Too many forum divisions

[K2Rage101]

Seems to me the reason a lot of sections on this forum are lifeless is becuase there are too many categories. No one peruses them all.

1) Combine all the For Sale, Want to Buy, Serives, Deals, and Sold sections into one

2) Combine all Vmods

3) Eliminate "Macintosh and Others"

4) Combine Rackmount, Storage and Video, console gaming, and Audio and Video and roll them all into general hardware

5) Windows, Graphics, Drivers, etc all get combined into "software"

6) Comine Air, Liquid, TEC, and Phase Change into one "cooling" <--this one I think is a no-brainer. I like to browse one cooling section and see em' all.

7) Speak Freely combined with Wampateers

8) Computer Related Open Discussion --> General Hardware


I think you should give this some serious consideration. Not only do all the columns rarely get checked, but combining them would make a tighter-knit group, and make the forum feel "bigger" with more threads and post volumes. Forums ten times this size don't have this many categories.

[JBELL]

Originally posted by K2Rage101
Seems to me the reason a lot of sections on this forum are lifeless is becuase there are too many categories. No one peruses them all.

1) Combine all the For Sale, Want to Buy, Serives, Deals, and Sold sections into one


It is divided so people don't waste time looking for something to have services on in the ''wanted'' area... it was somethign many members requested way back to have ease of viewing.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
2) Combine all Vmods


Possible .. I will leave this one to the volt mod experts how they want me to set it up as this too was a request on the current configuration.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
3) Eliminate "Macintosh and Others"


Now is that fair to people who do use Mac and Linux?? Windows is not the ONLY OS out there ... yet.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
4) Combine Rackmount, Storage and Video, console gaming, and Audio and Video and roll them all into general hardware


.... Each one is very specific and I love organization over a ''cluster-f**k'' layout. Not to be rude, but again all suggestions are needed and deeply considered amoung staff for future forum changes.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
5) Windows, Graphics, Drivers, etc all get combined into "software"


Doable, again will be voted on.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
6) Comine Air, Liquid, TEC, and Phase Change into one "cooling" <--this one I think is a no-brainer. I like to browse one cooling section and see em' all.


No way! this one was a problem before so saying it is a no-brainer is not exactly a no-brainer... It is divided cuase many if not most all members are religious in their method of cooling whether it is TEC or AIR or WATER ... to each their own there, that one stays. If I am looking for info on air cooling better, I personally do not want to swim through a sea of Vapor-Change threads.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
7) Speak Freely combined with Wampateers


Speak freely is for ranting, Wampeteers is for general discussion - they need to be separate so to enforce the forum rules better as speak freely is the place meant for all the well.. ranting, as the rest of thew site is kept as professional and user and kid-freiendly as possible.


Originally posted by K2Rage101
8) Computer Related Open Discussion --> General Hardware


So you want this mixed in with request #4?? so half this forum should be ''General Hardware'' - that would be messy, ugly, and a pain in the arse to moderate!


Originally posted by K2Rage101

I think you should give this some serious consideration. Not only do all the columns rarely get checked, but combining them would make a tighter-knit group, and make the forum feel "bigger" with more threads and post volumes. Forums ten times this size don't have this many categories.

They all will be and are being considered thanks for the input - it IS valued, as for tighter knit group I don't tend to see how... as it would lead more to generalization of areas and lead to potential flame wars over what is better and attacking newbs who don't see eye-to-eye on the same methods of whatever.

Our thread and post volumes are fine... and it grows daily - I think overall people posts here becuase they have threads dedicated to their interest.

Forums ten times this size often have ten times the problems.. look at OC and their issues they have had, look at icrontic and what they are now, and look at [H] and the garbage that happens there. Now show me an instance of our biggest problem in comparison to any forum. Yes we are still small but we are also a veery big force to deal with in folding and overall product overclocking today.

[K2Rage101]

I think the volume issue is valid. I check several columns two or three times a day, and I like to see new stuff. The PhotoChop forum is lifeless, and so are a couple of others. I wish they weren't and I wish I had three or four new threads to read each time I came back. I think that would be the case if there were more "aggregate" groups.

The sub-division should't be premptive. What I mean by that is combine everything while we are small, and then when it BECOMES a nightmare to moderate, then sub-divide. I think it's backwards at the moment. Some columns justifiably deserve their own real estate, but I would say most right now don't. And I would define one that doesn't as a column that I can check once, and come back in 24 or 48 hours and see no activity.

[JBELL]

everything use to be combined together when we had our icrontic explosion, the need for organization was realized, and now with the recent [H] explosion.. certain threads have far out grown the rest... nothing is truely dead granting our member size.. but liek I said it is all being looked at for improvement.

[jaslee]

Why combine all these things when its nicely organized? I don't see a problem with organization. I would hate to see your computer with the cover off. I just don't see how combining these items would increase forum activity. I don't see too much of a problem with #1 and #7, but the rest should stay as is.

[Tweaked!]

K2Rage101, Although I see your points, I have to admit that I agree with jbell here. I'd rather keep things more organized and uniform. Most everyone here seems to have a chosen certain area where they like to congregate. There's nothing wrong with that, and in fact we endorse it.

[Johnny Knoxvill]

having too many sections makes most of the forum look lifeless, this is what i said before:

here are my suggestions:
Macintosh / Linux - very few posts, can be merged with Windows section to make an 'operating systems' section
Benchmarking Programs - very few posts could be merged with 'graphics and other programs' to make a 'programs' section
in Hardware, Macintosh & Others - very few posts (11), i don't think there is a demand for this to be in it's own section, can probably be deleted.

[KnightElite]

I would have to agree that some of the areas are pretty lifeless. The one thing I definitely agree with 100% is aggregation of all the volt-mod forums. The other things that might work is making more sub-forums within other forums, so the main forums page looks less cluttered, and involves less scrolling.

[Johnny Knoxvill]

Originally posted by JBELL

Now is that fair to people who do use Mac and Linux?? Windows is not the ONLY OS out there ... yet.


comeon, look how many posts there are in that forum, why not have a FreeBSD forum too? as i said probably the best thing to do is merge it with the windows forum and calle it the operating systems forum, then no one would be affected.
I think the question should be if there is a demand for it not if it is fair or not.

[K2Rage101]

You could just start polls in potential "melting-pot" forums. Do not make a decision on whether or not to group several threads together based on the number of "yes" or "no" answers, but rather, did the poll get more than 5 votes??? :D

[IFMU]

IMO, I try to follow some linux stuff, but most of its beyond me. At the same time, I do follow some windows stuff. And needless to say, I, for one, do not want to have to go through all the crap to find what I am looking for.
Its the same as in looking through the AMD's to reach Intel, or vice versa.
For now, they are fine how they are.
We happen to have a few linux gurus around here and I dont want them feel being pushed into having to sift through all the windows BS to get into the linux stuff they are interested in actually reading.

[JBELL]

I will work on a compromize

Thank you all for your comments.

JBELL

[jmke]

maybe merge all the VMOD forums? :)

[Johnny Knoxvill]

looks like you merged a few things, looks better :banana: