forum organization

[Tiberius]

Back to my favorite subject: forum organization.
Now that I have more or less given up on some sort of rational organization for current events topics, I've started to read about possible new game besides TOAW and to revisite the board gaming days. Well the best place to get these topics is going to armchair general (the history club not the game club and seeing their little section where you can get to their GI gamer forum or get links to this forum which discuss game and post like this one or it's sub-forum board wargames. Why not one forum group games with subforums for board, PC, and GI games? Hopefully you wouldn't have to read this post in any of those forums. It's great that the forums have merged - there is so much content and input now, but the organazation of the whole thing is some huge, horrible compromise, where military historians and gamers should be known for their organization.

 

[Siberian HEAT]

Thanks for the input. We are getting to the point now where we have a bit of stability after the merge and points like this can be addressed. We have deliberately chosen to let things settle for a while after the merge, if only to see where people start to complain about the layout because of frequent use.

I'm open to suggestions...and I know things are not perfect. I am a board gamer, a FPS gamer, and a serious wargamer. I do a lot of travelling here.

 

[mentis]

Can we move Board Wargaming up a few levels? It is bured five levels deep (The War-Forums > Warfare HQ > Resources > General Wargaming & WHQ News > Board Gaming).

The ASL boards (which should be a part of board gaming) are only on the second level.

Also, minatures are still under the ArmChair General forum. (The War-Forums > Armchair General > Active History > Books, Miniatures, Models and Other Hobbies > Miniatures)

This makes no sense to me. In a broad sense aren't minatures, board wargaming, and computer wargaming three expressions of the same broad hobby?

 

[Doctor Sinister]

Don't forget that there's a quick-selection drop-down box at the bottom right hand corner which can make it quicker for navigation.

Dr. S.

 

[Siberian HEAT]

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep em coming...revisions are being considered!

 

[Martin Schenkel]

Would there be use for a sub-forum relating to more technical issues (independent of either ACG or WHQ) with the forum? Such as the types of suggestions being made in this thread, issues/problems with forum display, organization, general presentation of the forum, etc. Questions beyond the normal FAQ such as:
http://www.war-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17945
rather than having these things 'buried' in semi-relevant sub-forums.

 

[Siberian HEAT]

Yes, many forums have a separate "technical issues" forum where people can report problems, ask forum related questions, and generally inquire about the technical issues of the board. It is certainly worth considering to give those types of questions a central home.

 

[Case]

Yes, many forums have a separate "technical issues" forum where people can report problems, ask forum related questions, and generally inquire about the technical issues of the board. It is certainly worth considering to give those types of questions a central home.

I'd second that, and note that such a central forum is standard on most large sites.

As another note, I'd strongly recommend that you adopt a 'keep things simple' approach'. At present, there are way too many sub-boards, with the result that navigation is harder then it should be and topics are needlessly fragmented (for example, there's an order of battle sub-board of the WW2 sub-board and another OOB sub-board in the Research, Reference and Historical Study board).

In my experience of running a modestly successful forum, the creation of sub-boards to encourage discussions doesn't work well - extra boards should only be created when there's a clear-cut need for them. In economic terms, demand for boards should create a supply of them, and not vice-versa. For example, if the WW2 board is receiving a lot of OOB requests and discussions of OOB details, then creating a sub-board for this topic would make sense. Otherwise you risk creating a ghetto no-one ever visits.