General Forum Organization

[Strife 455]

After poking around on the forums a bit, I've noticed one major thing that makes me cringe: the organization.

 

While the forum boards themselves are decent, there are no sub-boards. The tag function is rather neat, but it leaves a lot of areas in a large mess. For example, the Everfree Forest section. Instead of (or even in supplement of) the tags, a sub-board can be created where all threads of that type can be made.

 

Benefits:

• Extreme organization
  • View the wanted types of threads without having to even search via tags.
  • Would present a cleaner and more professional feel
• Allows users to completely bypass threads of a nature they do not want to see.
  • This will further help the problem of the "Support" threads. Having them in their own sub-board will allow people to not even view a single support thread if they choose to.

[Swordfishtrombone 384]

Not to mention the accidental necroing of threads that can occur as a result. I get your point, and you're 100% right. But it may not be possible.

[Marcato 2,143]

You can easily see specific kinds of threads by simplying clicking on the prefix and/or tags. There really isnt a need for a towering staircase of subforum-inception. The way its setup now is fairly neat when you look at tags and prefixes, and the moderators job is to get rid of or move anything that doesnt belong in a section. So really its still fairly organized and not entirely necessary to make many sub-forums within eachother. Octavia's Hall was recently Revamped to be more organized, and i dont know if everfree forest needs that.

 

However i can see your point. Its still possible to do the same thing with everfree forest as the did to Octavia's Hall, but it would be a pretty massive and difficult project to handle since there are so many threads and so many cateegories. Still though, if feld0 is willing to commit his time to it that would be an interesting change.

[Killian Jones 2,655]

While I understand the concerns, I would point out that it is sometimes up to the the maturity of the poster to look through the forum for the threads they want. The tag system is good for the helping that search along. But it is not necessary to lock things into subforums.

 

Sometimes searching for your thread or even using the handy search bar at the top of the boards can be really quick.

[Strife 455]

Let me present some examples.

 

The following picture is that of this forum's Off-Topic section.

 

 

 

 

 

All of the topics are just thrown into one section, presenting a very messy display with the tags. Not to mention that if I don't care about seeing anything about Music or Support, I can't avoid those topics because they are all displayed here.

 

As for the second example, this is from a different forum:

 

 

 

 

 

This allows for a much cleaner display of topics, giving the site a much more professional look. In addition, the user would be able to completely avoid any subject that they do not want to see. Note: this section has any topics that do not fit the sub-categories display right below what I've taken a screenshot of so that even "Misc" has a spot.

 

 

However i can see your point. Its still possible to do the same thing with everfree forest as the did to Octavia's Hall, but it would be a pretty massive and difficult project to handle since there are so many threads and so many cateegories. Still though, if feld0 is willing to commit his time to it that would be an interesting change.

 

I just recently converted a forum into a similar format of which I described, and it really doesn't take all that much time. The fact that your forums use tags makes it that much easier to do. Should take around 30 minutes to do, or 60 minutes if you are really slow, but no longer.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Strife

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

Thanks for the detailed feedback, Strife.

 

I see that you're specifically addressing the Everfree Forest section, which is where we contain all of the off-topic stuff (ie.: discussions that have nothing to do with ponies). We have intentionally left this forum "disorganized" and lumped everything together because we want to keep the focus of the site on all the pony discussions.

 

If you look at the site's layout, you'll see that we actually have a very granular layout for all the pony sections:

 

 

Everything in red is related to ponies, the main theme of the site. Everything in blue is off-topic. This helps to keep the board index (which already has quite a number of sections) clean, and keep the site's focus on MLP:FiM, which is what keeps new members coming in and makes us more attractive as a pony community.

 

I have been discussing with the super moderators the possibility of splitting Everfree Forest up a little as a courtesy, but we'll have to be very careful not to make it a more attractive place than the pony sections. The last thing that we want here is for the pony sections to die and members to spend all their time discussing non-pony topics. Everfree Forest already contains roughly 20% of the site's content, and I would prefer that proportion not to increase too much.

 

The actual splitting would not take very long at all and could easily be completed in an evening, but we have to carefully take the long-term implications of the decision into account before proceeding to do it.

[Jokuc 8,173]

If we did split up Everfree Forest, I would (for example) not visit some subforums with content I assume I don't like. And then I'll probably miss alot of good threads. Also as Feld0 says Everfree has so many posts and if we made more subforums in it I think the post numbers will grow. Which isn't the best thing since this forums is for my little pony.

[Strife 455]

-snip for space saving-

 

While yes, these are MLP forums with a focus on MLP content, you must realize that the MLP universe contains a finite amount of content. There is only so much people can discuss about the same thing. When season two is over, there will be a long hiatus until season three comes out ... and that's assuming it will.

 

During this time, pony related content will slow down at an ever increasing rate. Users will get bored and leave until the forum itself dies. I've seen this first hand during the wait for season two ... and we don't want to see that happen to these forums, do we?

 

It would be silly to intentionally harm the community by turning people away from having an intentionally messy section of the forums, because in the long run ... that section will keep members occupied and active.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

While yes, these are MLP forums with a focus on MLP content, you must realize that the MLP universe contains a finite amount of content. There is only so much people can discuss about the same thing. When season two is over, there will be a long hiatus until season three comes out ... and that's assuming it will.

 

During this time, pony related content will slow down at an ever increasing rate. Users will get bored and leave until the forum itself dies. I've seen this first hand during the wait for season two ... and we don't want to see that happen to these forums, do we?

 

It would be silly to intentionally harm the community by turning people away from having an intentionally messy section of the forums, because in the long run ... that section will keep members occupied and active.

 

Well, we did take your feedback into account and split the place into General Discussion, Media Discussion, and Life Advice. It's not too granular, but it does separate topics that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. What do you think of that?

[Strife 455]

Well, we did take your feedback into account and split the place into General Discussion, Media Discussion, and Life Advice. It's not too granular, but it does separate topics that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. What do you think of that?

 

Those three sections should do fine (although I don't see Life Advice listed); it filters threads just enough to keep them organized, but retains the relevancy of tags (specifically in the Media section).

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

Those three sections should do fine (although I don't see Life Advice listed); it filters threads just enough to keep them organized, but retains the relevancy of tags (specifically in the Media section).

 

Ah, we have hidden the forum from all members with fewer than 40 posts, to discourage abuse. I've modified the permissions a little so that you can see the list of topics in there now, but can't actually access them until you make 40 posts.

 

Glad you like the new layout, Strife. Feel free to let us know if there are any other changes or additions you'd like to see. I hope you enjoy MLP Forums!