Too many sections

[eYoon]

there are way too many sections in the site and far too little people to keep them all active. i suggest the forum be downsized significantly, and grow as the number of members grow.

[disgruntled]

are there sections that you think that we can do without? i kinda think that the martial arts quotes section is pointless.

i want to keep topics nicely categorized so that when a new user is lurking they can navigate the sight based on their interests and read only threads that relate to those topics. when i first took over the forum there were only a few categories and i had a hard time finding threads that interested me.

the new homepage format helps though. it only shows recent active threads.

i do agree that too many sections can get out of control and hurt a forum though..... that is one of the reasons that i left Martial Arts Planet...

[sirdarksol]

The entire "General Martial Arts Topics" section could probably be condensed into one section for now, as none of them is particularly heavily used.
Ditto with the "Non Martial Arts."
Same with the "Instructor's Area."
And "Health and Fitness."
Each of these areas is useful, but, for the time being, could each easily have just one section, rather than three or four, in my opinion.
Then, if things pick up, we'll be able to split those sections back up again as necessary.

[disgruntled]

will have a look at that..... i probably won't change anything until the new year because i am really busy right now. so keep discussing what sections you want changed so i can make them in the new year.

i would like to point out that it is easier to combine sections than to separate them, so if you think that there is a section that might be very benefcial in the future, it might be best to leave it for now.

i do like like sirdarksol's sugesstion and thanks to eYoon for pointing this out

[eYoon]

Originally Posted by disgruntled

will have a look at that..... i probably won't change anything until the new year because i am really busy right now. so keep discussing what sections you want changed so i can make them in the new year.

i would like to point out that it is easier to combine sections than to separate them, so if you think that there is a section that might be very benefcial in the future, it might be best to leave it for now.

i do like like sirdarksol's sugesstion and thanks to eYoon for pointing this out

certain sections have so little activity, they can be left as sticky threads within other sections.

and instead of "separating" u could always create a new section and have ppl start posting there..... once there are enough members.

but this many sections as we have now.... i would only expect from a forum with tens of thousands of members.

i've seen forums with many more members than us, that keep it nice and simple.

[sirdarksol]

That's what I was thinking, eYoon. Just put a new section in once the need for it becomes evident. We don't need to actually move all of the threads to it.

I disagree with the "tens of thousands of members," though. I'm in a forum that has a couple thousand active members, and we've got about three times the forums and sub-forums than MAMeta has.

[disgruntled]

i just checked out the fishlore site.... how is the blog section working for the forum? is it something that eventually would work here?

[sirdarksol]

Yes, but we'd need to wait until we're busier. Those didn't start until a year or two ago, and out of a couple thousand active participants, there are only like forty of them, and roughly half of those have faded.

[eYoon]

Originally Posted by sirdarksol

That's what I was thinking, eYoon. Just put a new section in once the need for it becomes evident. We don't need to actually move all of the threads to it.

I disagree with the "tens of thousands of members," though. I'm in a forum that has a couple thousand active members, and we've got about three times the forums and sub-forums than MAMeta has.

well i go on lotsa football (soccer) forums and i was comparing to those other sites. i guess MA forums are different?

[sirdarksol]

I think it's because there are more little subsections of martial arts that makes it easier to split it up.