Forum improvements - restructure by product

den4b · 2013-05-10 21:52

I don't know what you mean by expanded, because this is exactly what the front page of the forum would be - a very long list of forums. That's why I would prefer a smaller number of forums, specifically for not heavily populated forums like these, i.e. General and Products categories.

Just to show the current structure in contrast....

All Forums
-- News
-- General
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
-- Off-Topic

narayan · 2013-05-11 09:09

By "expanded", I meant "like a directory where all subfolders (and their subfolders) of are displayed at once".

What I had in mind is this:

The home page for the forum should display only top-level menu (products) on a page.
The user selects an item. This takes him to another page that lists the next level menu (topics) for the selected product.
When he selects the topic, the real list of threads opens.

If that's not possible, then the current layout is fine.

eR@SeR · 2013-05-13 02:44

den4b wrote:

The workaround will look like this... (this is a complete overkill in my opinion)
General
-- News (as it is currently)
-- Discussions (general forum)
-- Archive (all topics from old forum structures)
-- Off-Topic (as it is currently)
ReNamer
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
Shutter
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
Colors
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
RandPass
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
CPUMon
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
Hasher
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
Hooker
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs

It's fine for me. I can help if there is need for that...

SafetyCar · 2013-05-14 08:03

I'm nor against, nor in favor.

But if it was me who has to do it I probably wouldn't. I don't see a clear benefit, even if they are more organized, the posts now have labels telling wich product they refer to. And if they are going to keep in the "archive" the search option is not of real value, because you still have the old ones messed, so you will still get mixed results.

Also depending on how it ends it might become a little uncomfortable because of so much text.

I like the simplicity it has now.

den4b · 2013-05-15 14:06

+1 for NEW

I'm kind of leaning towards the NEW structure but it will require additional work to re-structure the forums. I definitely need your votes and opinions here!

For the reference I have both the old and the proposed new structures outlined below.

OLD structure with per topic type forums:
* BAD All products are mixed in the same forum making it dificult to find requests for a specific product.
* BAD Sometime it is difficult to classify the request, poster has to pick Support, Suggestion or Bug.
* BAD Ugly "Product:" prefixes in front of topics.
* GOOD Easier to find topics of certain type, i.e. Support, Suggestion or Bug.
* GOOD No re-structure needed.

NEW structure with per product forums:
* GOOD Easier to find all topics related to a product.
* GOOD Easier to post a request as there is no need to type it as Support, Suggestion or Bug.
* GOOD No ugly "Product:" prefixes in front of topics.
* BAD No request types such as Support, Suggestion or Bug.
* BAD Requires re-structure.

OLD structure:

All Forums
-- News
-- General
-- Help and Support
-- Suggestions
-- Bugs
-- Off-Topic

NEW structure:

General
-- News (as it is currently)
-- Discussions (combined "General" and "Off-Topic" forums)
-- Archive (temporary location for topics from old structures, until they are sorted into appropriate forums)
Support for Products
-- ReNamer
-- Shutter
-- Colors
-- RandPass
-- CPUMon
-- Hasher
-- Hooker

SafetyCar · 2013-05-15 15:10

Well, I think that looks better than the first option.

On the type of topic, I think you are the most affected (for good or bad). For us I don't think it makes a lot of difference bugs or help but if you rely on that old structure in some way it would be worse for you.

Looks good to me (but the old still does too).

Stefan · 2013-05-15 15:51

If it is worth the effort actually, "NEW structure" would look good to me.

Definitely good
>>> GOOD: Easier to post a request as there is no need to type it as Support, Suggestion or Bug.
- often a Suggestion or Bug query is settled by a Support answer
- or a Help and Support question is moved on as a Bug

>>>* BAD No request types such as Support, Suggestion or Bug.
Moderator could -in some cases- add ugly "Type:" prefixes in front of topics?
- Bug: > Bug done:
- Idea: > Idea done:
- All others are Help and Support questions.
Not a strictly must, but could help people later on to not read unrelated posts.

.

eR@SeR · 2013-05-16 15:29

den4b wrote:

NEW structure:
General
-- News (as it is currently)
-- Discussions (combined "General" and "Off-Topic" forums)
-- Archive (temporary location for topics from old structures, until they are sorted into appropriate forums)
Support for Products
-- ReNamer
-- Shutter
-- Colors
-- RandPass
-- CPUMon
-- Hasher
-- Hooker

It's ok for but...

den4b wrote:

* BAD No request types such as Support, Suggestion or Bug.

SafetyCar wrote:

but if you rely on that old structure in some way it would be worse for you.

Stefan wrote:

Moderator could -in some cases- add ugly "Type:" prefixes in front of topics?

...as SafetyCar said...it's up to you. It might happen that member writes "Bug:", "Suggestion:". Don't know if we want to evade that or ask them to write in that manner?

Stefan wrote:

- Bug: > Bug done:
- Idea: > Idea done:

I like this one. Then it will be much easier to know what's done. And "the worst" thing of all of this is:

den4b wrote:

* BAD Requires re-structure.

It will need a lots of work but full restructure requires that

Andrew · 2013-05-17 22:46

+1 from my side too for the new structure.

narayan · 2013-05-18 04:36

Many forums have the best practice to add [SOLVED] in the title of a help/doubts thread (allcaps+ in square brackets to make it conspicuous).
Similarly, in a bug/suggestion thread we could use [DONE].

den4b Forum

#11 2013-05-10 21:52

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#12 2013-05-11 09:09

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#13 2013-05-13 02:44

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#14 2013-05-14 08:03

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#15 2013-05-15 14:06

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#16 2013-05-15 15:10

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#17 2013-05-15 15:51

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#18 2013-05-16 15:29

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#19 2013-05-17 22:46

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

#20 2013-05-18 04:36

Re: Forum improvements - restructure by product

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