I appreciate the comments and suggestions. I've never had to get after anyone for posting a message in the "wrong" area (except for spammers, but that's a different story!
About a year ago we got a lot less traffic and tried having only 4 or 5 total forum areas. Posting rates were much less than they have been in the past 6 months, and we got less visits from folks that were interested in activities other than just hiking or camping. One reason we feature the variety of forums we do is to remind folks that WildTexas.com is about all forms of outdoor recreation in Texas, as well as conservation, parks, tourism and travel. Four or five forums don't meet that need quite as well, at least in our experience.
I'm working on some other major projects until mid-late January, so there have been a lot of content updates (new park reviews, articles and updates) to this site that are currently on the back burner. We always see our traffic shoot up when major content updates get posted and a new newsletter is mailed out. We haven't mailed out a newsletter in over 6 months, except for a few short features, so I'm to "blame" for stagnation in that regard. Not bad for a free, unfunded site, however! ;-)
Thanks, all. For what it's worth, if anyone wants to discuss gear feel free to do so in any forum related to that gear's usage. So, tents in the Camping forum; backpacks and boots in the Backpacking & Hiking forum; binoculars in the Wildlife Observating forum, etc. Gear that has multiple uses, discuss wherever you think it relates best. I'm not picky.
