Suggestion: Sub Categories

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I'm new here, so I don't want to sound like a know it all in the first week, but I have run a few of my own forums on the same platform Wrong Planet uses.

I've noticed that there are a plethora of Forum category listings in the home page, but once you actually open a particular forum, there is a long list of posts, but no sub categories.

I think a carefully constructed set of sub category forums would make a couple of things easier for everyone, plus make some forums more effective for their purpose.

Here is a case in point as to why I think so:

On the home page, there is a category called "Topical Discussion." Under that are a few forums, one of which is called, "Art, Writing, and Music."

When "Art, Writing, and Music is opened, there's a list of posts.

At the top of the list are a number of sticky topics where artists are invited to showcase their work.

Now, I've seen this exact same set up before on other sites, and I've always wondered at how effective it is to post one's work in a long thread, as opposed to each posting their work as a separate thread. What happens when one posts to a long thread like that, is that one's reply to the thread quickly becomes buried among the plethora of other replies. Everyone wants to showcase their work, and when you offer the opportunity, virtually everyone responds to it.

The problem, as I see it, with a single showcase thread is that, first: if one subscribes to the thread, one receives every response to the entire thread, and not just the responses to the individual post, and second: one has to scroll through the entire thread to find any responses pertaining you the post one made, and third: over time, the thread becomes incredibly long.

I've seen it happen many times, on many sites.

If, however, subcategories are created under the main categories, navigation becomes much easier for users, and the ability to subscribe to a specific post becomes more efficient for the user.

For example:

Under the main category, "Art, Writing, and Music," there could be sub categories for each: "Art," Writing," "Music."

Inside each of these what are now sticky topics would become actual forums, inside which we can post our showcase links as new topics.

What that would do is keep all replies to all showcase posts in separate threads.

This allows one to subscribe to the individual showcase threads, and receive replies only to those topics, instead of receiving an email for every single reply to an ever growing sticky thread.

It would also make it much easier to navigate through all of the posts and threads in each subcategory.

Make sense?

For the moderators and admins:

You probably already know this, but it's worth mentioning.

It's not that hard to reorganize the existing threads into a new structure like this.

I've done it in phpBB before. phpBB allows for leaving behind links in the original locations, which lead users to the new location. It's not very confusing at all for the users, and helps eliminate problems with bookmarked pages.

I really hope you'll give this some serious consideration.

It is VERY nice of you all to give us a place to show off our stuff. A lot of forums don't allow it at all, and label it as spamming. I for one am grateful that you are allowing it, but would really appreciate a more efficient set up.

My two cents.

Thanks for reading!

To be very brief - WP is still using the obsolete phpBB2, which did not support sub-categories. Alex tried phpBB3 and decided not to upgrade.

Thanks for the response.

It hadn't occurred to me it could be version 2, which didn't have categories.

I can understand why, because I went trough my own trepidation making that migration. There can be template issues, as well as log in issues, depending on the protocols used. The effort was well worth it though, but I guess I can't complain too much as he is doing this for no charge to us, and I'm not one to whine when I'm not even paying for it.

Sure would be nice if he could see fit to have someone do it for him though, as it is time consuming, but not that bad an ordeal.

Well, the forum here is for suggestions. This is mine.

Surely with over 35,000 users, there ought to be at least one or two trustworthy and knowledgeable enough to accomplish it.

Version 3 is SO much better. And it makes administrating and moderation a LOT easier too!

Just my two cents. Thanks for the answer.

I thought I'd add a little...

I also switched my small, home-hosted site, from phpBB2 to phpBB3, as soon as the first official release came out - December 13, 2007. I had a couple of minor glitches. E.g. member password encryption changed, and a couple of members ended up with their passwords severely broken. Pretty soon, all that was sorted out, and upgrading versions has been painless ever since. (And I just checked, and it seems I'm a little behind - I'm running 3.0.6, when 3.0.7-PL1 is out. I must remember to get around to doing the update, later today, probably, as I'm off to work fairly soon.)

The version of phpBB2 in use here on WP is far older than the final release of that code (2.0.23, released on February 17, 2008 - Official support for phpBB2 ended on January 1, 2009). The version presently in use on WP was effectively obsolete before phpBB3 came out. I don't think it has many (if any) official MODs installed - just some undocumented tinkering with the PHP code.

The rest of WP is an ancient free version of PHP-Nuke.

phpNuke?

EEEEeeeee!

Yeah. I can see it would likely be a pain to upgrade. :

From my own perspective, and I haven't been here that long, so it''s kind of a narrow one I admit, there is at least one user experience that I think would be enhanced by having the categories.

Personally, I am most interested in Aspies focused on music, but this perspective of the way things are currently set up may apply to those more focused toward writing in general, and/or art, and even other areas of the site.

With the forums set up the way they are, it makes it difficult to narrow in on ones topic of choice based only on a post's subject line. As a result I end up opening posts that are actually about a topic other than what I'm here for. Oddly, I happen to be an Aspie whose interests span wider than most, (maybe some ADD mixed in), and therefore hard to resist commenting on things other than music if I happen to have something worth sharing.

Before I realize it, I've been on for an hour or more, only a few minutes of which was spent on my topic of purpose for being here (other than Asperger's in general).

With categories anyone can jump right to the focus of their choice, and know (to a reasonable degree) that nearly everything there is "on topic."

Sure would be cool if someone spear-headed the effort, and I think the results would be worth the effort.

BUT, as I said. this is just my personal wish, and I'm just a noobie here. I don't expect to just show up and rock the boat.

I would love to hear that it's on some sort of "wish list" though, on somebody's back burner.

I think the user experience overall would improve greatly if it were one day done.