Consolidation of forums?

[Bravo]

Have you guys ever been too specific about forum topics.

Forgive me for saying so, but i think you got a load too many :D

The OCAU forums back home has 33 forums for 17,000 members.
Specifically:
Test Forum (post sigs/avatars)
Site Discussion (talk about the page/forums)
The Pub (Tech-Free zone)
Distributed Computing

General topics:
Newbie Lounge
Overclocking/hardware Discussion
Troubleshooting
Software

Specific:
Modding/electronics forum
Extreme cooling (everything non-aircooled)
SMP and Clustering
AMD Forum
Intel Forum
Nvidia Hardware Forum
Via forum

Trading:
For Sale
Wanted to Buy
Price Check
Where/What to buy
Vendor Verdicts.

(there are another 5 forums for everything non-tech, motoring, geek food, toys, and media/current events).

I believe people posting threads in different forums arent getting enough exposure. If you were to make at most, 18 forums to moderate and to cover all relevant topics of interest here, people would be more inclined to take a look at every forum, and every post. 37 forums for 150 people while isnt stupid, but it has diluted most of the forum topics.

I suppose the point im trying to make is there are a load of forums, and extremely well defined forum topics. These could be moved/moulded together. Overclocking would cover Vmods/benchmarking, General hardware could cover all computer components. A single DC (distributed computing) could put Seti/Folding together, At most 2 trading forums (FS. WTB) with another for Buyer/seller feedback would cover those. And an Extreme Cooling forum would cover Watercooling/Phase Change (with aircooling chumps going to the Overclocking forum).

Sorry if im rambling, but does anybody understand this?

[Smizack]

hmmmm... I see you point. But I like it as is.

And it's not really that complicated. I mean if you read the topics, you know where you are.

[IFMU]

The largest point to having the forums set like this is that we are hoping that we get larger. And once we do, its better to have them all seperated as they are now. To keep things tidy. This goes here, and that goes there. Well defined would be a good way to put it.
Personally, I dont like it when a forum has 4 sections to cover everything. Then get smacked around by a mod because you posted in the wrong area.

IMO, this is better.

IFMU

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by IFMU
The largest point to having the forums set like this is that we are hoping that we get larger. And once we do, its better to have them all seperated as they are now. To keep things tidy. This goes here, and that goes there. Well defined would be a good way to put it.
Personally, I dont like it when a forum has 4 sections to cover everything. Then get smacked around by a mod because you posted in the wrong area.

IMO, this is better.

IFMU

i agree, even at oc.com there's still seniors that are too anal and other members who won't even try and help if it's in the wrong section. i feel bad for them if i can't help them.