Wait - there's subforums?

[BillR]

Okay, so I never noticed those before today. And I have no clue if they were on the "other" website.

In my opinon (take it as you will, etc etc etc) I don't think these a) have a lot of traffic and b)really make much difference.

You may want to consider just scrapping them and making them part of the parent forum...

[orion_joel]

I had noticed that they were there, and i think that there may have been just one or two on the other forum, primarily the website reviews forum.

I kind of agree, they may be low traffic, as i can say i very rarely if ever visit them. Then again maybe i have, because i purely come to the forum, and click on new posts and read or respond to the posts of interest. In reality to me none of the forum separation matters because i don't look at individual forums. I used to on the old forum when there was a lot of posting happening, i would open each forum separate so that i could see what new posts were in each one. However this is easier for me now.

I think that it can help to segregate some popular topics without making the list of main forums to great but i wonder if it really helps in any other way.

[vangogh]

We do have subforums. I can't remember if the old forum had them. (I think it did have one or two). They exist because they are somewhat different than their parent category, but they don't yet get enough conversation to make them full forums. In time and with enough people participating in them they will likely become full stand alone forums.

They may not have the same amount of traffic as some other forums at the moment, which is why they aren't stand alone forums at the moment. They're set as sub forums because they do differ from the parent forum while still being a part of the general category.

For example Internet Marketing has Search Engine Optimization as a sub forum. SEO is a subset of general internet marketing, but since it's different enough from other forms of internet marketing it deserves more than to be lumped in. In time if it grows it will become it's own forum. If it gets no discussions it would be absorbed by Internet Marketing. If it gets some discussion, but not too much it will remain a sub forum.

I'm not sure what you mean by their not making much difference.

[Steve B]

I do what Joel does. I would have never noticed unless you said something since I immediately click on New Posts. I also did what he did on the old forum - since at one time in its past it was pretty busy.

I can see that it might make a differrence if the forum gets a lot busier. I just subscribed to a forum that is extremely busy. When I hit "new posts" after just 12 hours of being away there are 8+ pages to look through. It's nearly impossible to follow threads of interest.

[KristineS]

Every forum has to grow in its own way. Some of the sub forums might be scrapped in time. Some of them will probably grow to be big enough to become a forum in their own right.

We're never going to get the forum set up in such a way that it pleases and/or makes sense to everyone who uses it. This way makes as much sense as any to us, and so that's how we've chosen to go.

I'm sure the forum will morph through a ton of different variations during its life. That's part of the fun.

[vangogh]

I'm like everyone else too in that I look through new posts more than going into specific forums or sub forums. The idea with dividing things into different forums and sub forums is so that people first viewing the forum can get a better idea of the type of discussions they may find within and to help organize the different threads we get.

In time I actually see the number of forums and sub forums growing as we gain more members with different ideas and questions. But much of how things are organized will ultimately depend on who is here and what kind of conversations the community starts.

[orion_joel]

Not specifically related to this forum, but i wonder if for larger forums it might be worth them looking to integrate a New posts on a top level category, eg a new posts button next to marketing, and that only gives the new posts in the forums in that area. May require some coding though for busy forums could be potentially a benefit.

Just one example of my browsing habits, is i would never have seen or responded to this thread if i did not click new posts, as i very rarely even scroll down far enough to see the forum business forums.

[vangogh]

You can subscribe to the feed for specific forums. For example if you were interested in the Traditional Marketing forum visit a thread in that forum and then look for the RSS button in your browser. When you click it you'll get the option of subscribing to the forum as a whole or the Traditional Marketing forum.

The idea to have new posts for specific forums is an interesting one. When I find some time to work on the theme (may not be for awhile) I'll keep it in mind. It would probably need to be a drop down in the main navigation given the space, but there's probably a way to make it work.

[orion_joel]

I think that it could works as a button or link next to the category name, that says new posts.

I think it would be something that would be good for forums as they get more and more popular. The more posts, the more it would be helpful if you were able to segregate the reading a little.

[vangogh]

That's an interesting idea. I hope you'll understand if it's not something I do right away. At some point when I have some free time I want to delve into creating a new theme for the forum and lose the default look. I prefer not to make too many changes to the default theme though, so changes like this will probably have to wait until I find time to create a new custom theme.

I don't think we're so busy now that checking the generic new posts will lead to missing much, but in time we'll hopefully be that busy.

[orion_joel]

Oh no not something i am expecting any time soon, just something i was putting out their for when you have a forum that is getting 4 or 5 pages of new posts in 24 hrs. At the moment i generally visit within 24 to 48 hrs normally and usually only at most half a page of new posts. Even if this was 3 or 4 pages i could still cope with scanning over the few pages, when you get above about that 4 page level though, it can be hard to sift out the things you want to read and the ones you con't.

[vangogh]

I'm glad you understand. I know what you mean too. On a webmaster forum where I admin they display 6 pages worth of new posts, but it's not uncommon to get more posts than that in 24 hours so it's easy to miss them. I like the idea of being able to see new posts for specific forums so I'll definitely look to make it happen when we get to that point.

[orion_joel]

Maybe if it is something that you can work in seamlessly, and it works well, could be a sort of extension you could sell for vbulletin, as it may be something just no one else has really thought about doing.

[vangogh]

True. I'm not sure entirely what's involved, but I don't think it will be too hard to set up once I'm developing a new theme. Might be interesting to create a plugin for it if it makes sense.