Too many forums

Pres712 · 11-01-2006, 07:35 AM

Just a thought....Why so many forums? Not counting the Club Forums, there are 18 to pick from. I know you are trying not to be like another "forum" but I think they need to be narrowed down a bit. General, tech, wash & wax???

My 2 cents worth....

ynkedad · 11-01-2006, 08:54 AM

I like the way the forums have been broke down into different topics and areas of interest. Yes, it can be confusing at first, but aren't they all!?

When i'm looking for a specific type forum, whether it's florida happenings, mods, general bs, fun, etc. It makes it easier for me to find.
Same goes for when i'm wondering where to post a question, thoughts or whatever. I'm able to post it where it'll get the most attention.

I think it saves from having a lot of stuff being posted in the wrong places.
IMO, a lot of thought went into this forum to make it more user friendly and/or Less Confusing.

On this other club forum, I'm never sure Where to Post certain topics or questions. Sometimes they'd send it to another area in the forum or just lock it. Sometimes they wouldn't do anything to posts that were carbon copies of the ones they had just moved or locked.

Maybe it is "who you know".?

I'm not by any means bashing this other club forum, as I still use it often. I'm just pointing out Some of the differences I see between them, and why I think this one is less confusing .

My .02 cents.

JIM KILL · 11-01-2006, 09:32 AM

WELL SAID "ynkedad"

Melsy · 11-01-2006, 11:48 AM

I'm with you ynkedad.

**Rich Z** · 11-01-2006, 12:25 PM

Too complicated? Compared to what?

This is probably one of the least complicated sites I have ever seen. Certainly the least complicated one I have created.....

Actually I thought I was being EXTREMELY conservative with the number of forums here. I could have easily put in 10 times the number you see now with very little effort. And honestly, that may happen in a few years if traffic warrants it.

I look at the purpose of a forum being not only having members POST in relevant forums, but also being able to FIND info they may be seeking as easily as possible. As the number of posts increase, the relative number per topic will increase as well, which then leads to subtopics. Just the Maintenance, Mods, & Tips forum itself, if traffic warranted it, could be broken down into separate forums for each of the main topics there. Heck there are websites dedicated to DETAILING all by itself.

There are always tradeoffs for something like this, of course. A larger format with a lot of forums may actually be better for more accurately categorizing topics, but it can be confusing, since overlap is inevitable, and even if traffic is rather heavy, the number of posts spread out over a large number of forums just makes it LOOK much more lightly traveled than it really is. Which will sometimes put off prospective new members. But on the other hand, having a single forum as a catchall for ALL postings, although looking very active, makes trying to find anything a real chore. So you simply try to strike a compromise somewhere in the middle, then adjust things as conditions dictate a change.

But honestly, trying to please everyone, simply because the breadth of experience will vary from complete wet behind the ears newbies, to people who have been visiting sites like this for years (even running some of their own), is pretty much impossible to do.

JIM KILL · 11-01-2006, 12:51 PM

TO RICH:

YOU SAID IT ALL!!

MODVETTE05 · 11-06-2006, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pres712

Just a thought....Why so many forums? Not counting the Club Forums, there are 18 to pick from. I know you are trying not to be like another "forum" but I think they need to be narrowed down a bit. General, tech, wash & wax???

My 2 cents worth....

Well, Pres712, it looks like your 2 cents worth just got the $hi^ shot out of it!!! Nice try though, and you know what? That's what these forums are all about! Everybody throwing their 2 cents in, even if it ain't worth $hi^! And evenone knows about opinions: their like butt h()le$, everybody's got one. hahaha

Sorry buddy, I'm just kidding you, couldn't help it. Actually, I know Jim personally and he a very nice person, is a very active AND valuable assest in the Bay Area Corvette Club. See you at the meeting Thursday nite, Jim. LOL Just my 2 cents...

ogduncan · 11-06-2006, 09:38 AM

What i think he is trying to say is that it is spreading the posts too thin. We dont even have posts in one topic yet. I heard something about 200 members now. We dont need a forum for every 11 members. I personaly go to forums to find out about events, mods, whats for sale and to help others in knowledge about their vette.

zzzona · 11-06-2006, 09:58 AM

Being the only male left in the household...I need the
diversion when shows like Desperate Housewife's..The O.C.
ect..ect..is on

**Rich Z** · 11-06-2006, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ogduncan

What i think he is trying to say is that it is spreading the posts too thin. We dont even have posts in one topic yet. I heard something about 200 members now. We dont need a forum for every 11 members. I personaly go to forums to find out about events, mods, whats for sale and to help others in knowledge about their vette.

The reason for multiple forums is an attempt to segregate threads of like topics roughly together to keep some sort of cohesion within the forum. It would be a real nightmare to have only a single forum where ALL topics could be posted, and you would have to scan through every thread in order to find one you may be interested in. So the idea is to break up all the threads that any member may want to post into logical categories. So someone only interested in posting and reading about events, for instance, could simply go to that specific forum, and not have to wade through dozens or more of threads completely irrelevant to their interest.

This would especially be true, for example, if you remembered a post made three weeks ago and wanted to find it again. Well, quite likely, if you know what the topic was about, you could narrow down your search considerably simply by checking the forum that would most likely contain it. This isn't always true, of course, but probably is most of the time.

And as is usually true from what I have seen, the more traffic a site gets, the more forums it has to create to further subdivide the posts to make all that above true even with high traffic volumes. To give you a perfect example, if any of you were around when Ebay first started up, you will perhaps recall how few topic areas there were available. When more and more auctions were being posted, it got tedious to have to wade through a bunch of them to try to find exactly what you were looking for. So as the volume increased, further subcategorization was done in order to make it easier for people to find something specific. But this in itself can have drawbacks to which there is probably no good answer. It is entirely possible to have far too many sections, where even finding the SECTION you are looking for is an exercise in tedium. Which is now the case with Ebay.

But in all cases, you can only try to do the best you can. Sometimes you hit the mark and sometimes you don't.