Cut back on the # of forums

This is just my opinion, but I think there are way to many forums/sub-forums considering the low income of new posts/threads per day. Honestly I only see about 10-15 new posts a day (correct me if I'm wrong) and about 20-30 forums/sub forums.

I've read (and always followed) that you're supposed to start out with a few forums and then expand as the activity grows. I think you guys should cut back on the number of forums (well mainly sub-forums) by generalizing and combining them.

For instance, We have the programming forum with 6 sub-forums. Do we really need 7 forums to hold 10-20 new threads this month? Why not just have just one forum for programming as a whole. People label what the threads are about in the thread title anyway. Same goes with "Graphic Design and Multimedia", I think you could clean up the market place too. I don't see a point in have Budget Sub-forums (thats just me though, i'm sure a lot of people like the budget idea).

Anyway, you guys (and jordan) get the point. This is just my opinion, and in my experience it has always worked well. It would make the forums look a lot more active and threads would be a lot more accessible for people who don't look very deep.

I agree that some merging is needed. The programming forum can just be one forum, there is no need to separate various languages. Same goes for the Graphic Design and Multimedia forum. The budget forums are pointless because they failed their task of separating quality from cheap.

Glad to here someone agrees with me

Suppose we cut down on the number of some sub-forums, which I agree always looks cleaner and more active (per forum ratio so to speak). Imagine if the forums pick up more activity in the future (which is what we hope for) and then we'll have to split them all apart again, except that it will take a lot more time to go through hundreds of threads, moving one at a time to appropriate forum.

The activity actually has picked up since the summer time, with twice more posts per month than in May, the slowest month this year. We just need more quality focus on community forums instead of the marketplace.

Originally Posted by Artashes Suppose we cut down on the number of some sub-forums, which I agree always looks cleaner and more active (per forum ratio so to speak). Imagine if the forums pick up more activity in the future (which is what we hope for) and then we'll have to split them all apart again, except that it will take a lot more time to go through hundreds of threads, moving one at a time to appropriate forum.

Threads in those forums only stay active for short amounts of time, you can just make the new forums and it will all be good in a short amount of time. Since this is not an uncommon situation there is probably a mod to ease this process.

Forgot to mention another obvious benefit for having more subject-targeted forums: the search engine one.

In the meantime, please suggest which forums do you see as realistically good candidates for merger and we'll consider.

Originally Posted by Artashes Suppose we cut down on the number of some sub-forums, which I agree always looks cleaner and more active (per forum ratio so to speak). Imagine if the forums pick up more activity in the future (which is what we hope for) and then we'll have to split them all apart again, except that it will take a lot more time to go through hundreds of threads, moving one at a time to appropriate forum. The activity actually has picked up since the summer time, with twice more posts per month than in May, the slowest month this year. We just need more quality focus on community forums instead of the marketplace.

I don't know much about SEO so I wont say anything about that. Sure It will be some work to separate the threads again when needed, but I don't see that happening for a very long time. I think anything that makes the place look cleaner and more active is worth it at this point. Plus as VG said there probably is a mod to make it simpler. I put a layout of how I would have it if this was my forum. Ofcoase i wouldn't expect you to change it according to me, but its something to keep in mind and possably give your self some ideas on how to clean this place up.

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This would drop the forum count down from 49 to 17. Do you realize how long it takes to go through 49 forums and check all the new posts. It's a pain in the ass, back in the day I'd come to TF and be able to cover the whole board in 10 minutes. These day i don't even look in a lot of forums.

Keep this concept in mind, the layout is just an example.

I know some people browse differently but did you ever just try to utilize the New Posts feature? This is a godsend for EVERY forum I'm on (My 'forum' bookmark folder consists of all getdaily links so I can go straight through to see what new all new posts.

However, I definitely don't disagree with the suggestion--it would definitely benefit from receiving a de-clutterization and re-organization.

Yeah I know about this featured but i never use it, and i don't think the majority of casual posts do, but who knows.

Agree, the forum needs not minor, but major restructuring.