Does anyone else who lives in Michigan (or is interested in it) wish that the Michigan development threads were a bit more organized? I sure do. I know it comes up every once in a while on here. Maybe there's not enough justification or interest, but hear me out. I've been doing a little thought experiment. Just curious what others may think of this. With a little bit of reorganizing and rebranding, I think we could have much more cohesive coverage of the state and maybe a platform that makes it easier for more consistent updates and more robust discussion (a guy can dream).
Assessing the Existing Situation
Currently, most of the major population areas (and hence, development areas) are covered by the following threads. This is pretty much the lower half of the Lower Peninsula. There's not a lot of rhyme or reason to it, apart from the fact that they were created over time, by interested members. Some, namely Detroit, still get lots of coverage, which is to be expected. Others, like Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Flint, used to have pretty consistent updates, but now they have become quite sporadic. I and a few others are the only ones that bother to post anything at all. Still others, like Kalamazoo, West Michigan, Metro Detroit, and Tri-Cities, get somewhat frequent updates, but there's just not a lot of interest.
Some of these threads are currently located in the "City Compilations" category (Detroit, Metro Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo). The rest are under the Regional "Midwest" page. Wouldn't it make sense for them all to be in the same place? We could have a sub-forum under the Midwest page, titled "Michigan Developments". Much like Chicago (just with fewer threads). Sure, the subscriptions option allows one to organize things however one chooses, but I don't think most casual users understand this tool, and I think the scattered locations reduces the number of page visits. No data to back this up, mind you. I just wish it was more organized. I don't know how hard that is to do. A mod. will probably have to explain how it could be done (or why it cannot be done).
Second thought. With just a little work, the remaining "gaps" in the coverage of our state could be covered. At least, covered in the sense that there is a thread clearly dedicated to the region... getting people interested in keeping them updated is another discussion...)
This diagram shows one way to do it. Three new threads would be created -
- Jackson / South Central Region
- Northern Michigan
- Upper Peninsula
I'd be happy to start these. Most of the remaining threads would then be "rebranded" as more of a regional thread.
- "Flint" would encompass all of Genesee & Shiawassee Counties
- "Tri-Cities / Great Lakes Bay Region" would become "Central Michigan / Saginaw Bay" - encompassing 9 counties
- "Lansing" would expand to encompass all of "Clinton, Eaton, & Ingham Counties" - could be named something like "Mid-Michigan"
- West Michigan would expand to include everything else on the west half of the state up to Mason, Lake, and Osceola Counties.
- Ann Arbor City, Detroit City, & Grand Rapids City could all remain more-or-less "as-is".
We could probably come up with better, more consistent names for them all. This is just a starting point for discussion.
From time to time, I want to post something that's going on in these "gap" areas. But there is nowhere to do it. My fear is that potential new members and visitors will see this lack of organization, and be attracted to different forum sites. Yes, some threads will always be less frequented, at least initially. But there's still stuff going on around the state that gets zero coverage here. Marquette. MI and Traverse City, for example.
Call me crazy, and I'll shut up about it. I just think the Michigan Threads could benefit so much from being just slightly more organized.