Ok, the time has come to talk about the structure of all of our
forums. As we know there are discussions in various places that should be located somewhere else. Part of this is because there is not always a clear place for members to know where to post the thread.
I suggest that we create a major
project to look at the taxonomy (big word for organization or structure) of the forum categories and then
work on a plan to reorganize the
forums to meet our needs moving forward.
As
food for thought I suggest we analyze our own content, which forums are successful, which forums are confusing, what forums are redundant and then look to other forum communities to see what works and what is not working...
This is a big
project and in many ways can be very difficult because not everyone will agree on the best structure. We know from some posts that KISS is needed (Keep It Simple Stupid) or that we need to make sure and not make things so complex it takes a manual to figure out the right place to post a new thread.
The old
software was not capable of having sub-categories but now we can. If you take a look at one of the other sites I manage
www.AirstreamForums.com you will notice lots of sub-categories especially in the
restoration area for things like
heating,
electrical, etc. We might want to consider having less top level categories (the page is so long to scroll up and down) and have more sub-categories (just an idea).
Also, take a look at
www.discusscooking.com (another site I manage). You can see that the sub-categories can be laid out in columns which I think looks better and makes it easier for members to find the right sub-category.
With the new
software moving threads around after making these changes does not take that long. We can do searches for threads and move them in bulk to new areas.
On that note, what are your thoughts on the
current forums? What is working well? What do you think would be good changes to the structure?
Let's here your ideas, comments, thoughts, recommendations, etc...