New Forum Index (feedback requested)

[sanjay]

The forum index at ABXzone has become a bit stale and dated. Furthermore it requires some reorganization. Towards that end we have spent some time reviewing other tech forums to come up with a revised index scheme that we intend to launch very shortly. I wanted to focus on the index before we spent real money on traffic building. Please review the following screenshots to understand better what the new forum structure will look like. We will not delete any threads in this process...just move them to the right category.






Please try to give recommendations that we can implement in order to tweak this index. Thanks!

[CrowdAds]

[polonyc2]

I like it a lot...the forums and subforums are arranged in a very logical manner...there are currently a few forums here that don't get a lot of traffic and don't need their own forum (Virtualization and Birthdays for example)...so I'm glad to see the forum index streamlined...looking forward to the new format

[sanjay]

We might buy and merge smaller forums for the index categories where we don't get much traffic. FOr example we have a forum called VistaBabble where the members want to broaden their focus since Vista is no longer the new thing. They are very excited about us moving them and their content to the ABXZOne OS forum so they can participate in the rest of ABX discussions. Small forums are pretty easy for us to buy and if they each have 10 to 20 active members...we could rebuild pretty quickly.

[DBoone]

I like the looks of it too. I mostly navigate from the New Posts button on the front page but for those occasions when I want to look for something specific I think this would work.

Originally Posted by sanjay

We might buy and merge smaller forums for the index categories where we don't get much traffic. FOr example we have a forum called VistaBabble where the members want to broaden their focus since Vista is no longer the new thing. They are very excited about us moving them and their content to the ABXZOne OS forum so they can participate in the rest of ABX discussions. Small forums are pretty easy for us to buy and if they each have 10 to 20 active members...we could rebuild pretty quickly.

That's an interesting approach! Can't see why it wouldn't work just fine.

[ctal]

Generally I think it looks excellent!

Some suggestions, though:

1)Replace the "Memory & Storage" forum with one for "Memory" and a separate one for "Drives & Storage."

2)Within the "Drives & Storage" forum created per the previous suggestion, create sub-forums for "Hard Drives -- Mechanical"; "Hard Drives -- Solid State"; "Optical Drives"; and "Other."

3)Combine the "Admin & News Team" forum with the "News Team" forum, and call it the "News Team Forum, also open to Moderators & Administrators."

4)Re-name the "Moderators -- General Discussion" top-level forum as "Moderators and Administrators -- General Discussion."

5)Create a top-level category called "ABXZone Announcements, Issues, and Suggestions," and include in it the following forums: Announcements; Support Forum (& sub-forums); Feedback & Suggestion Box.

6)Create a "Networking Hardware" category under hardware, in addition to the "Networking & Security" category that is under software.

7)Delete the "IP Ban Needed" sub-forum; just have the top-level forum.

Thanks!

-- Al

[sanjay]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will implement almost all of them. #2 I would like input from other members on. Personally, I feel we can divide the hard Drive forum further if there is more content, but it seems excessive right now.

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by ctal

Generally I think it looks excellent!

Some suggestions, though:

1)Replace the "Memory & Storage" forum with one for "Memory" and a separate one for "Drives & Storage."

2)Within the "Drives & Storage" forum created per the previous suggestion, create sub-forums for "Hard Drives -- Mechanical"; "Hard Drives -- Solid State"; "Optical Drives"; and "Other."

3)Combine the "Admin & News Team" forum with the "News Team" forum, and call it the "News Team Forum, also open to Moderators & Administrators."

4)Re-name the "Moderators -- General Discussion" top-level forum as "Moderators and Administrators -- General Discussion."

5)Create a top-level category called "ABXZone Announcements, Issues, and Suggestions," and include in it the following forums: Announcements; Support Forum (& sub-forums); Feedback & Suggestion Box.

6)Create a "Networking Hardware" category under hardware, in addition to the "Networking & Security" category that is under software.

7)Delete the "IP Ban Needed" sub-forum; just have the top-level forum.

Thanks!

-- Al

Looks awesome sanjay! Definite improvement.

I agree with Al's sugggestions, especially #3...
regards 2; I'd actually lean more towards internal/external sub-forums ... I dont think there is enough momentum on the SSD's just yet... although soon...

Also I'd recommend to change "Overclocking & Cooling" to "Overclocking, Cooling and Benchmarking"

[PeterT]

I like it.
I agree with #1 on Al's list. RAM and Storage merit separate sub-forums. As for #2, I think 2 sub-forums is sufficient: Mechanical & SSD.
Recommendation: Sub-forums for Windows OSs under the Operating Systems section. For example: 1. XP & prior, 2. Vista & later

[sanjay]

New index will be going live in a couple of days. We will then spend a while moving threads to the right subforums so please don't stress. Feel free to PM links to me or any admin telling us when threads need to be moved.

Also, next week we will probably begin the process of merging vistababble.com into this forum. That will give us a new group of Windows experts who are bored of having to only discuss Vista. If that excersise is succesful I will start buying small, niche tech forums and rolling their threads and members in so we have new blood.

[traveler]

I just visited the gaming forum.

I'm not sure that any subforums are needed there at all. It might even make things more difficult.

Most games are on cross platforms so if we have a discussion about FarCry 2 or FallOut 3 or Oblivion or HalfLife for example, the hints and gameplay are the same. Why have more than one thread on the same subject in different locations. It only makes it more dificult to ask for advice; one woiuld have to double post the same question in more than one place. And threads have always discussed the differences, if any, which are nice to know in the game's title thread.



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