Events in Outlying Areas

[Nemea Laessig]

Hi, Barry!

I noticed that you moved my recent post into the Marin section of the site, and I understand why you did that. However, I know there are a lot of people here in Sonoma County who would be happy to travel to Larkspur, or who might be in Santa Cruz, for this special occasion to see Sharon perform. How are they to find out about it if they don't access the Marin section? Seems to me that a special event such as this that doesn't necessarily happen here, but that would appeal to folks from the area, and really is close enough to drive to for an evening could get special consideration. What do you think?

[Barry]

Hi Nemea,

It’s a tricky question. There are two concerns:

- I don’t want duplicate postings on the board so that some people may get 2 copies of the same thing, either in the digest or online (New Posts) because they may then be less inclined to read everything.

- I want things to be explicitly local and I want to be able to draw a line someplace

Of course your post is only one example of posts that could be appropriate in more than one area. The Larkspur theater is small (I’m guess not more than 60 seats) and it’s very much in the heart of Marin, as opposed to Novato. If I let this be posted in two places then there are LOTS of other posts that could argue the same level of cross-community appeal, and we’d no longer have a Sonoma County list and a Marin County list. I think that having that level of focus is really important.

I know as a poster of an item you want to have the widest viewing of it. However by losing the county focus I think in the long term there will be fewer viewers overall than if I let the counties blend more.

If a reader is open to going to Marin for events then they can checkout the Marin category too. Sure, by not having the Marin events in the Sonoma category, they will not be exposed to certain readers, but overall, in my opinion, its best for the board, which is best for me and best for you!