Just wanted to give you guys a heads-up. I'm going to be working on the forum format (ie the posting areas) over the next couple of days as we've had a few comments that the current layout can be confusing when deciding where to put a post. I don't want to go down the route of a load of forums, so trying to keep it simple but easy to use at the same time. With that in mind, if you have any ideas for areas you'd like to see in place or suggestions regarding the existing ones - now is the time to bring them to light
My only advice would be to try to emulate the layout I had with AJ, you told me yourself that you liked that layout, and it seemed to work okay ;D I have one suggestion for how the layout is now.. http://adminextra.com/forum/16-forum-software-social-networking-blogging/ <- this forum. Wait til 3.2 is out, but when it is, remove all the sub forums, you do not need that sort of granularity (in my humble opinion), and use topic prefixes to discern which is what then.. I would also endeavour to make the sidebar shorter.. Try to merge the marketplace into one or two sections, rather than the 4 you have.. Maybe one "Marketplace" forum with the rest (Post/Link Exchanges & Affiliates / Site Positions & Contests) as sub forums, to make the index less 'cluttered'. Wow. Seems like I had more to suggest than I had originally thought. I guess I work better when sleep deprived, eh? Edit: Also Off Topic, but if I may be so bold as to suggest this: http://mikeylicio.us/random/integrate-kwn-me-and-ip-board-522
hmm, actually, I just made a change, so if you have already downloaded the api files, could you redownload them? thanks
What about the "Supporters" areas. One forum hasn't had a post in over a month, and the other one is going on like over 5 months without a post. I'd probably either hide those from non-supporters due to their lack of inactivity or remove them altogether. Under coding and designing there seems to be a completely off topic section for browsers and software? But wouldn't browsers and software go in either of the already existing forums. Like Oh hey I have a problem in IE with my CSS, or my CSS is wrong in IE, would a user post that in coding support or in the Interwebs Discussion for software/browsers? I like the slimier selection of forums, its definitely more streamlined now, everything seems to have just one forum for its purpose and not two or three forums where the same thing could be posted. Except the sidebar is 8 miles to long.
Never noticed that! Works fine for me that way thanks Ryan! Also not sure if its the computer I'm on, or another issue, but the Sponsor Ads sidebar don't show any ads on the front page.
Hoping to rectify the activity in there over the next week Will look at that - I'm still thinking about the different areas and how they could be better presented I hope you really mean slimmer and not slimier
Is it supposed to remember the collapsed settings? I know I shrunk everything down because I've never clicked a link in that area in my life, but when I revisit the site from the same computer they reappear full size
Strange... I have several sections collapsed right now and it's remembered. Let me try. What browser, just for my information? Sure enough. Remembers it fine here using Firefox 4.0.1
That's what I would do and there's no need to have a sub-forum for every different type of community software out there, not when one forum can cover all and look more active in the process. What Mike is suggesting is more or less exactly what I've done with most forums on my site, then just added some Thread Prefixes to help define what being talked about better. Although, I will admit I've got too many different "General Discussion" forums that could be covered by just one or two, keeping the "Quick Comments" used for (well, quick comments). And another for longer general discussion that guests can't post on. So even I know my forums could be arranged much better on the general discussion side of things now. I could probably drop about 10 forums. But because my forum was geared around "General Discussion", at the time it made sense to try and create different levels of it using quite a few forums. Like "Serious Discussion, Heated Discussion" e.t.c. But I'm thinking now about looking at changing that after some other topics covered which has nothing to do with general discussion was added later. I also think you need to address the problem with the sidebar here, your displaying too many "Member Status Updates" which is making the sidebar a lot longer in length than the forums you have listed, you have a huge empty void between the last forum board and the footer area. You should be trying really to get them the same length matching each other best you can and avoid that kind of problem. It doesn't do the community any good seeing things like that here. And it's forcing people to scroll-down further than they really should have too. Just reducing the status updates displayed to a lot less can solve that problem easy. And if anything your sidebar should be shorter than the forums length to allow some leeway for it to be a little longer at times with long status updates posted. I've done all this with my forums portal page. What's funny talking about the amount of forums you should have. When I used UseBB there is an option to put it in "Single Forum" mode, were you have one forum only that is displayed as the landing page and used for all discussion. I did actually like that feature about UseBB.
Also, if you do want to limit status updates so less are shown, when I used IPB I found out you have to edit a php file for them and change the number setting in it. I can't remember now were it is, or if you have to change more than one area in the file (could be two places in it). Search Google about it if you want to do it, that's how I found the link explaining how to do it originally and also with something else in the sidebar you can limit less.
If it comes down to a member having to scroll to far then they should just minimize the things in the sidebar that they don't need to look at, problem solved.
