Too Many Sub-Boards

[Deleted]

It seems like there is a move towards creating more sub-boards to offer finer delineation of topics, but I find that I'm unlikely to regularly click on the sub-boards as they are two clicks deep instead of one click deep. I know that in general, this holds true for visitors to websites, so I'm wondering if it would be better to either get rid of the sub-boards or make them appear as a main board visible at the main index of boards in order to make participation easier. What do you guys think?

[mythmere]

Aug 11, 2008 9:07:35 GMT -6 @ptingler said:

It seems like there is a move towards creating more sub-boards to offer finer delineation of topics, but I find that I'm unlikely to regularly click on the sub-boards as they are two clicks deep instead of one click deep. I know that in general, this holds true for visitors to websites, so I'm wondering if it would be better to either get rid of the sub-boards or make them appear as a main board visible at the main index of boards in order to make participation easier. What do you guys think?

Alternatively, if we could see where there are unread posts in a particular board, we could follow through to them. Right now, when you click open the main board, there's no way of seeing if there's something you haven't read (unless you remember the approximate time you last looked).

[blackbarn]

I have to agree, the sub-boards are getting to be too much to deal with. There are sub-boards that could just as easily be threads in one of the other boards.

And I can see when there are new posts in a board (the dot color changes)... am I missing something about the above complaint?

[tank]

I agree too. I'd rather come to the main page, browse around and see what's new and then click on a few links. The added organization doesn't do me much good, and I'm pretty likely not to enter the sub-forums at all.

[Finarvyn]

Well, I've been back-and-forth on this phlisophically. In general I dislike sub-boards for the same reasons you all have mentioned, but it seems like some amount of organization tends to help a person find a particular topic if you're looking for it.

I guess the alternate is to have a main page that is really long so that most of the sub-boards are regular boards. That seems to have its problems, too, as not all boards get much traffic.

I'm willing to go either way, so maybe a few more posters can weigh in on the topic before I spend a lot of time changing the boards. I don't want to have a bunch of posters asking me to change it back. :-)

[ffilz]

I'd prefer to see fewer (or no) sub-boards. Perhaps some of the sub-boards could be combined.

Would someone be willing to write up the current structure, number of threads would be helpful as well as perhaps some measure of activity (perhaps how many threads posted in the last week or some such).

What would be nice is if forum software allowed user customization, many forums have areas I have little or no interest in).

It does seem like having many more top level areas would be too much. One thing I would like to see is an announcements area at the top level that was used only for real announcements (the posting activity thread doesn't seem to belong in announcements).

Frank

[Finarvyn]

If I eliminate most of the sub-forums a lot of the topics will get buried faster. If I keep them the topics stay closer to the top but it's harder to find new posts. A tricky trade-off.

It turns out that moving threads has to happen slowly and one at a time. It's a pretty slow process so I need to pop open a Mountain Dew and spend a chunk of time when I'm changing things around. That's why I don't like to do it too often.

Another thing that I probably shouldn't mention ... if I think that some topics are a bit afield of the focus of these boards I find that putting them into a sub-forum tends to diminish the traffic somewhat. For example, in the "Other Old School Classics" there were lots of non-TSR posts. While I don't want to delete discussion on those games, I don't entirely want the board to be taken over by them, either. A sub-forum is a nice way to keep it around but not as obvious. (See, I've actually been thinking about this! Go, me!)

As I mentioned before, I'll be happy to hear some suggestions on this....

[Deleted]

What about restructuring/reordering the "main" boards and adding a Tangential Discussions board? So maybe something like:

Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

• Men & Magic
  
• Monsters & Treasure
  
• The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
  
• Philosophy and OD&D
  
• Third Party OD&D Products
  
• Other OD&D Topics
  

Community

• Around the Campfire
  
• Polling Place
  
• Fight On
  
• Swords & Wizardry
  
• OD&D Workshop
  

Other TSR Classics

• Blackmoor and the First Fantasy Campaign
  
• Chainmail
  
• Warriors of Mars
  
• Boothill
  
• Empire of the Petal Throne
  
• Metamorphosis Alpha
  
• Other Old School Classics
  

Online Games

Maybe use sub-boards for this?

Tangential Discussions


That puts the focus on OD&D at the top and the first thing that people see. Then the topics gradually "drift" down to Tangential Discussions.

[ffilz]

Current board structure with number of threads per board.

General
+ 190 General Board
++++ 014 Announcements
++++ 023 Links and Resources
++++ 014 Fiction
++++ 008 People of Note
++++ 008 Classified Ads and The Trading Post
+ 083 Philosophy & OD&D
++++ 003 The Dungeon
++++ 011 Styles of Play
+ 054 The Polling Place
++++ 021 Old School Polls
+ 033 Around the Campfire
++++ 004 Tarrozian Campaign
Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
+ 182 Men & Magic
+ 047 Monsters & Treasure
++++ 007 Specific Monsters
++++ 003 Specific Treasures
+ 062 The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
+ 035 Third Party OD&D Products
++++ 017 Judges Guild and the Wilderlands
+ 038 Other OD&D Topics
++++ 009 Holmes Basic D&D
Other TSR Classics
+ 037 Blackmoor and the "First Fantasy Campaign"
+ 033 Chainmail (1971)
+ 019 Warriors of Mars (1974)
+ 006 Boot Hill (1975)
+ 065 Empire of the Petal Throne (1975)
++++ 008 Greentongue's Online OEPT
+ 023 Metamorphosis Alpha (1976) and Gamma World (1978)
+ 043 Other "Old School" Classics
++++ 005 Traveller and Wanderer
++++ 022 Non-TSR Classics
Things we are doing
+ 096 Fight On!
+ 029 Swords & Wizardry
+ 064 OD&D Workshop
Online Games
+ 024 Calithena's Online OD&D
+ 031 Makofan's Online OD&D
+ 005 Badger's Online OEPT

I would merge Specific Monsters and Specific Treasures back into Monsters & Treasure

Consider promoting Judges Guild and the Wilderlands to a top level.

Merge Holmes Basic D&D into Other OD&D Topics

Create Innactive Games under Online Games
Move Greentongue's game to a sub-board under it.

Promote Non-TSR Classics to a top level, merge Traveller and Wanderer posts into it.

Merge Fiction and People of Note back into General Board.

Merge The Dungeon and Styles of Play back into Philosophy & OD&D

Promote Links & Resources to top level

Rename Announcements "Site Matters" or some such, promote to a top level

Merge Old School Polls into The Polling Place

I think the new structure would look something like (when merging up, I've added the thread count, which may not be accurate), this makes 27 instead of 22 top level boards, not too bad.


General
+ 014 Site Matters
+ 212 General Board
++++ 008 Classified Ads and The Trading Post
+ 023 Links and Resources
+ 107 Philosophy & OD&D
+ 075 The Polling Place
+ 033 Around the Campfire
++++ 004 Tarrozian Campaign
Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
+ 182 Men & Magic
+ 057 Monsters & Treasure
+ 062 The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
+ 035 Third Party OD&D Products
+ 017 Judges Guild and the Wilderlands
+ 047 Other OD&D Topics
Other TSR Classics
+ 037 Blackmoor and the "First Fantasy Campaign"
+ 033 Chainmail (1971)
+ 019 Warriors of Mars (1974)
+ 006 Boot Hill (1975)
+ 065 Empire of the Petal Throne (1975)
+ 023 Metamorphosis Alpha (1976) and Gamma World (1978)
+ 043 Other "Old School" Classics
+ 027 Non-TSR Classics
Things we are doing
+ 096 Fight On!
+ 029 Swords & Wizardry
+ 064 OD&D Workshop
Online Games
+ 024 Calithena's Online OD&D
+ 031 Makofan's Online OD&D
+ 005 Badger's Online OEPT
+ 000 Innactive
++++ 008 Greentongue's Online OEPT

[BeZurKur]

I really like Ptingler's outline for the forum. I prefer having the Online Games go after the Tangential Discussions, but either way is good. I'm not crazy about the name "Tangential Discussions." Even a "General Games Discussion" seems more friendly. That it is at the bottom kind of shows it is tangential. To help keep things orderly for that forum, tags before the subjects may be helpful.

[blackbarn]

You know, I look at the forum here several times a day, and there's not all that much going on in the way of new topics per day. It's not like EN World or something where a thread can be knocked off the first page after a few minutes. Popular, active topics stay on the front page a long time, and even unpopular topics tend to stay on the front page a long time.

So why do we have dozens of different forums and sub forums for many little topics? Don't we all tend to be interested in most of the topics anyhow? I think the overall number of them could be cut way, way down, personally... and with no ill-effects.

I am not complaining or making demands, just making an observation. Take it as you will.

[greyharp]

Aug 11, 2008 18:00:23 GMT -6 BeZurKur said:

I really like Ptingler's outline for the forum.

I agree, put the focus of the forum up the top, first thing you see. Put the less relevant stuff down the bottom.

[Melan]

I think the forum would be better off without sub-boards, so I am in agreement with those who'd like to get rid of them. Currently, this place is starting to get a bit fragmented, which is not justified by the volume of traffic.

[Finarvyn]

Okay, clearly the sub-forum isn't a good idea. I'll make some changes when I get time.

[Deleted]

I like ptingler's arrangement, it makes a lot of sense. I also like ffilz's suggestions and suggest that you do a bit of both. I would like to see Greentongue's Online OEPT game put back in site so anyone interested in OEPT could read what is there along with the active game.

[Finarvyn]

Well, I did a general re-organization similar to what was suggested by ptingler. I still need to go back and bring a few sub-forum posts back into the mainstream sections, but that's relly slow work and will have to wait for another day.

[tank]

Thanks again for putting so much work in to this forum. The changes look great and make browsing much easier. Have an exalt!

[Deleted]

Thanks for the hard work Fin.

[Random]

I was confused at first (I didn't have to login), but the change is nifty.

I might have put the online games below the general board since they aren't really for discussion (which is the purpose of the site guessing from the title), but perhaps that's just my personal preference shining through.

Thank you for putting the time into reorganizing things. 'Tis for the better I'm sure.

[coffee]

Took me a couple of seconds to notice the change, but it looks good. Let's hope this version stays, you you can participate in the discussion of the game and not just discuss the forum!

[cadriel]

It's nice, but I would ask for one small change. Philosophy and OD&D probably should be in the Original Dungeons & Dragons section rather than the General section. It's a great forum and I would rather not see it at the bottom of the list.

[blackbarn]

Aug 14, 2008 9:47:31 GMT -6 cadriel said:

It's nice, but I would ask for one small change. Philosophy and OD&D probably should be in the Original Dungeons & Dragons section rather than the General section. It's a great forum and I would rather not see it at the bottom of the list.

That's a good suggestion, and I second it.

[grodog]

I'll third that, or, alternately you could move the entire General section back to the top (I didn't see that as a problem with it at the top before).