TLO Structure Complexity

ventriloquist · 01-28-2007

Hi, Dr. B:

In general, I'm not away for so long that I can't find any new (to me) stuff in the "Recent Posts" window, so I rarely navigate the forum any other way... but, of course, not all 500+ members are so woefully addicted.

I do think some parts of the forum could stand being condensed. The story forum, for instance, is divided into subforums for individual Ligotti collections, when there's only a handful of topics in each subforum (or, as I glance at the SOADD subforum, none at all.)

There are some other sections that could be condensed or merged. For instance, instead of having separate subforums for items wanted, items available, etc. in the "Collecting" area, this could be a single forum in which distinctions such as "AVAILABLE:" or "WANTED:" are made in the titles of the topics. The various technical subforums might be condensed into one, and could also include misc. site-related stuff (suggestion box, site news, as well as TLO-specific contests/merchandise/etc.) The misc. polls and "Rants & Ravings" could be absorbed by the "Off Topic" forum. Stuff like that.

Also: would it be too confusing to make subforum topics visible/clickable from the higher-up forums? e.g., "Cthulhu Mythos" topics would be listed normally as part of "Off Topic," but one could also click on the subforum link to separate the relevant posts, as more of a tagging system than a subforum, as such. I'm not sure if that would make things more or less complicated, but sometimes topics can get hidden away in those subforums, I suspect.

OK, those are my thoughts/suggestions. I don't think the forum is unreasonably complex as it stands, but I can understand how it might be off-putting to someone who's browsing it for the first time, so some streamlining might ensure more posting activity from newer members.

(edit: I haven't noticed if these are used anywhere on TLO, but in some other online forums I check out, "sticky" posts are employed for whatever primer topics and time-sensitive announcements need to be kept apart from the general discussion... just one more thing that crossed my mind!)