I've been thinking about this one.. The forum system is sectioned off to areas of the continent (say Mid-Atlantic and South, etc.). Would it be possible to divide it further into regions but change it so that the engine would pull (JOIN) threads from adjacent regions?

Say I pull up North Carolina board, the SQL joins SC, TN, VA, (GA?) as well. That way it's also easier to see what is going on around you. For example, Chattanooga is right on the border with Southeast region but a lot of people I think find it annoying opening additional tab/window for the southeast region.

I dunno, just a suggestion

Many, many discussions have been had about splitting up the geographic regions differently or this way or that way or whichever, and nobody can ever agree on a system that is better than the one we have now.

I suppose the "best" system would be to have each post also contain co-ordinates and then have the system only show you threads that are within 50 or 100 km of your location. But this I think is overkill.

I think having 50 new boards, one for each state, is overkill. Why does the US have so many states anyway? Canada has more land than the US and we have only 13 provinces/territories and we do fine.

-av

I think having 50 new boards, one for each state, is overkill. Why does the US have so many states anyway? Canada has more land than the US and we have only 13 provinces/territories and we do fine.

Because everyone wanted a piece of their own land with their own laws, etc, about 200-300 years ago, lol.

Also, isn't it something like 65% of Canadian population lives within 150km of US border? or is that just a myth?

I'm not sure, but it's hardly a surprise ... the border is very long and 150km is quite a distance.

I mean, the border is 8,800 km long, so 8800x150 = 1,320,000 square km, which is about 15% of Canada's land mass (9,000,000 square km).

Also throw into the equation the fact that the closer south you are, the better the climate, and you have an easy case for why Canadians would want to live near the southern border. The biggest cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, etc) are all very close to the border also.

-av