I don't see why people only posting on one island is bad, why should they have to participate on islands they don't want to on? I myself post on Atamara, Beluterra, FEI, and Dwilight. I have actually posted on Beluterra longer than FEI and probably just as long as I have on Dwilight despite never playing on Beluterra, but I don't see how whether I just post on Dwilight or all the boards I currently post on matters.
Well, my impression from the discussion in this thread is that there is a perception that the most vocal players hang around in certain locals sub-forums. There they monopolise the discussion and become perhaps too passionate in their interactions. This perhaps gives out a negative impression to irregular or new forum users who wish to participate and instead choose not to.
Kai pointed out that the present structure of the locals boards might help entrench this. They're shadowy areas far removed from the daylight of the rest of the forum. We're all playing the same game, ostensibly part of a single community, but the locals area divides us into smaller social groups by default. Each of the island boards offered different and contrasting community experiences. Something that went beyond content and affected interactions too.
If the locals area was restructured to just Stable/Testing islands say, or flattened completely as suggested by Kai, the community might mix and gel together better. You don't have to look at threads on things you're not interested in, but you can still get an overview of a wider BattleMaster experience. Hopefully it would encourage broader community participation and curb impressions of forum cliques related to particular continents. You'd be engaging in a larger cohesive community rather than in competing sub communities.
I know that some players frequented several locals areas on a regular basis already and that not everyone might agree with my interpretation of things here, but I do think Kai was on to something.
