# Consolidated PRes forum section?



## brihard (26 Jan 2009)

This is something I've been mulling over for a little while. I see a lot of questions cropping up in the various sub-forums that are very specific to the reserves. I frequently find myself referring people to this site (often when asked about the military on Facebook), and again a lot of those questions deal specifically with the reserves. 

So I was wondering if we could get a discussion going about the possible merits of having a PRes subforum here, kind of a clearing house for all PRes related questions. This site, for someone who's new to it, can be difficult to 'get' at first. There are a lot of smaller areas within army.ca, and one who is new to it might have a lot of difficulty finding what they're looking for. Search is fine, but let's face it, it's no Google, and isn't often very good at finding exactly what you're looking for unless you excel at your search-fu.

I know there are an increasing number of us here with a fair bit of time in the reserves, and the breadth and depth of experience of the reservists here could probably make it worthwhile to concentrate reserve questions into one smaller area. It might make a few people wince to see a thread about the reserve pension sandwiched between a thread about the coming summer's area concentration and a question about going out for a tour as reserve infantry. Nonetheless, it would make it much easier on both the new user and on those of us more familiar with the PRes to both ask and answer questions. Moreover, those of us who've participated in previous conversations on a subject could more easily refer people to those threads in other areas of army.ca, or major reserve threads could be moved into the consolidated forum. A bit of tweaking over a couple months could probably have it running rather smoothly, whether it ended up being a single reserve board, or a reserves board with one sub forum for each element. However it were to work.

This is a great site, but it's a little bit daunting for a potential new member, and a lot of current or potential reservists could probably find it much more user friendly to have one part of the site to go to. Plus, those members from the reg force who would prefer not to be bothered by discussions particular to the reserves could be free of them in other parts of the site.

Anyway, I'll throw this out for discussion, whether people here think it's worth it or whether the forum administrators just give me a slap on the dick. Let's figure out if the idea would have some merit, and if so, maybe the admins could take a closer look at it. I know I would use such a forum on a regular basis, and I expect a number of others would as well. We have our own, screwed up little world that I think is easily capable of generating its own viable part of this site.


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## ltmaverick25 (26 Jan 2009)

I support this idea fully


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## PuckChaser (26 Jan 2009)

That's a pretty excellent idea, I'm suprised it wasn't thought about in depth before.


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## Bruce Monkhouse (26 Jan 2009)

It had been discussed a few years ago but we finally came to a conclusion that it would/ could drive an even bigger wedge through the Res/Reg thingy.

There are some who would love the chance to 'post and run' crap in a forum like that.

thoughts?


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## brihard (26 Jan 2009)

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> It had been discussed a few years ago but we finally came to a conclusion that it would/ could drive an even bigger wedge through the Res/Reg thingy.
> 
> There are some who would love the chance to 'post and run' crap in a forum like that.
> 
> thoughts?



I don't think it would drive any sort of wedge that isn't already there. Sure, some people from either component are going to hate on the other, that's inevitable. In the context of army.ca though, I don't think it would be any more a problem than the normal minor trickle of spammers and dimwits who manage to get themselves banned anyways. I think that the split between the regs and the reserves has healed to some degree over the past several years of Op Athena. I've heard less and less contempt towards the reserves as more of us work and integrate with different parts of the task force and our regular force counterparts.

'Post and run' and minor sniping I don't think would be any more of a big deal than they already are (or aren't) in any threads dealing with the reserves, of which there are many. I certainly don't think that it outweighs the potential benefits to reserve members of having such a source of discussion and information easily available to them. Moreover, we're all big boys and girls, and can deal with it when someone is going out of their way to cause us grief.

It's something I would very much like to see tried out at least for a while, and if it doesn't work out you guys can always put things back the way they were. But I think the majority of members here are certainly mature and reasonable enough that a section of the forum for the PRes wouldn't present a problem. I don't see any problems having arisen from there being segments of the forum for the Air Force and the Navy, no reason to believe that a section dealing specifically with PRes subject matter should be difficult to manage. Most of the members here are pretty good at keeping each other in check, and the people who are going to be idiots will be idiots regardless of which section of the forum they choose to do so in.

I still think the idea has merit to it. The benefits, in my opinion anyway, clearly outweigh the potential drawbacks.


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## PuckChaser (26 Jan 2009)

I believe it would just require a careful hand to moderate it, and keep a no tolerance policy for any Big R/Little r comments. The forum already does well to keep people on track with topics with the DS staff, so maybe us in the general populace should get a little rope to hang ourselves with. If it turns into a flamewar, people end up in the warning system and we lose our place to discuss issues. The Cadets have their own forum, and I would say the reserve system can be as unique as the Cadet system for administration and courses at times, so a place to solve issues would be awesome.

I also agree with what Brihard said, who happened to post 5 seconds ahead of me.


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## geo (26 Jan 2009)

The Search engine on this site is your friend - It has no Reg / Res bias.
Lots of Regs are former Res & have good advice for the new guys.
Lots of Res have overseas experience & have good advice for the Reg guy... they also tend to think outside the box


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## kratz (26 Jan 2009)

I agree there are PRes topics that would fit under one banner, but more often than not the way the site is now set up works well. As it stands, there are some topics that might fit in more than one thread. This concern would be made worse by opening a PRes area. IE: Someone might look for the Reserve Pension under the Admin section or PRes area. The same idea for BMQ, would a topic go under recruiting, PRes or the Navy section for the courses coming up this summer?

It's a great suggestion, but I think things are working fine as they are.


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## dapaterson (26 Jan 2009)

The difficulty as always lies in constructing a way to map the information to where people want to see it.  Does the message board software have the ability to permit a single thread to appear under multiple sub-boards?  That way, an Army Reserve topic could be under both the Army and this new PRes Forum.  Without that, it could be overlooked by someone looking at one but not the other location (and the search function here is OK, but is no Google).


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## tomahawk6 (26 Jan 2009)

Perhaps a compromise would be possible ? A sub forum where FAQ's could be posted which would be locked. This would centralize Pres information without the headache of inane repetitive posts. A have a forum moderator{s] which people with additional questions could pm. A disclaimer could be posted that interested parties should contact a recruiter/unit for specific information. Just my .02.

Why was this post lined out ?

Because you bracketed the "s" at the end of moderator which is the same symbol that is used to start "stroking".

Instead of [ ]  for an 's', use this {s] [ one upper case bracket]

Bruce


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## jp86 (26 Jan 2009)

I agree with Brihard's suggestion.  When I started looking into joining the reserves, I spent a lot of time searching this site for information, and it would have helped tremendously to have a reserves subforum.  As things stand, it's often difficult to tell whether the discussion at hand applies to Res, Reg force, or both.

I think we have at least two groups on this site - folks that come by regularly to follow discussion and see what's new, and folks that just drop in to ask specific questions (usually about recruiting).  A reserve subforum would improve service to the latter and not discourage the former, IMHO.


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## Nfld Sapper (26 Jan 2009)

I agree with Bruce a separate forum just for P.RES will further drive a wedge between Regular and Reserve Forces.  As there are still many Regular Force members who look down on the P.RES (I have witnessed this and been on the receiving end of it) but this is starting to be come less common.

Currently in the Engineer world there is only a fraction of a difference between Regular and Reserve QL3 (DP1) Courses so I don't really see why we should separate them.

If big Mike deciedes he wants to go and make a separate sub forum then its his perogative.


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## Michael OLeary (26 Jan 2009)

The number of threads that are "Reserve only business" is probably quite small.  The initial subject of many more threads start out in one area or the another (Reg/Res) but end up discussing comparisons between the two, so where should they get filed?  It might be simple to say _"they stay where they got started"_, but that means everyone has to scan/search two board areas for threads which might be of interest.

If a Reserve boards is set up with a broad variety of topics, how much information will be missed because people stay in their subject related boards and don't also scan a general Reserve board in case there's new info there in their area of interest?

Many of the "newbie" threads that you might imagine would be solved by having a Reserve board are actually started by members who haven't reached the point of understanding the Reg/Res difference, or how it affects their recruiting/training/equipment/etc. question.

The current structure of the forums has evolved over time and new boards have been created when a definite need to split topic areas was reached. I'm not sure what deficiency you perceive would be addressed by a new Reserve Forum.


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## brihard (26 Jan 2009)

jp86 said:
			
		

> I agree with Brihard's suggestion.  When I started looking into joining the reserves, I spent a lot of time searching this site for information, and it would have helped tremendously to have a reserves subforum.  As things stand, it's often difficult to tell whether the discussion at hand applies to Res, Reg force, or both.



Agreed. As much as the administration encourages its use, the search function is here is NOT very user friendly. Only someone who's familiar with more advanced searches will have much luck here without wasting a lot of time going through seemingly promising results that don't pan out.

For those of us with a bit of time in it gets increasingly easier to tell what applies to who, but for new kids the jargon and terminology can be baffling. It's even harder for a reservist, who simply is never exposed to much if anything in the regs for at least the first couple of years.

Beyond that, there simply are subjects that will be particular to the reserves. Look at the reserve pension, or job protection legislation, information on reserve taskings and courses, questions about reserve regiments and trades, reservists applying for tours, things like that.

I don't think a PRes subsection would be any less busy than, say, 'Land Vehicles', or 'Combat Service Support', or 'Military Literature'. Or any number of other fairly specialized sections. I don't think the argument about the amount of traffic covers much water, else a number of subsection would probably be collapsed into larger ones under broader headings

Anyway, my opinion is obviously clear and known by this point, so I'll leave it at that from my end and let the discussion carry on. I just think it would be worth trying out.


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## Fishbone Jones (26 Jan 2009)

I'll be succinct and greedy in my thoughts. 

I, and the other volunteer Mods, do not require nor want the extra work. Many of the good thoughts and wants for the site can be done electronically, but there's also a human side to almost every decision made. It's also much more complicated than 'hiring more Mods'.

Someone mentioned the Cadet thread. If you only had some idea how much time we spend cleaning and sorting that single sub forum out, you would understand my trepidation at the suggestion of another exclusive sub forum.

We've spent years, and lost members, in the fight to get ALL service personnel referred to on the same level. Let's not squander that.


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## Dog (27 Jan 2009)

As much as this first struck me as a good idea, I think maybe the solution to the more common questions that are particular to the reserves is simply to sticky them.
Otherwise, I don't think there is enough Reserve-specific stuff to create a sub-board.


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## Yrys (31 Jan 2009)

Dog said:
			
		

> As much as this first struck me as a good idea, I think maybe the solution to the more common questions that are particular to the reserves is simply to sticky them.



OR a ONE stikie, with links to the particulars threads that are relevant, started by those that want a subforum,
to help the mods created it. They must have some threads in mind when talking about a subforum for it...

A stickie useful like one of those ...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - A Directory 

Recruiting Forum Introduction and FAQ: PLEASE READ FIRST AND BEFORE STARTING A 

Trades FAQ - links to threads on trades without their own forums


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