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Beginner Zone Section.. now "New to Skiing?"

Philpug

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It was brought up on @Mendieta's thread that we could benefit from a Beginners section. If we feel it would be advantageous, why not. How about a name, "Bunny Slope," "First Timers," "New to Skiing"? Any of those names or does anything else ring out? Also need a good sentence describing what should be post in it. Go.
 

Ken_R

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It was brought up on @Mendieta's thread that we could benefit from a Beginners section. If we feel it woudl be anventagious, why not. How about a name, "Bunny Slope", "First Timers" , "New to the Skiing"? . Any of those names or does anything else ring out? Also need a good sentence describing what should be post in it. Go.

Development Zone? Something that is not demeaning or make rookies feel bad jejeje.

From what I have seen most online retailers and even brick and mortar shops recommend the cheapest skis and boots to beginners. The boots tend to be cold, wet and uncomfortable and the skis just very limiting for skiers that beyond the wedge phase. Not what you want if you want that person to enjoy and continue the sport.
 

Mendieta

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Frankly, I agree with @Tricia 's concerns about a dedicated beginner section. I feel like it would be confusing. I wonder what's wrong with using Ski School for beginner discussion as well, including my post.

The one liner for Ski School could become:
Technique discussion, questions to instructors, beginner questions.

If we wind up creating the beginner section, I think most people who never skied will make little sense of "Bunny Slope". "First Timers" sounds like you should move on after skiing just one day. We could use "Beginners". And a description along the lines of "Questions for new and prospective skiers". But then again, I feel like a new skier should be able to ask for ski recommendations in the regular Gear/Hardgoods section. It will be confusing to say 'wait, I have a question about skis, and I am also a beginner, where should I post?'

BTW: post count can be used as a post-mortem analysis tool. There are 6 times as many posts in General Skiing as in Ski School, as of now. We clearly could break up General Skiing. Or we could move trades from "General Skiing" to more specific sections (admins can do that easily, right). Maybe worth a look

upload_2016-11-18_16-26-39.png
 

crgildart

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Try to keep the threads there from getting out of hand with un needed debates that don't help the noob dropping in.. perhaps lock threads at 1 page max there?
 

Neil Eric

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I consider myself "new again" skier since I hadn't touched ski gear for 30 years. Last year I bought boots at the box, I know now how much can be done with an experienced boot fitter, from my reading here. I think the sticky category may work for the fundamental terms,( I have problems with the acronyms), and articles like Mendieta's.
I like this Forum because of the uncluttered look, beginners / experts should ask questions in the existing categories, (place acronym here).
 

VickieH

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I don't agree with putting Beginner information in Ski School. I think "Ski School" connotes ski instruction. And ski school is for more than just beginners.

But I definitely wouldn't call a section "bunny" anything unless it's about rabbits.

Yeah, I'm disagreeing with everything and offering no constructive input. Sigh. Ok, here's my constructive part ... poke around other sites to see what sections they have and what the distribution of posts/threads is. And maybe make decisions based on the administrative ease or nightmare of changing those decisions. Seems it would be easier to merge 2 sections later if 1 was not well used than to try to split 1 section that had gotten out of control.

ETA: Jilly and I were co-posting the same thought.
 

lonewolf210

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Do we really get enough beginners on here? The majority of threads on other ski forums really belong either in the gear recs or the resort threads.
 

Core2

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Beginner Zone is good. Don't overthink this. There are many folks here who could put a ton of content in that section which will be immensely helpful to people looking to get into skiing or up their abilities and knowledge. You want to win the search engine game, that is what you need to do. I'd even look at key words for skiing searches and start writing your topics and articles based off what newbs are searching for. Epic has 15 years worth of content that covered every single skiing related thing you could imagine from beginner to expert. That is why it pulls in so many people off the search engines (myself included). Cater to all levels of skier here if you want to grow this site past a niche community of advanced-expert skiers.
 
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Philpug

Philpug

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I think @Core2 is on to something, lets not overthink this. We need something that is easy to find and that will be comfortable for them.

Do we really get enough beginners on here? The majority of threads on other ski forums really belong either in the gear recs or the resort threads.

Have beginners found the site but were overwhelmed? We don't know.

Not a member on that other site, but things are friendly here. So a beginner might just look here. Would be nice to ease them into this sport that we all love.

Point taken.
 

Don in Morrison

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Some of the discussions in the Ski School section can get pretty deep, and a beginner poking his head in there for advice might be intimidated by that. If they go in there they could come out with their head spinning so bad they don't know which way is up. A separate space for beginners might feel more welcoming. Call it "Welcome to the Beginner Zone" or something else that has a "come on in and let us help you get started" feel to it.

A potential downside would be that a simple appeal for fundamental advice could devolve into a highly technical back-and-forth among experienced skiers over-analyzing rudimentary skills. People kind of have a tendency to do that from time to time.
 

surfsnowgirl

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I like beginner zone. I think it's general enough and doesn't have a demeaning title. Seems like a great bucket to capture a lot of things a newer person to the sport might have questions on. If someone posts a thread in a different category or poses a question in an existing thread that is more suited under this sub category it can always be moved there.
 

crgildart

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I like "New or Returning to Skiing?" There is a lot of content there that's relative to the every other year one day skier in addition to the brand new skiers.
 

oldschoolskier

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I like "New or Returning to Skiing?" There is a lot of content there that's relative to the every other year one day skier in addition to the brand new skiers.

While there is some truth in this, a returning skier or a few days a year skier is not a beginner by any means. They may even include expert skiers that need to update.

Beginners for the most part don't yet speak our language, understand equipment from a fit and application perspective and the obvious one, don't know how to ski but want to learn. A "Beginners Zone" reminds everyone that what is describe should be kept simpler in explanation as the base knowledge isn't there yet and part of the explanation is instruction on what is happening and how we word things. KISS principle.

Returning skiers on the other hand have knowledge, just not current knowledge and view points. They can easily get by on what they know but are here to fast track the update in how things work. Most cases they have very specific questions and needs. How this fits in to the scope is something else, but I would suspect that General Skiing is more than enough.
 

Monique

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Maybe something like "New to skiing"? "Beginner Zone" puts a label on the people who post there. It may be accurate, but I think it's less welcoming than it could be.
 

crgildart

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I'd like to see Mendiata's sticky thread cleaned up and locked. Sticky's should be mostly informative and concise without lots/pages of debate. Perhaps move the debate about just how much physical training and exercise is required to another thread somehow?
 

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