A thread on this same subject in the Florida Conch forum kinda flew the coop while I was typing up a reply (hey, I type slow, what can I say), so I will post it here.
As follow;
I tried to post earlier today, but my connection was dragging it's hiney bigtime.
I personally don't see the need for particular areas of the state to be in subforums at this time. As I see it, the need for subforums is created by the large volume of threads in a particular forum, to the point that it is difficult to find the threads that are of interest to you in a timely manner.
For instance, if all of ScubaBoard were to be contained in one gigantic forum, a new thread would be into the second or the third page of the forum before you could read it and reply. Obviously, most threads would disappear and never develop if this were the case, and also, there would be so many threads that were of no interest to most of the board users that the board would be virtually unusable.
On the flip side, I am sure that there are ongoing discussions here on ScubaBoard that I would like to be involved in that I will never see, just because they are not in the various subforums that I browse. I only have so much time to invest in this board (sorry, NetDoc), and I have to be selective as to where I spend that time. Every time a new subforum is created, my ability to interact with and benefit from the board is reduced.
Obviously, a crowded forum also detracts from the experience, and attaining a balance that works might be problematic for the supervisors/administrators. I think that they have done a really fantastic job so far.
As far as the subforum in question is concerned. I honestly don't see very many threads in either of the Florida forums concerning Tampa Bay area diving, and I personally don't have any problem keeping current with both forums, so I don't think the benefit is very large. Compared to the added time in keeping up with another subforum in the Florida area that this would introduce, I feel it would be a net minus for the majority of the users.
Therefore, I voted no.
Can I still come down and dive with you guys, though? Pwease, please, pretty please, and I'll buy airfills?