Out of my post about naming newspapers in a Web 2.0 world another interesting debate has start to develop.So, I have decided to turn it into a post.

The Birmingham Post forum, which launched in February along with the companion website, is looking a little sorry for itself and perhaps needs a little TLC.

It’s a topic I’ve been mulling over since Alison Gow’s post on the subject.

At the moment, there are links at the bottom of our stories linking to our forum:

When the forum link is clicked, this takes you to a registration page. If you have registered then you have to go on to another login page.

Some have commented that this is a labourious way to enter a forum and that they feel many people will just give up.

This is not necessarily true however, I note that The Stirrer forum requires registration and yet that seems relatively active.

So, I would like to make it easier for people to use the forum. Thought it might be nice to involve people in how it might work.

Obviously there are no promises as I have very little understanding of what we are technically capable of doing, but I do promise to make enquiries and make any improvements that I can.