Other Emergency Services Forum?

BizPost

Am sure there's pros and cons to having a Non Garda emergency service forum.

My two pence worth.
Garda/ Policing related topics are very active which is great to have such interest.

Problem I see is that someone who has an interest in other Emergency service goes to the first page and see mostly Garda topics and drifts away without looking at 2nd or 3rd page. Yes you can argue if they have an interest why don't they post but sometimes you need to see other related topics to get people started.

Is it a lot of hassle to set one up and see what happens, if its successful after 2 months great, if not just revert it back to the one forum.

TheNog

It is a good point, there is a huge amount of Garda related topics on this part of the forum but we do have topics on other services too. Everyone posting here are a mix of all of them plus civilians too.

The problem is that garda related topics on the media etc is so frequently updated and new ones surface whereas news of other services does not come to the surface as often. If we were to split the forum again it could result in less traffic coming through certain forums too thus generating less and less interest.

However it is worth discussing and see where it goes. If the demand is there we can accomodate Im sure.

BizPost

Yea that's kinda where I see the problem, if someone posts a topic on say a non garda issue and no one else with an interest in it doesn't post within a week there's a good chance its down on Page 2.

People aren't going to read into Page 2 as much they would as the first page so it therefore it can disappear.

I know there's other forum sites for ambulance etc but there's lots of other services like Mountain Rescue, Lifeboats that don't currently have a forum that boards.ie could prove quite useful.

Paulzx

I'm against splitting the forum. Yes, there are more threads about Gardai than any other service but that is to be expected. It is probably the largest emergency service and the one which the public have most dealings with.

It is always going to be the service which attracts the most whingers due to the nature of its work e.g you thrash someones house during a search they complain. If i thrash someones house putting a fire out they thank me. You take someones car off them for no tax they complain. I cut their car to pieces they thank me. Non emergency service personnel will always post more on Garda topics than anything else.

If you seperate the forum i believe personnel from other services will possibly not interact on the Garda forum as much as at present. I don't believe there is enough volume of posts on other services to justify there own forum.

Christ, i can't believe i'm advocating hanging out with the peelers:eek:

BizPost

"I don't believe there is enough volume of posts on other services to justify there own forum"

I think that's exactly the reason to have a seperate forum. If there's nothing but police related material someone with something to say mightn't want to post it.

You could still leave the structure with main forum but just have a seperate section up top like you have for recruitment for the "Non Police Emergency Forum".

At the moment there's very else being posted except police related material, suggestion could be to open a new forum rather than split the forum. See what happens, if there's posts well then great if not then close it down.

civdef

This is a subject that has been considered since the ES forum was started, and I'm still undecided either way, tending to agree with both sides of the argument. It certainly seems like there are plenty of other service members using the main forum, just not starting many topics of our own.

I'm inclined to get more opinions on this.. will sticky it for a while.

timmywex

The reason there are more garda posts ais because there are more people here that are gards and have an interest in gards.

Id be against splitting it, just leave as the one and let people post all the emergency services threads into it

miceal

I don't think there would be enough traffic to split the forum.

There is always going to be more Garda post when you look at the number

15,000 garda approx
4,000 Fire Fighters approx

The number of Gardai in the country outweigh the other Emergency Services and when i was looking for the Ambulance figures i think i came across their forum

http://www.irishambulance.net/ambulance/index.php

Fire service have one too but seems to be very little traffic on it

http://irishfireservices.ie/forums/index.php

BizPost

Fair points and good to see there's 2 other forums for Fire and Ambulance.

What about the idea of having a similiar sub forum like the recruitment for the 4th Emergency Service type ie Mountain Rescue/ Lifeboats. It might just cater for a niche group that don't have a forum?

Eru

Im completely against it.

Theres plenty of police sites, ambulance sites amd medical sites, etc. Pretty much all our es people could post on a site dedicated to their field but those that come here choose not to limit themselves like that.

I dont want to only post with police, I want to hear from other es and civilian people unfortunately as I said to Nog in PM a while ago, Gardai posting on a public forum may soon be a thing of the past. (Im not answering questions on this, pm me if you want)

Tango Alpha 51

miceal wrote: »

I don't think there would be enough traffic to split the forum.

There is always going to be more Garda post when you look at the number

15,000 garda approx
4,000 Fire Fighters approx

The number of Gardai in the country outweigh the other Emergency Services and when i was looking for the Ambulance figures i think i came across their forum

http://www.irishambulance.net/ambulance/index.php

Fire service have one too but seems to be very little traffic on it

http://irishfireservices.ie/forums/index.php

Only approx 1,200 paramedics in the HSE National Ambulance Service for the whole country :mad:

miceal

buzzman wrote: »

Only approx 1,200 paramedics in the HSE National Ambulance Service for the whole country :mad:

is that 1200 paramedics or crews?

Tango Alpha 51

miceal wrote: »

is that 1200 paramedics or crews?

No 1,200 single paramedics. Do the math it would work out at approx 600 crews. Total population of ireland in 2006 (Census.ie) was 4,239,848 people

Now if you take into account the fact that DFB have approx 800 paramedics/firefighters that would mean that in total the country of Ireland has only 2,000 paramedics (between the HSE & DFB) meaning in turn there is 1 paramedic for every 2,119.924 people

Equate this to the gardai where there is 1 garda for every 286.65 people