Forum Tip: Use Categories (here's why)

When posting to our lovely forum, you are provided with the opportunity to select a category. On the posting screen, it's the first option you are provided with, pleading (highlighted in bright yellow) for you to select one.

We err on the side of caution by defaulting the category to "General Non-Surveying" because any topics that are set to a category related to Land Surveying (there are currently 10 of them) are automatically added to our RSS feed and broadcast to social networks.

Why is it important to set a category?

• As mentioned above, surveying-related topics are automatically added to our RSS feed and broadcast to various social networking accounts. This means your thread will get more exposure if you put it in a surveying-related category. Of course, your posts must be about surveying when placing them in surveying-related categories.
• If you spend a lot of time writing a surveying-related post and then leave it in the default General Non-Surveying category, only those who are actually logged in to the site will see it. Only surveying-related topics are viewable by visitors and those who are not logged in, so it is wise to select an appropriate category when posting a surveying-related message to maximize how many will see it, especially if you are looking for help.
• By placing your surveying-related posts in an appropriate category, it will often encourage non-registered users to register with us just to reply to your post. Yes, this happens a lot. You may think your question is obscure, but I've seen a lot of cases where someone will sign up simply to answer someone else's obscure but burning question.

Why do you hide non-surveying posts from the public?

• This is a forum that focuses on land surveying and we want to attract those working in surveying and related fields only. By hiding the non-surveying posts, the search engines don't see them -- they can only index the topics they can see. Unlike other surveying forums, we try to keep our user base as closely related to surveying as possible, meaning that our traffic is of high quality. That's why our number of registered users is lower -- it's mostly comprised of surveyors or those related to surveying.
• Another great unexpected result of this feature is that you can easily just view surveying-only topics by simply logging out. Some people just want to lurk and learn from our forum and we're fine with that. Of course we'd like them to post, but it's not for everyone. But the sheer amount of knowledge we have here is a great way for someone to find answers to their questions without even having to ask.

So anyway, categories are important. Thank you for being a part of our little forum. 🙂