What's up with the FBI IA Threads?

[BuMan]

There's been one large FBI Intelligence Analyst thread that was running in the federal jobs forum for a while, suddenly, it was moved, without explanation to the Coffee Break forum, and now it is gone altogether. A couple of other IA discussions (but not all) have also been moved to Coffee Break. All of the moved threads were discussing hiring status, the process, the work, etc. and seemed to be on topic for the Federal jobs forum. The Coffee Break forum states: "Take a break from law enforcement topics, and talk about anything that comes to mind in this forum." while the Federal forum states: "Questions and comments concerning federal topics or employment can be found in this forum."

Just curious as to the rationale for moving some of the threads from what would appear to be the appropriate forum to a forum that relates to non-LE/fun topics.

[bullah]

It's actually still in the Coffee Break forum, but its title has been changed to 'Anyone got "THE CALL" from the burea for IA lately?'.

But we'd still like to know why it's there and not in the Fed forum.

Bullah

[krellum]

The reason the title keeps changing is because we keep merging it with other, newer threads that people start in the Fed forum on the same topic, so when you start a topic named "what's the status of IA" and it's merged with that current, BIG one, the title changes to the new topic. It really shouldn't, but then again, we've never had a 900-odd post thread before, so this is new ground for all of us (!).

The reason it was moved to the Coffee Break forum was not to slight the thread, as some have suggested, but because it's not really a Federal law enforcement hiring topic and we really don't have a permanent place for it. We have permanent forums established for other topics because we've had more than a few discussions coming up from time to time on those subjects and they seem to have a track record, but despite the size of this single thread, it's really only about one subject and is the only one that's ever come up, so it doesn't really merit it's own permanent forum at this time. If we were to leave it in the Fed LE forum, we should theoretically also allow threads there about hiring for other, non-LE Fed gov't topics as well, like linguists and such. However, this is really a LE/public safety officer forum, only (we can only cover so much, hence the reason we don't have intel sections, linguist sections, HR sections, etc.). And as Fed LE specific as this topic may seem, it really only applies to one agency - not to everyone else (i.e. only one agency hires IA's to directly support investigative ops on this scale - most agencies don't even have IA's).

Obviously, there doesn't seem to be any other resource for the folks engaging in this thread on the net, so no one wanted to let the thread go or be closed - but we wanted to keep threads in appropriate places, as well.

k

[BuMan]

OK.

I'd humbly suggest that the intelligence field bridges that gap between LE and military and there are a number of agencies that have 0132 positions that folks may be interested in. Agencies currently hiring include FBI, DIA, NRC, DHS (IA/IP, TSA, ICE), all branches of the military (outside of the DIA), DEA, Dept of State, NGA, HHS (CDC). Those are just the ones on USAJobs. I know BATF, CIA, and other agencies have intelligence-related positions (reports officers, operations specialists, etc.) which add up to a sizable number of jobs and a sizable number of applicants.

That thread alone (and the ones it has been combined with) has more replies than six of the nine LE/FF forums.

But it's y'alls decision and I'll live with it either way. It just seems that for someone looking for information, Federal Questions is far more logical than is Coffee Break, especially given the blurbs for the purpose of the forums that's visible on the main page.

[krellum]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. An intel-only forum would be good, especially with all those agencies you mentioned hiring, but we'd need to see a lot more topics on it than we get now. Someone actually brought this up recently and it was discussed, but the activity - in more than just a single thread - just wasn't there. People have also brought up good ideas for other threads - like a conservation LE/game warden thread - but again, the activity level right now is too sporadic.

We've opened up a lot of new threads since I've been here; when we started, it was essentially fed, local police, military, and restricted forums. We've added quite a few, with the busiest probably being Coffee Break, News and Fitness, but others have been closed or merged with still others due to inactivity, like the merging of probabtion with parole because of low activity. Point is that the activity levels here often generate new forums, just as the lack of activity does the same, so we'll see what the future holds.

k

[BuMan]

And perhaps having an Intel forum focusing on all Intel jobs, not just those in the FBI will generate more traffic, too. Ya never know.

[eff-bee-eye]

Hmm, I was wondering why my posts kept changing.