Subforums

Is there really a need for all of those? I thought the General Forum was pretty much the catchall for technical questions/issues. Let's not go forum crazy here.

If you're going to go with that, then a Windows/PC forum should be in there too.

Working it through guys. The idea here is that we have a lot more forum traffic over time, and the General is too hard to do that in.

We want to be able to have real experts in different areas ask questions -- and if it's all in General, we can't be granular on that, and get the right people.

We're modeling it after things that have worked with the magazine.

Thanks!

Neil

BTW: I have no plans on us touching the Stan's Forum and the Political Forum. They look to work well as is.

The topical, computer related stuff is what we're moving around, and the members area will go away as well.

Thanks!

Neil

Michael,
I think that we have been used to things running a lot slower at Macminute. The General discussion (tech) never really got much traffic compared to other sites probably because it was too general.

Look at some of the other forums out there Mac related and you will see that they have it all split up. Some with a HUGE amount of forums.

I think we need to start looking at the long range plans here, which is to grow and increase the userbase for Neil and the magazine.

And really, we do have a lot of "experts" registered here that could give a lot of input to people needing help.

I understand that line of reasoning, but many times, I've seen folks shy away from joining when there are too many areas to choose from. Also, there are instances that a problem/issue doesn't fit neatly within one area. While you're at it, we have some avid gamers here too.

Going the multi-area route, doesn't it kinda make the General irrelevant?

I am currently going through General and moving stuff to the appropriate forum, so we'll see. That's up to Neil.

You might want to post a sticky to that effect.

With the quick and easy "active topics" and "active posts" selection you can slice and dice the forums into as many subforums as you want and we can still pick off what we want to read. Then if the place gets way to busy one can then just look at the subforum of interest.

I say divide away as long as us political whiners can have our box and Stan's lounge sticks around.

yep -- both of you read my mind.

there's a bug with the stickies right now, but I will post one once that's handled.

Thanks!

Neil

Looks like it's getting fleshed out quite nicely. Starting to make more sense. Maybe Notebooks and Desktops should be combined as Apple (Mac) Hardware or is there enough diversity to keep them separate?

Personally the reason I liked MacMinute forums was because of its simplicity. You got to know what everyone was posting in just a few forums, and it IMO made the place more like family. Thats why I liked it. I don't like the division, but I don't really post enough for my opinion to really count but I thought I would put in my 2 cents anyway.

I think in the end, there will be enough for the two types of hardware -- but we'll modify as necessary.

Remember, right now, we have JUST the faithful knowing about the site. The prior users of MacMinute Cafe (who were not tolerant of the issues), MacTech Readers, and some other groups don't even know about this yet.

We'll wait until things are cleaned up to roll things out to that group.

Thanks!

Neil

Understood. This is a balance thing. In the end, if we are able to fulfill what I'm thinking ... to get a bunch of really great experts in answering questions ... I think that you'll be pleased.

Thanks!

Neil

Keep "General Discussion" at the top?

Trying to encourage use of the new areas.

Everyone has an agenda!

I don't mind the subforums at all, as long as it doesn't get to broken up. I've seen the opposite of MacMinute where there are just dozens upon dozens of sub forums, and none of them get much traffic.

Obviously it's too early to tell, but once the whole world has access to the forums and some regular traffic comes through, it might be worth seeing which forums are rarely used and try to combine them with others where appropriate.

Too many choices isn't a good thing when it comes to discussion forums on a site like this (general consumer & pro mix audience).

No matter what, it all looks good right now, and I'm excited to see things coming together. It'll be great once they open up to everyone.

MacGizmo.

In short, I agree. It's all about making continued assessments and adjustments to keep things working well.

Thanks!

Neil

My advice is to proceed with caution. Too many subforums can turn people off. If you want an example, compare the traffic at the DealMac.com forums with the Macresource.com forums. The latter is populated with people who left in droves when DealMac decided that six forums were better than one or two.

You don't have to worry about us leaving but I'm sure you'd like more traffic than just us.

Concerns about the multiple fora setup are based on the only thing we have ~ past experience. But just because they weren't wildly successful before doesn't mean they won't flourish here. Consider ~ Enough traffic and we may well be glad that we can zero in on a specific tech area. If not, Neil has said that it can be whittled down. Kinda a What the Market will Bare thingie.

Yeah, I know, this coming from a MacBabe who posted in the General, like twice? And I would only post when I was stumped. Granted, I stump on the really obvious Duh stuff, and that finally brings me to my point ~ I sure would like to see a Help Me My Mac Has Fallen Down and I Can't Get It Up forum. Probably a name like "General Trouble Shooting" would work better. I had some monitor weirdness last week, Finder weirdness a couple of months ago, so I'm thinking a place where, in general, we peeps can solicit the best of the best help and advice. My two centavos.

Big 10-4. I've seen that at some places. When it gets busy they will be needed.

At MM and MCF we had a small group, and without much of a public presence, so one help forum worked.

Guys,

By this point, we've hopefully earned the reputation of good at listening to the feedback, and acting where it made sense to (given the overall picture). With that in mind, the plan is to attempt stuff, and watch how it goes, and adjust.

But, you probably already knew that.

Thanks!

Neil

LL

You can bookmark your opening page at the forums to the "General Discussion" page and you'll get just the 4 forums in that section —3 when the "General Forum" disappears.

But, given what we've found in the original three forums, and how those topics are now reallocated where appropriate to all the forums, I don't suggest you do that.

Thanks!

Neil

And I doubt we will. One link to "general Discussions" so we get the same look and feel of the same old group of us bullshiiting around in Stan's lounge and the political forum while one more link to "most active" will give us the whole spectrum of action in your forums.

Don't worry about this group being shy about shooting their mouth off about servers, iPhones, OSX, games, or online services. They need no encouragement. A life, yes, we need one of those, but ...