess you are missing the point. The people in the know in Dallas don't post here. There are dozens of them that do, they just go elsewhere. Go look at www.forum.dallasmetropolis.com and you'll see what I mean. If that place did not exist, I have no doubt they would be here as they would need a place to discuss these things. Whether you guys make it an area of particular focus or not doesn't matter as you don't know the area. You need a people doing what aerotassiq, etc do for South Florida and again, many of these people are occupied elsewhere. Dallas is just an example. The same point could be made for Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Philly, etc.

As for me, I wouldn't be posting here if I wasn't interested in the topics here and most of the goings on all over the country. Don't take my explanation for why some forums seem relatively dead while others are surprisingly busy as "criticism" when it is merely observation. I think you guys do a great job and as time goes on some of the gaps will fill in. I was just attempting to answer someone else's quite legitimate question as to why the distribution of posts doesn't make much sense.