Since 2002, Tigerdroppings has averaged approximately 1.3 new message boards per year. Certain boards made sense (a general sports forum - the MSB, which was in place by 2005), while other boards seemed to have been the result of whimsical decisions to cater to a specific, niche group or person (Gaming Board, Soccer Board).

Regardless, the diverse array of message boards, as well as the consistent implementation of new boards, are intrinsic characteristics of Tigerdroppings. This becomes evident by simply looking at the history of this website over the past 10 years. Topic diversity and tight, subject specific sub-communities are the DNA of Tigerdroppings. By 2005-2006, it became apparent that this website was becoming more than just a place for LSU fans to congregate.

Despite this, however, there are still salient absences in TD's message board offerings. Most notably, a Technology/Science board, and Health/Fitness board. These aren't niche topics that appeal to small groups of people (Fantasy Sports, Hornets, Gaming). Rather, they are massive subjects of discussion.

Just go to any major news website and take a look at the news sections they offer (compared with TD). On CNN, you have Entertainment (check), Politics (check), Money (check), Tech (absent), and Health (absent). ABC News has dedicated sections for Tech and Health. Fox News has dedicated sections for Health, Tech, and Science. It becomes somewhat confounding when one looks at the message board offerings on TD, and notes dedicated forums of discussion for Fantasy Sports, Gaming, Music, and Soccer, but none for Health/Fitness or Technology/Science.

Yet, posters have been imploring for both for quite some time. For example, there are threads that are over 2.5 years old asking for a Tech board. And yet the endless inquiries and requests for a Tech/Science and Health/Fitness board have seemingly been ignored.

Approximately one year ago, I created a thread that detailed and specifically quantified the popularity of these topics on the OT. Samples varied in size and were taken at random intervals, but a trend was established - Tech/Science threads were significantly more popular than Health/Fitness threads and Music threads, and Health/Fitness threads were moderately more popular than Music threads. Since that thread was created, Music was awarded a dedicated forum of discussion (instead of being subsumed in a hypothetical "Entertainment" board).

And despite dozens of requests and pleas, endorsers of a Tech/Science board or Health/fitness board have been invariably ignored.

In another attempt to provide even more evidence for the popularity of these two topics, and to provide further justification that each should receive its own dedicated place of discussion on this website, I've compiled data on each from the OT for the past week (March 25th - April 1st @ 3:40 PM). As you can note below, for the past week, there were 62 threads pertaining to Technology/Science, and 39 threads pertaining to Health/Fitness. Note, this trend is consistent with the trends established in samples from 2012, which can again be found here.

Tech/Science and Health/Fitness threads made up over 10% of all threads created on the OT for the past week. Technology and Science threads alone consisted of over 6% of all threads created on the OT for the past week (and, again, this is for the OT alone - plenty of Tech threads have been created on boards such as Movies/TV and Gaming, such as this one).

Again, so what does all of this mean? The evidence is there to justify both a Tech/Science board and a Health/Fitness board. Not only are these topics discussed with a high frequency, but posters have been explicitly requesting both boards for years. While I endorse both boards, I do feel that a Tech/Science board would be most warranted, and this is due to the numbers alone - not just from the sample below, but from all of the samples in 2012. Regardless, I think most would agree that the time has certainly come to introduce both boards onto Tigerdroppings. The central and ongoing question remains, however - will the mods step up and have an open discussion about the prospect of either board, or will the requests of a substantial amount of posters continue to fall on deaf ears?

*Parenthetically, I should note that the thread display method that I typically employed has been altered. This is due to the changes that occurred with the way bookmarks operate and are stored. Previously, I would bookmark the threads and take screencaps, which is no longer possible. Thus, thread titles with direct links to the threads are enumerated below.

This post was edited on 4/10/13 at 3:36 pm