The Mother Board

[EmilyB]

Joshvee whilst I respect your views and concerns I cannot agree it is totally a bad thing. Although I do agree we need to be very careful and very strict about monitoring where threads are posted. I have to say that I have noticed a somewhat too little relaxed attitude from moderators concerning the placement of threads and with this new design, if we continue in this manner, things will get extremely messy and unusable and even I (who loves it here) could leave.

[MoboCop]

I think there is room for discussion about this issue for sure. The point is to provide the best layout possible for everyone. I am aware (I mentionedit earlier in the thread) that there may be too many hardware forums and that I might need to consolidate some of them into an Other Hardware Category.

Another option would be to allow discussion and support in each topical category? This might be a valid way to handle things. For example the motherboard category would allow any post related to motherboards? Would this be easier.

I dont think have many different forums is really a problem as long as the structure is obvious. Many top forum sites (with more traffic and users than our site) have a large number of forums with specific categories.

Lets get some more feedback going and I will put some more thought into it as well.

I will hold off on the text for the new hardware forums unitl we resolve this issue. I would like to get it resolved by Sunday evening so if you have an opinion please pipe up.

If you also know of any large forums that have a layout that supports your argument please link it up so we can see it.

Thanks.
_________________
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted - Albert Einstien

[strasburg_valley]

Am I blind or did we scratch the folding forum?
_________________
Deo Vindice

[strasburg_valley]

OH, there it is, I swear it wasn't there a second ago..
_________________
Deo Vindice

[kltsin]

Discussions is a very broad term
I would be a bit confused on the exact purpose, to ask for help on a type to purchase?, no that would be the Recommendations.

But it will definetly be interpreted as being a recommendations or support forum catagory.

If you could have the Main Forum page show "HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS" Catagory title with a short description, then show a page to subcatagorise it may take some confusion out of the whole topic.
It would be nice to have that then have a different header with a large printed message "this is NOT..etc"
I understand your header and footers cant change for each page for the ease and simplicity, or can they (I have yet to grasp PHP and its capabilities).

[kltsin]

On a side note, I had the same thoughts that Karlsweldt had initially but not as technical or invasive.

A simple Help link somewhere couldnt hurt such as this example
(Note this php screen shot was editted with Paint Shop and not indicative to the actual site)
Link
(sorry for not using this forum to do the screen shot, self involved promotion, I feel like a advert. ho )
Wording could be better but you get the idea.

Or when some one recieves their confirmation email that link (where to post and how) may also be included with the email or the link they goto in confirmation

The FAQ should start off with this as well.
I dont see any info in the FAQ stating exactly where to post, the Faq them selves could link to a seperate page or similar to something that Karlsweldt had stated.

Edited by Toby B.

[Vito Andolini]

Maybe you could have a section called "Storage" that contains discussions about anything related to storage(hard drives, dvd burners, cd-rom, etc)

[joshvee]

What Em is talking about is exactly what I mean and I did point out that this is where my cousin got confused. The Hardware Discussions section. Other than that confusion I love the new layout.

But as Mobocop mentioned, maybe it would be better if any question support or not could be posted in each section.
_________________

[Ghen]

Yeah, I agree with that. We shouldn't have to move a tech question from hard drives to tech support just like the Networking forum always was anyway. Noone ever asked anything but tech questions in Networking

Thing is though, its still too many forums.. I know I currently skip all the hardware forums for sake of speed.

Here's an example of a forum set with many specific areas: ballreviews.com

While it seems to work there notice they have 144 people online right now compaired to our 20-30 here. The more visitors you get on a regular basis the more forums the site can self-sustain without turning any into ghost towns. (IE: you get posts like 'Who ever posts here?' or "ECHO Echo echo echo")

Here's a set of forums with the same general topic (bowling) but much more condensed and extremely easy to navigate:

bowlingfans.com

Now again, notice the ##'s hardly anyone on the forums at one given time. So the forums have to be small and all-encompassing to keep themselves self-sustained. Empty forums make new users shy away thinking the whole site is in a depression of some sort.

Okay, the third example is of what -not- to do.

bowlingballreviews.com

This site takes its forum topics seemingly from the first site, but doesn't get even close the amount of visitors. Some of the individual forums have a last post of 2002 or 2003. What does that say to you? Well for me it says: "Woah, these guys just don't care.. not many people come here.. I bet they don't even update the code ever." etc etc etc.

The third site is visited well, just check the 'brunswick' section or 'wanted/for sale' Its just the fact they have way too many topics for the number of visitors the site gets. Not self sustaining. Even the regulars avoid the forums that noone posts in.. Just posting in Misc. where they know someone will read it.
_________________

[MoboCop]

good post. The question I have been asking myself is it the condensed layout that perpetuates the smaller number of visitors?

Check out hardforums and you will see they have a bunch of topics broken down.

Again, I am concerned about the chicken or the egg which comes first? Is there anyway to find the correct answer to this.
_________________
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted - Albert Einstien