i'm wondering what people think of this idea that we are seriously considering...
merging all of the categories of the forums into one general "Bike PGH Forums" except "FS/WTB" and "stolen Bikes."
Basically, the categories would look like this:
-Bike PGH FORUMS
-FS/WTB
-Stolen Bikes
i think that this could help increase the traffic on the site because there would be less clicking around. i personally think there is a bit too much clicking around right now just to browse. any given category has one active thread, and if they were moved into one, there would be many more active visible threads at once, giving people the incentive to check back more frequently. Also, the new forum doesn't list what the most recent post is, making a casual visit difficult.
what do other people think?
are the categories useful? or would you be able to read stuff all the same?
I use RSS to get notification of new posts from any forum, so it wouldn't be a huge difference for me one way or another.
Come to think of it, I'd probably be more likely to actually visit the site, rather than relying on RSS, if there was only a couple of forums to browse.
Reducing it to three categories is a good idea. Your description is right on the mark.
I agree with erok. There's enough overlap between categories and little enough traffic that this forum would benefit from merging everything, especially with the loss of recent posts (I'm still pretty sure that can be solved by indexing on the most recent post).
I don't think a reorganization is as needed as a page that shows all recently updated posts. All the clicking around to see if anything has been updated is a pain.
but do you think that reducing the number of categories would affect anything negatively?
I don't think it would. I'm a fan of using the RSS feed for new posts, but it would be easier to scan the new posts with a minimal amount of categories.
I don't think it would. I'm a fan of using the RSS feed for new posts, but it would be easier to scan the new posts with a minimal amount of categories.
a "new posts" button that would list all posts since a users last visit would be sweet. i'm still not hip to the RSS stuff.
The problem is I don't think there's a "new post" feature with the new message board. it only has the "freshness" feature which slowed everything down to a crawl.
I would be happier if the forum list level menu simply showed what the thread list level menu shows, namely how long ago the last post was. IIRC what slowed down the "freshness" plug-in was having to look up (or keep track of) who made the last post. It's good enough for me just to have the elapsed time. What I do now is visit every forum to see if there are any posts since my last visit.
The slowdown could actually be solved in general by indexing on a certain column in the posts table.
I would *love* to get email notification for 'watched' threads.
yeah, alot of these ideas are good, but i'd also like this forum to be a bit more "lurker" friendly in a way too. after awhile, they start posting
2 things i'd like to see change-
first, passwords show up in plain text for me. any way to change that to a ******* or something?
second, the "new threads" or " recently updated posts" would be great, and forum organization would help
the third thing (not necessary for me personally, but i'd be fine with it) woud be the forums as follows:
-Bike tech (DIY, new bikes,etc)
-general bike-related ( bike porn, race/ride announcements etc etc)
-open non-bike related (pittsburgh and other general non-bike things)
-FS/WTB
-stolen bikes
actually now that i think of it, why not on the forum listing pages, instead of each section being in black with subforums, make the black headers the forums, and the current subforums the description of what to post in them.
Community forum would include
-Introductions
-Ride Board
-Commuting in Pittsburgh
-Free for all
Geek Out includes
-Do It Yourself /tech
-Eye Candy
For Sale
FS/WTB
-include a sticky that references the stolen bikes location
Bike Advocacy and Safety includes
-Comments, Ideas, and Action Alerts
-Stolen Bikes
Can anyone help our designer with indexing?
Could we get a quote feature?
Erok, I think that maybe reducing the number categories might cause more posts to get pushed back and disappear into the depths of the Internet. This might not be a bad thing, and it might actually be the goal. But I just thought I should mention it. I think it could set us up for redundancy between posts, but as was mentioned already, topics are pretty similar and redundancy may not be bad (esp. as far as keeping the freshest info up top). I also like thedutchtouch's suggestions.
Yeah the password thing is an issue.
I really like how the recent posts are on top now.
varun5, we didn't reduce any of the categories, just put all of the recent posts up top.
if you scroll down on the main page, you can sort all of the posts by category.
it seems traffic has increased a ton since this change. thanks for using it all!!!
gotcha. i do find that i like the current set up a lot.
I havent been here in so long!
I like the way the message board has been re-ordered, with categories still, but with the recent posts in any category on top. It makes it very easy to follow.
glad to see you back
I'm relatively new to the site but there's a couple of things I found cumbersome. When I'm reading my private messages - the first couple of lines are always hidden or blocked by the go to section square. It's very annoying. I also find it very hard to locate the for sale section. Seems like it should be under 'Buy stuff" - its not. A link under the buy stuff section to the for sale message board would be great. Thanks
