Any Chance for a Country Specific Forum?

[CountryBoy 0]

I spend some time looking at threads within the Regional Forums; but with the varied countries within those forums and the general Topic Titles it is hard to differentiate which country the thread is referencing until you actually take the time to open the thread and look.

It would be great to have a Forum for specific countries (Philippines in my case) where I could go for specific information about that country only without looking at korea, vietnam, australia, etc.

What I would really like to see more than anything, but it may be way too much to ask would be a forum-specific country-specific search .. say I want see all of the posts made by members with beneficiaries in the philippines (or whichever country) but only posts made in the Foreign Embassy and Consulate Discussion Forum (or whichever forum) .. then I could do an advanced search that will give me those search options.

Just a thought.

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

The new Portals Page Beta may be as close as we have right now. Suggestions to make it better are welcome:

http://www.visajourney.com/portals/index.p...try=Philippines

[CountryBoy 0]

Thanks Captain .. any programming possible to make an advanced search function

[Otto 83]

I spend some time looking at threads within the Regional Forums; but with the varied countries within those forums and the general Topic Titles it is hard to differentiate which country the thread is referencing until you actually take the time to open the thread and look.

It would be great to have a Forum for specific countries (Philippines in my case) where I could go for specific information about that country only without looking at korea, vietnam, australia, etc.

What I would really like to see more than anything, but it may be way too much to ask would be a forum-specific country-specific search .. say I want see all of the posts made by members with beneficiaries in the philippines (or whichever country) but only posts made in the Foreign Embassy and Consulate Discussion Forum (or whichever forum) .. then I could do an advanced search that will give me those search options.

Just a thought.

I asked a similar question - in a much heated "regional" thread (Site Related Discussion) a while back which was met with some off-colored replies and a "that's the way we did it, back then" response.

The portal feature - while nice - is a poor replacement for a country/region-specific thread/community..for many of the reasons you stated above. You can't, for example, ask a country-specific question and hope to truly get a response unless it'####### upon accidentally or in the off chance someone else actually knows how to find and use the Portal feature.

Just a thought to second your suggestion..

Edited May 6, 2007 by Karin und Otto

[Fandango 1,439]

I spend some time looking at threads within the Regional Forums; but with the varied countries within those forums and the general Topic Titles it is hard to differentiate which country the thread is referencing until you actually take the time to open the thread and look.

It would be great to have a Forum for specific countries (Philippines in my case) where I could go for specific information about that country only without looking at korea, vietnam, australia, etc.

What I would really like to see more than anything, but it may be way too much to ask would be a forum-specific country-specific search .. say I want see all of the posts made by members with beneficiaries in the philippines (or whichever country) but only posts made in the Foreign Embassy and Consulate Discussion Forum (or whichever forum) .. then I could do an advanced search that will give me those search options.

Just a thought.

I asked a similar question - in a much heated "regional" thread (Site Related Discussion) a while back which was met with some off-colored replies and a "that's the way we did it, back then" response.

The portal feature - while nice - is a poor replacement for a country/region-specific thread/community..for many of the reasons you stated above. You can't, for example, ask a country-specific question and hope to truly get a response unless it'####### upon accidentally or in the off chance someone else actually knows how to find and use the Portal feature.

Just a thought to second your suggestion..

To be precise, you asked why the countries were broken up as they were, and Rebeccajo explained that from the way this place started, there were way more UKers than any other, therefore it made sense due to numbers....it was not just a 'that's the way we did it' thing.

But I couldn't imagine frequenting a regional that encompasses X countries...it'd prolly be confusing, so I'd have to agree that maybe other countries with lots of vj members should have at least a sub-forum.

[Mags 112]

To be precise, you asked why the countries were broken up as they were, and Rebeccajo explained that from the way this place started, there were way more UKers than any other, therefore it made sense due to numbers....it was not just a 'that's the way we did it' thing.

I just got the impression that he was miffed that the UK had their own forum...

Edited May 6, 2007 by mags

[Fandango 1,439]

To be precise, you asked why the countries were broken up as they were, and Rebeccajo explained that from the way this place started, there were way more UKers than any other, therefore it made sense due to numbers....it was not just a 'that's the way we did it' thing.

I just got the impression that he was miffed that the UK had their own forum...

Maybe, maybe not...but his post here seems to imply that he was just brushed off with no explanation when even Ewok came on to explain why things are the way they are.

[Mags 112]

To be precise, you asked why the countries were broken up as they were, and Rebeccajo explained that from the way this place started, there were way more UKers than any other, therefore it made sense due to numbers....it was not just a 'that's the way we did it' thing.

I just got the impression that he was miffed that the UK had their own forum...

Maybe, maybe not...but his post here seems to imply that he was just brushed off with no explanation when even Ewok came on to explain why things are the way they are.

In this thread - yes, I meant that was the impression I got from the old thread. It's late, I should be in bed. I'm a lightweight.

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

We can always reaccess things and if a particular country or group is bigger than I could add a regional forum. I would need to research the #'s though.

[Fandango 1,439]

In this thread - yes, I meant that was the impression I got from the old thread. It's late, I should be in bed. I'm a lightweight.

no I understood ya woman

[Mags 112]

In this thread - yes, I meant that was the impression I got from the old thread. It's late, I should be in bed. I'm a lightweight.

no I understood ya woman

Glad someone does!

I do agree that if there is a group of members whose numbers have increased recently, and who don't have a forum of their own, that it might be a nice idea for them to have their own forum. But there was some talk (not by me, I love the regionals!) in another thread, which I can't remember the name of off hand, about people wanting the regionals removed.

It might not be very popular to start adding even more sub forums if that is the case. Might cause some friction. But then again perhaps not!

Edited May 6, 2007 by mags

[jundp 191]

Well I noticed there's a thread for Germany, however, since I don't speak German, I can't really use it. However, that's my problem, not anyone else's ;-)

[Otto 83]

In this thread - yes, I meant that was the impression I got from the old thread. It's late, I should be in bed. I'm a lightweight.

no I understood ya woman

Glad someone does!

I do agree that if there is a group of members whose numbers have increased recently, and who don't have a forum of their own, that it might be a nice idea for them to have their own forum. But there was some talk (not by me, I love the regionals!) in another thread, which I can't remember the name of off hand, about people wanting the regionals removed.

It might not be very popular to start adding even more sub forums if that is the case. Might cause some friction. But then again perhaps not!

[athena_ny 1]

I spend some time looking at threads within the Regional Forums; but with the varied countries within those forums and the general Topic Titles it is hard to differentiate which country the thread is referencing until you actually take the time to open the thread and look.

It would be great to have a Forum for specific countries (Philippines in my case) where I could go for specific information about that country only without looking at korea, vietnam, australia, etc.

What I would really like to see more than anything, but it may be way too much to ask would be a forum-specific country-specific search .. say I want see all of the posts made by members with beneficiaries in the philippines (or whichever country) but only posts made in the Foreign Embassy and Consulate Discussion Forum (or whichever forum) .. then I could do an advanced search that will give me those search options.

Just a thought.

I dunno, it's pretty obvious in our regional forum when it's a post about Peru or Brazil or Colombia.

I don't think it's a big issue.

[CountryBoy 0]

Captain,

Have you had a chance to crunch the numbers to see if a Philippine Regional Forum is in order??

Thanks,

CB