Your opinions please: do we change the board structure?

[TightEnd]

As a team of moderators and administrators we have been wondering whether it was now appropriate to divide the board into more sections.

You may remember that a while ago this was mooted and a majority was against it.

Since then things have moved on. Traffic on the board has grown apace:


 MonthlySummary   NewTopics   New Posts   New Members   Most Online
 October 2005            341           8187            169                 161
 September 2005        652         18204            286                 159
 August 2005              398           9931           250                 261
 July 2005                   339           7838           283                 142
 June 2005                  278           7370            94                 106
 May 2005                   154           2464            49                   55
 April 2005                   120           3652          100                   66
 March 2005                  98           2986          118                  309
 February 2005              65             955            87                  326
 January 2005                 7               95            37                    36

This is great, but creates challenges. One is that the General discussion board in particular is hectic, you can out a post up in the morning and have to scroll way down to find it when you come back in the evening.

However it is fair to say that there are some different views on the subject, some like the random feel, some would like order


So it's over to you...what do you feel? would you like more sections? If so, what would they be? any other comments?


One possible set of boards might be:

Live tournament updates
Online poker discussion and tournament updates
General poker discussion (strategy, viewpoints etc)
Off Topic (Red-dog's twin, storymakers etc etc)

but I'm sure you can come up with better......


We might not do anything, but if we do, we'd like the best possible way forward....

 
 

 

[tikay]

A statement of the very obvious, but in the stats reproduced above, the October figures are up to the 13th only, & to "month-ise" them, you need to, approximately, double them.

The "most online" column means Members logged in at at any given moment.

[Sheriff Fatman]

I have mixed views on the subject (bloody hell, I can't decide myself so God knows how we get a consensus on the forum!)

2+2 has grown and divided many times since I started posting there and its now almost overwhelming.  Instead of having one or two boards to keep up with you have to go through each one of interest to you.

In addition, you run the risk of the 'wrong forum' Nazi's taking over.

Personally, any split should keep things as simple as possible.  It might be worth simply splitting the general discussion board between poker and non-poker (effectively creating an 'Other Topics' board) to keep things manageable.  However, I'm not sure if this would detract from the overall feel of the place.  After all, its nice to stumble across a bit of RED-DOG humour when your head is spinning from a post such as the min-raise thread.

A better option might be to look to improve the navigation of the site by letting people opt how many threads they see on one page.  Also, it'd be great if the forum didn't automatically revert back to page 1 after you've come out of a thread on page 2.

Basically, this is a long-winded way of saying 'I can see both sides'.  

Sheriff

[ifm]

better sticky management would help, count 'em!!!
i still feel 1 extra section is needed just for news on value comps, qualifiers etc.
can also do the internet comp updates in there as someone moves those from the live update section for some reason

[TightEnd]

you see, I don't mind the number of stickies (althoguh I try not to add wherever possible)  especially now page 1 has grown in length.

Sub-question: am I in a minority on this?

Ifm, as an aside...the titan and Grosvenor Gp stickies disappear down the list after tomorrow....

[Bongo]

I'd be in favour of a structure change. It's hard to keep track of things and as the site continues to grow it will only get harder.

It might also be an idea to have a section for "information" threads, ie ones that aren't likely to be regularly updated but still contain relevant information - things like Rob's notts information thread.

I don't know if this forum software has one but most boards have a "new posts" feature which allows people to see all the new posts on one page - much like just having one forum. This means that you can please all parties.

[tikay]

We manage the "stickys" on a daily basis ifm, & yes, there are too many some days. This week happens to be particularly "busy" sticky-wise, with some very important & interesting threads, plus the Titan jobbie, & the Live Update ptromo.

Which is precisely why we need to make the changes we are proposing......

The thing has grown to a point where it's very difficult to keep it user-friendly. So, we are seeking everyone's input as to views on how to manage it better. so bear with us please. We are getting there, & with your help we will.

[ariston]

This is not spam but if you want to look at a split board with not crazy ammount of members (like 2+2) you should look at the aworldofpoker forum. I dont think its as good as here and will be one of the ones voting for "leave it as it is". With a split board it is too tricky imo to keep your eyes on numerous threads without going in and out of different sections. Here you click refresh and you can see which ones have been updated. If something aint broke it dont need fixing.

[AndrewT]

As far as I'm concerned, once a thread falls off the bottom of the first page of the General Discussion board, it's gone. At the moment, we're just about OK in that all the 'active' threads (ones in which people have posted something in the last day or so) are on the first page. Once threads start falling off the bottom within a couple of hours of being posted (as happens in other forums) you end up with the self-perpetuating problem of people not being able to find a thread on a particular subject, and so starting a new one, which pushes another thread onto page 2, which leads to someone else starting a thread and so on, and before long the first page consists of 30 threads, on 6 subjects, with 4 posts in each thread.

As long as posters have a good think before starting a new thread on a subject, I think we should be OK. I think we do need a News section, so people know where to go for information on tournaments events, rather than posting a 'Does anyone know about event X?' thread. Also, I don't think we need a "'Welcome 'New Poster X', tell us a bit about yourself" thread for everyone who joins up - maybe there should be a separate section for these?

[Acidmouse]

I prefer forums with different sections so I dont have to wade through loads of stuff I am not really interested in.

[Bongo]

I think this is the boards version of the feature I was talking about.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?action=unread

The only problem seems to be that threads disapear if you have read them which means it behaves differently to a standard forum.

[jezza777]

I agree that as the forum gets busier there may be a need to change the structure.  However I like it the way it is, everyone in the same place posting about all sorts gives the place a great family feel and I for one would be dissapointed to lose that. Have to say I agree with Ariston "if it ain't broke.....

[winkie]

Just a suggestion, but is there anyway to colour code the posts...? Blondite who makes the initial post selects the colour.

e.g. red = poker related, blue = off topic, green = railbird requests/news etc...

That way, all the threads stay on one section.

And perhaps a function so you could sort the posts by colour when you log into to view the 'General Discussions' section (i.e. select only 'red' posts), but if no selection is made, you view the board as it is now...

[ifm]

you see, I don't mind the number of stickies (althoguh I try not to add wherever possible)  especially now page 1 has grown in length.

Sub-question: am I in a minority on this?

Yet in your original post you mention posts dropping down the page after a few hours, do you not think that shortening the first page with 6, 7 or 8 sticky's contributes hugely towards this?
Anyway just a pet hate of mine, how about a sticky section?
Ariston mentions worldofpoker, which is a great forum but the amount of sections is really off putting.
How many times have we had this discussion about sections?
Maybe they should be relooked at

[AndrewT]

Just a suggestion, but is there anyway to colour code the posts...? Blondite who makes the initial post selects the colour.

e.g. red = poker related, blue = off topic, green = railbird requests/news etc...

Ooooh, I like that idea. Obviously I have no idea how feasible it is with the forum software.