Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor
Thank you for listening to community feedback! I definitely think down-sizing the volume of forums would be very beneficial for retaining current member's interest as well as preventing new members from being overwhelmed. I have been here since 2007 and have returned after I hiatus, yet I remain mostly inactive these days. A lot of the reason for this is because I am overwhelmed and don't even know where the action is happening since everything is spread so thin across the site.
We currently have 36 main forums and well over 30 sub-forums.
There are currently 30 users online as I am presently writing this post.
My thoughts to solve this problem:
I think we should radically reduce the number of forums to 10 total main forums + 7 sub-forums.
To do this, we would need to implement a thread tagging feature, like in the exchange, to differentiate between different topic types.
How I envision Menewsha at only 10 main forms + 7 sub-forums:
First category: City Hall (2 main forums - 0 sub-forums)
1. Announcements
2. Questions, Answers, Feedback (Combined FAQ and feedback)
All resource centre threads would be normal threads and there would be ONE sticky linking to all of them.
Second category: Community Centre (2 forums + 2 sub-forums)
1. Welcome Lounge
2. General Discussion (featuring different topic tags, but not too many)
Sub-forums:
2a. Hang-outs
2b. Word Games and Misc. (Test things here, word games, etc.)
Third category: Commercial District (1 main forum + 2 sub-forums)
1. Menewshan Exchange
Sub-forums:
1a. Art Buy & Sale
2a. Charity and Quests (would include 1-off give-aways and contests)
*The item lists can be normal threads that are linked in one single sticky in the main exchange.
Fourth category: Roleplay Hall (1 main forum, 3 sub-forums
Yes, really, use thread tags to differentiate roleplay genres
1. Roleplay
Sub-forums:
1a. OOC
1b. Roleplay Requests
1c. Archives
Fifth category: Art and Creativity Share (2 main forum, 0 sub-forums
Yes, really, use thread tags to differentiate different formats of art, i.e., writing, fanfic, poetry, visual art, music, etc.).
1. Art Share
2. Art Chat (ask for help, share tutorials, etc., all mediums)
Sixth category: Memories and Archives (2 main forums, 0 sub-forums):
1. Memory Jars
2. Event Archive (Again we can forum tag to differentiate between user-run and site run events)
Important notes:
* Entertainment theater is eliminated. Allow these topics to be discussed in general discussion.
* Yes, I do realize this extreme minimization is going to lead to a lot of different topics being discussed in general discussion... this is awesome! As a new user, that's one of the first places I'd go, and this will leave a great first impression!
*Dream Avatar Creator - Link to this feature in both the Avatar and Inventory sections rather than have it be a forum. People can test avatars in 2b. of the second category
*If the site userbase does expand dramatically and the forums feel too crowded, we can always add more forums as needed WHEN that happens.
DISCLAIMER: By no means do I consider this plan perfect in anyway! The real take-away from this is that I think there does need to be a RADICAL down-size in the # of forums we have, even if the end result isn't exactly this.
|
While I agree there could be some merges and some rearranging so that there aren't so many forums to choose from, I feel over simplifying it as you have done will be just as chaotic and confusing. There's definitely something to takeaway from this, though, and that's that some topics and forums can be combined and have little use being separated. On the other hand, we need to watch just how much we combine because having 15 differentiation title tabs will just be horrible to maneuver in my opinion, and it'll create some chaos within the forums themselves because they'll be so overwhelmed with different topics that don't really go together. I think this could have partially been the reasoning behind all of the forum separations.
For me, if I look back and when I first arrived at Menewsha, and I saw very few forums, I'd be like "Oh awesome! I can easily maneuver this!" Then when I got INTO the forums, and saw all of these different headers and titles I'd be like "... huh? Where do I even begin?" And that to me would honestly be a turn off.
On the other hand, going into all of these smaller subforums and seeing only 1 or 2 threads active is also discouraging and a turn off, so I also see the need for merging into a better system so that it doesn't look so spread thin and inactive. I think balance is definitely key, but we just have to be careful of over simplifying it from the outside just to make it even more complicated and confusing on the inside :3