Subforums pros/cons, usage?

HI All:

My evaluation of this product and the features we require continues.

I'd like some input on subforums.  What are the pros and cons?

Let's take a straightforward example.  Say I want to have a forum for my sales people.  Let's say I have some salespeople in every state.  And say I have divided these states amongst four division managers: west, south, midwest, northeast.

I could organize like:

1. Sales
2. Sales
     West
     South
     Midwest
     Northeast
3. Sales
     West
        California
        Oregon
        Washington
        (etc)
     South
     (etc)

I suppose where you draw the line is based on localizing posts?   I.e. I would go with #3 if I only wanted California sales people to only see what goes on in California, right?  For the DM of West, does having (say) 8 subforums under West present any challenges that wouldn't be there if I had gone with #2?

If anyone has any thoughts or practical experiences with subforums I'd appreciate the input.  I did do a search, and found the thread where a guy had close to 250 subforums, obviously mass overkill. I would never do something like that, just looking for input.

Thanks... Bob.

I've built a framework of forums and sub-forums that I feel is reasonable. Take a look at http://CommuterClub.org/forum

In my case I have local forums for local relevant topics, and other forums to cover topics that apply to larger regions, i.e. states.