Rainbow Bridge do you want to keep it as a forum?

I am slightly confused about the difference between what Rainbow Bridge is now and what the change will be.  I am all for anything that allows it to remain a place for us to go to share our losses and our condolences.  I am not sure how to answer the poll.

I may not be correct but I think he's asking if we want it to stay an actual permanent "area" or only do a Rainbow Bridge post when needed.  I said "yes" because I  think it's an important 'area' to have

Let's explain the difference between a forum and a forum in a group.  A forum is what you have had in the past and currently it's a flat structure in which all content is displayed to all users.  Where as a group is a container for features such as forums, galleries, wikis and other things.  You can see groups in use in Facebook, the idea behind a group is that you have to become a member of that group to post in any in the forum or other applications.  Groups can be open or closed membership, so in this case it would be open membership, ie anyone can join  So from the perspective of being able to see what people are posting on the site, groups allow you to declare the areas you are interested in and see that content over other content in the site.  In the case of Rainbow Bridge some people actively want to be part of that section of the site and will want to post pictures as well as forum posts, other users will not want to see this information.  

So to recap:

Making Rainbow Bridge a group would:

Allow users to register to be part of that part of the site

Easily post multiple images and videos  rather than using forum threads

Allow us to add other specific features at a later date

Having to register is problematic -- posting to something like that is usually done in grief  and the person typically may not  be able to handle apply for membership beyond the fact that they've already taken the steps to join the forum itself.  There may be regular members who monitor and contribute to that area but you don't want to make it harder  for a person to initially post (if I'm understanding you it would mean they'd have to be a member of the forum already and then additionally have to apply to post there?  

Registering it is a matter of clicking a join button on any of the group pages i.e. the user is already a member of the site.  So there would be a message and a big link saying "Join this group to reply"   It is very straightforwards.

I think keeping it as a forum is best in my opinion.  Most of us have a special place in our hearts for the posts in the forum, I still go back from time to time to reflect.  

To be clear shadowsgin it would still be a forum, but it will have it's own distinct area, which will mean we can also add other specific features to compliment the forum disucssions

Admittedly, I'm very dense when it comes to all things technical and social-media related, so I'm not sure I totally understand the concept of a group or kennel.  As long as there is an easily accessible section of the community where members can post things about beloved pets who have died, whether it be just text or photos or whatever, then that's good.  It also has to allow other members to post comments in response, so we can offer condolences to those who have lost a dog.  Simplicity is what I vote for, so whatever that option is, that's my vote!

I promise we are making some pretty major changes and our main tenant is to make everything as simple as possible.  We can't guarantee that the first major update will be perfect, but with your feedback we will aim to fix and improve things as much as we can.  We are still a few weeks away from being able to demonstrate the new site, when it's ready we will invite core members over to get some feedback on a test version of the site and also some bug reports.