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Discuss Real Life Architecture, Structure And Sociology

Discussion in 'XLN Watering Hole' started by kipate, Sep 29, 2014.

  1. prismaticmarcus

    prismaticmarcus Unskilled Worker

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    why not just leave it free flowing? confining the topic of discussion is just...well...confining...
     
  2. kipate

    kipate Governor

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    I don't know, prismaticmarcus. One the one hand, you may be right, but on the other
    I'd say that it could also avoid people to reply to initial thoughts.
    See our own initial topic, the grid, and we moved to a discussion
    about Canberra in under 10 posts. If we had just let it flown,
    I don't know whether others would have liked to post a comment
    about the grid anymore...
    It is a bit like knowing where you stand, can you post a comment
    regarding a certain topic now, or is it already too late.
    And are others still willing to talk about the initial stuff;
    here we were, but would you know always for sure?
     
  3. veija2

    veija2 Mayor

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    I think there are several good ways to organize it all. Your call, kipate.
     
  4. kipate

    kipate Governor

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    Oh yes, I like it when you put it all on me :p

    Well, my thought here was that it would be the best if we could do the following:
    1) Have an own sub-forum for discussions like this one here,
    integrated into the overall-forum "XL Nation",
    so not being in the "Watering Hole" would be better.
    2) Have your own threads for specific topics and maybe have something
    like a "General Chat"; I do think that newbies who would like to discuss
    about grids when we have come down to another topic in this thread here
    would not want to share their thoughts anymore. And most likely, they can also
    revive threads in a way, when discussion about grids has come to and end.
    I'm a bit unsure about a "general chat" feature, I thought of it as an organizing
    feature: Think about that a newbie created a new thread, but some of our given group
    here do not see it immediately within all the new posts (that will surely happen
    once the community has grown). But one lady, one guy maybe finds the new thread,
    has time to read it and can recommend it to others, who get "alerts"...
    Another advantage of such a "general chat" was that one could collect thoughts
    of already given discussion material, and one could interconnect given single-goaled
    discussions, like connecting a grid-centered discussion with a sociological discussion.
    But as said, I'm not so sure here...
    I meanwhile have to say that I start believing that one single thread for discussions
    about real life was not enough :)

    Your thoughts?
     
  5. kipate

    kipate Governor

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    I know that you can get alerts anyway once you start watching a category/forum/...
    This first option was really thought for recommendation, like someone finds
    something good and says "check out this thread" in the general chat.
    I mean, I could follow you guys and see if you all discuss a certain topic,
    but I think following someone you will need heavy organizing talents yourself...
    Now let's have the thoughts of the people who follow me" (9 members atm, lol)
     
  6. veija2

    veija2 Mayor

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    kipate, I hope you understand that I defer to you on what to do with this thread because you started it, and so I think of it as yours. I'm glad to give my opinion, which I've done. But whatever way this thread goes, I will have things to contribute. The subject interests me. Right now, there is only one thread about Real life architecture et. al. Like you, I think the subject is huge with many possible topics to discuss.

    If my goal was to create a body of interest that warranted a stand alone section in XLN, I would invite several people to host many different threads that related to the subject. When we "filled up" the watering hole with active threads, that would be time enough to think about a separate section for these conversations. You may have other ideas.
     
  7. kipate

    kipate Governor

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    Hmmh, well, the thought for separate sections was rather
    for also allowing newbies to easily find threads like this here...
    Yes, we did not fill up the watering hole, though :)
    But I somehow believe this thread does not belong
    into a watering hole or whatsoever :p

    Anyways, maybe I'm going to write a PM to
    the group here and to the moderators for what could be done
    to on the one hand somewhat be able to guarantee that there was
    a certain focus regarding one single topic and on the other hand
    be able to interconnect given thoughts, add new ideas, and then
    ...conquer the world, err..., wait, wrong movie :p
    It is hard to resemble the, you know, bonfire talks where anybody
    can add something, where you can digress for a while and then go back,
    where you can come back to the initial thoughts whenever you want,
    this was hard to do here, I hope you understand...

    So, meanwhile, what about a new topic?

    Widespread Towns vs. Narrow Cities
    with sharing your experiences, discussing
    the differences in their inhabitants' way of life,
    and so on (e.g. differences in traffic solutions
    and the inhabitants perspective and opinion about the
    specific way they travel; heard someone mentioning that the people of Canberra
    do believe that their status was higher when they could drive by car)...
    I wanted to have it a broader discussion,
    but if you want to center it, we can have it too, let's see...
     
  8. veija2

    veija2 Mayor

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    A very little bit about Swindon, UK. I came across this town when I was looking at intersections. Swindon is home to "the Magic Roundabout," recognized as the #1 worst intersection in the UK.

    Swindon_Magic_Roundabout_svg.png

    While I was visiting, I noticed distinct neighborhoods that used grid and non-grid street layouts.

    swindon-map.jpg

    Looking closer,

    street-compare.jpg

    I could find absolutely nothing noteworthy. the non-grid area is primarily semi-detached houses with detached garages in the back of the lot. There are no alleys. I didn't see any no-parking signs, but also saw no parking on the streets. the grid area is primarily terraced houses, with garages along an alleyway. Cars are parked everywhere on both sides of the streets. Both areas are called "popular" on the real estate listing site zoopla, with similar property values. I couldn't find anything about traffic. Grand rien. Still, I had fun. :)

    What's next?
     
  9. kipate

    kipate Governor

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    I have to say that the grid part actually looks more beautiful in my opinion,
    as the houses do have more details, and a little bit of playing with the forms.
    I dislike the power lines there, though... and it has almost no trees?
    Why the hell it has no trees in the streets there?
    On top of that, some houses look rather derelict.
    Overall, it has its charms, and if the city could find the money to renew this area a bit,
    it could be a little paradise. First, they need to replace the power lines with underground cables,
    then some streets have to be renewed, and the derelict looking houses need
    to be repaired, and then find some good places for more trees...

    The non-grid parts look a bit like some British version of the superblocks,
    it in general looks very American there, a large mall in the center,
    major roads leading to distributor roads leading to single cul-de-sac roads...
    I'm not a fan of that...

    In any case, Swindon does have its charms, though residential zone architecture may not be
    its number one attraction, but that holds for many other cities, too
    (e.g. for many German cities that suffered from bombing in WWII).
     
  10. Alex24

    Alex24 Moderator
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    @veija That part of Vienna is the less wealthy one. Actually I will be there for 3 days next week.
     
  11. prismaticmarcus

    prismaticmarcus Unskilled Worker

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  12. veija2

    veija2 Mayor

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    @kipate - yeah, that's what I thought too. Although you say it much better. I thought they made good areas to compare, since they appear to have been aged in the same barrel.
    @Alex24 - I knew "popular" was a euphemism for something ... is the differing street layout just interesting on the map, or is there some tangible difference between the grid and non-grid parts of Swindon? It looks on Google like most of area is grid based, until you get out into the burbs, anyway. East of Queens drive in non-grid too, but almost looks like project housing. Have you driven the "magic roundabout"?
    @prismaticmarcus -wow. Cool site. I gotta get out more. I've got a feeling I'll be spending a lot of my free time over there. I'm really taken with La Plata and Belo Horizonte.
     
    prismaticmarcus likes this.
  13. veija2

    veija2 Mayor

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    @Alex24 - my bad. Vienna. Why would you be in Swindon? (n) I don't know where this thread is headed exactly, but I'd love to hear more about Vienna. I think it's one of most beautiful and fascinating cities out there.
     

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