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Great to see the support the idea is receiving.
My only concerns are:
1. Dilution of threads across several forums.
There is a core group of people that contribute greatly to the observation reports forum, and some of those with sketches. I guess my concern (like Suzy said) is that threads might get split between the two, or we end up with duplicates as people put them in both (because they contain a report and a sketch), etc.
The number of people who post sketches is still quite small so there's always a concern that the new forum sits idle and empty with no new contributions. I'm pretty sure with Alex's involvement that's unlikely to happen, though.
2. Controlling the number of sub-forums
Like both Suzy and Alex have stated, I definitely don't want a huge number of sub-forums. Too many make it hard to navigate, dilute the content across many sub-forums and makes it harder for people to find the information they're looking for, people get confused about where to post new threads etc.
These concerns are not specific to a sketching sub-forum - it's just part of the criteria I evaluate when looking to add ANY new sub-forum.
Having said that, even niche areas of amateur astronomy (like sketching) deserve a home (like radio astronomy) and sometimes a sub-forum might help to increase the take-up or contributions. This hasn't always happened (like radio astronomy), but the potential is always there.
I'll give this thread a few more days to see what other support or discussions it generates, and then I'll let you guys know.
Cheers
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