Please Add Sport Specific Categories

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We’re getting to the point where you have to scroll down pretty far to see just the latest posts from the day, and since there is a wide array of people on here doing different sports, if we could categorize our posts on sport (triathlon, MTB, CX, Road, gravel, etc.) I think that would help keep things we are interested in more visible. Also, since there is no real triathlon category or forum, we have generally migrated to a single yearly “Ironman” thread. The 2019 Ironman thread ended up with 2254 posts, and the 2020 one already has 666. It’s really hard to follow at times when somebody has say a swimming question at the same time another person has a running question and another is talking about race prep, yet we don’t want to fill up the TR forums with posts about swimming. (You’re all welcome)

So could we get some extra categories so that we don’t end up with a mammoth serial post or bug the MTB folks with swimming questions. (Or would a separate forum be a better solution?)

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We have enough of the primary separation, via the Categories. People can jump into specific Categories to get a more refined list to browse.

What people need to do is apply the appropriate Tags, under each Category. Each Category has a list of it’s own Tags, relevant to that Category. Triathlon is a specific Tag that exists in multiple Categories, as one example.

They are widely overlooked and seldom used. I spend a significant amount of time adding Tags to many posts as part of my clean up.

The Category and Tag can be used in search to filter results. That is the point it is the most useful to have Tags applied.

The growth of the group is nearing 13,000 members. That leads to a greater number of posts in the “Latest” section.

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To add a short bit (and where I should have started) this is why it is very important that people apply good, descriptive Titles to their threads.

Use good key words that indicate the content well. These can include the discipline identification as mentioned among many other things.

Avoid generic titles that tell nothing of the question or content within.

Good Titles help for general browsing now as well as search in the future. It serves the OP and the readers better, so take the time to make it useful.

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So are you saying swim training topics will be welcome here as long as I tag them appropriately?

I honestly feel that if us triathlon folks stop condensing all of our discussion into a single thread each year, it will really spoil this forum for the rest of the pure cyclists.

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  • Of course they are welcome, just like any of the Run related posts that we have already seen. Not sure why you thought they wouldn’t be welcomed or allowed?

  • The grouping under the IM thread is something that people chose to do. It was not pushed by TR or me. I think that thread makes sense for the IM specific events, but it was not meant as the only thread for any Tri related discussion.

  • I think separate threads can and should be used appropriately to address specific topics.

  • Their relation to triathlon training is obvious and useful. And like the separate run-only threads on things like full and half-marathon are evidence that these sports are welcome here.

  • The “Swim” tag exists now under the “Training” category and has already been used 11 times. I suggest using that and even adding it in the title (if there isn’t already something obviously swim specific in the title text) is a decent idea.

  • We can add more “swim” tags in other Categories as needed.

  • As with any other range of topics, grouping common elements in a thread is useful vs having lots of separate threads. But we can have unique threads as needed when the topics are more different than similar. Just like any of the bike and run threads we group or separate.