Security Forum + Criticism.

[carol]

You know... I'm looking at this site and I'm seeing what I see with most smaller forums...

i) Low user base (not always a bad thing)
ii) Someone went overboard creating forums
iii) Someone went overboard creatng the wrong types of forums..

This site is very spread out... I'm seeing stuff on Car Audio and In-Car Computers and then I'm seeing separate forums for laptops and desktops...

I think there are way to many forums... there's no need for that many hardware forums... the post count in them is too low... You have people clicking back and forth to read the occasional new post... The same goes for laptops vs desktops.. they're really just hardware running together but if you really wanted to break stuff up.. one forum would suffice for both of them... and inside the hardware section... Operating Systems is done quite nicely.. it is an area that could be broken up...

There also seems to be a bit of a lack of moderation to some extent... As I've browsed I've seen "duplicate" posts by different individuals in different forums.. and these things should be consolidated...

Lastly... on an IT Forum.. you don't have a real security section... not the way that a security section should exist..

Take these opinions and thoughts however you may... the site has enough of a user base to make a good start but there are a few things, in my opinion, holding it back... Disregard these if you will they're just the opinion of an objective third party who is relatively new with no in depth attachment to the community or forums (which gives me a different perspective than the rest of you).

[Chilipeppers]

I agree on some points. Too many sub sections is not a good idea unless you have large amounts of traffic and posts. Quite a few of the sub sections would be better off merged into one.

I would also like to suggest a Community management section for discussing all things relating to running an internet community including forums software, comparitive reviews, modding, skinning, management methods etc.

Just some constructive critisism. Hope it helps.

[MadKad]

I see where you are both coming from I would like to remove some and mold them in to other sections, but we have done this a little in the past and then had people asking me and others where to post somthing and also ask for other threads.

LOL if others and your self wouldnt mind coming up with a nice little list on what way to do it that would be better, also carol is saying change some and chilipeppers says add more

[carol]

Originally Posted by MadKad

I see where you are both coming from I would like to remove some and mold them in to other sections, but we have done this a little in the past and then had people asking me and others where to post somthing and also ask for other threads.
LOL if others and your self wouldnt mind coming up with a nice little list on what way to do it that would be better, also carol is saying change some and chilipeppers says add more

The problem is that I'm tring to contribute to the forum and chilipeppers is just posting random crap everywhere to hit the required post count and move on...

Some of Chili's suggestions should be printed out... just so you could burn them ..

Anways... Here's what you do..

1 Forum on car computers... It's a very small subject area... no need for multiple areas...

1 Forum for Search Engine Optimization.. No Sub Forums..

No forums or sub forums on search engine questions.. move that to search engine optimization and rename it.. to Search Engine stuff.

Utilize the Marketplace forum... move buy/sell advertising (from webmasters) to it (remove sub forums... sticky with proper posting depending on what you're doing).. this is one place where sub forums could be acceptible... also move graphic requests and graphics competitions here.

Eliminate Computer Consoles.. The name doesn't fit in the least and it's just gaming... Have a gaming category with three sections... Game Reviews and Cheats, Game Help and Gaming Consoles..

Computers.. Create one Hardware forum... move every hardware forum you have to that one... Leave operating systems the way it is... (except for one point I'm going to get to at the end) Eliminate Computer Systems.. (this stuff belongs in hardware)... Create new forums here... i) Security ii) Networking iii) Programming

For your webmasters, eliminate the hosting packages sub forum... eliminate website reviews inside the reviews forum and rename it to Review Requests..

That's a good start... now... anywhere you use sub forums.. (The few places I left them)... don't allow posting in the main forum... only allow posting in the subforums... use it as a content divider.. not a container...

That would be a good start... I'm more than willing to help should you desire to make this a good site.

[FURiON]

hmmm.. how long did you spend checking out the whole forum?

[Chilipeppers]

Originally Posted by carol

The problem is that I'm tring to contribute to the forum and chilipeppers is just posting random crap everywhere to hit the required post count and move on...
Some of Chili's suggestions should be printed out... just so you could burn them ..

I was actually trying to offer some advice I've had a fair bit of experience running large forums so I thought I'd put my 2 bits in.

Anyhow....

To be more specific about what could change, one example: there are 8 forums about search engines, 7 for coding, 7 for advertising yet there isn't one forum to discuss for example domain names, community developement or other software such as CMS. Website Coding seems to be the closest thing for all that kind of stuff but because of the name I feel like I'm posting in the wrong place.

An example layout I would suggest for the webmaster section would be:

Site Developement
Site developement discussion including web software and general web discussion.
Sub forums: Revenue generation, Promotion & Advertising, Reviews & appraisals

Coding
General coding, scripting and languages discussion.
Sub forums: HTML, CSS, ASP, PHP, JavaScript, Database

Search Engine Optimization
General SEO discussion.
Sub forums: Google, Yahoo, MSN

Servers and Hosting
General hosting discussion covering shared, reseller, vps, dedicated, domains and anything else related and not covered by sub forums...
Sub forums:
Hosting companies(reviews,requests,recommendations)
Software, Technical & Security
(linux,apache,cpanel/whm/plesk/etc,firewalls,stats,other software)

Community Developement
Community discussion including sofware, management, skinning, modding
Sub forums: IPB, vBulletin, phpBB, Others.

Market Place
General discussion.
Sub forums: Website sales, Ad space, Domains, Graphics & Templates, Content, Link exchange, Post exchange


... or something like that. Keep the more specific sub forums to a minimum and let the general stuff that doesn't quite fit those that you keep sit in the main forum for that sub section. Avoid creating more sub forums unless the amount of threads on that subject really warrants it or if a subject should really be kept seperate like the coding sub forums.

[MadKad]

I see what you both mean carol I do undertsand

can I say the main reason why the forum is the way it is, is because i do SEO and I try to aim at keeping relative content in a related place
i.e.

MotherBoards > Help my Asus Motherboard is bla bla

that way the search engines look at it as better, and also people can search the forum better, so if some one comes on with a problem then they can see this problem in the correct section, BUT I do really understand where you are coming from and to me it is hard to think on what would be better.

As with what ChilipeppersI also understand where he is coming from, and he came up with some also good ideas on forum sections, you see my plan in time is to cover lots more subjects and i know I have gon for alot now and I do think that I have gone for alot to start, lol I always do daft things like that.

so as you both come up with some great Ideas, I think I will look into this tomoz and mold some forums together for now and add some new ones that way it can work out better.

then I would love some feedback from you if you lot would be so kind