the local forums just make more sense on a few levels anyway. discussions of local advocacy or political/infrastructural problems are hard to have in a global forum because of physical distance from the issues. certain things are better understood thru direct experience and trying to converse with people who lack that simply because of geography can sometimes become frustrating.
local rides? we all love to ride. we ride together a lot. we hang out. there's no need to clutter up this forum with that stuff. does someone in latvia really care that yoshi and hammer are gonna do hill repeats on thursday and send out an open invitation to join them?
advice? a lot of us have tons of tools and parts. some like ceya, GBD and timesup even have oodles of mechanical experience. it's nice to ask for help locally where you might even be able to borrow a tool, get a quick demonstration or tweak or grab a hard to find part.
plus... there's no censorship and we can be stupid without being berated to take it to some other section of a mammoth site.