[suzie99]

How many forums are too many?

Too many in how people would see the forums as a place they would come back too...

.. or too many as in it would be over facing and they would not join much less return?

Just wondered what makes one forum more successful than another as in how many members, and how many members interact with other members..

[YounGMessiah]

If I gotta scroll down for more than 5-10 seconds thats too much lol..

[suzie99]

Thanks YM

Am just in..just..hahahahaha

Bang on 10 secs

[YounGMessiah]

I honeslty couldnt tell you whats too much just as long as you dont have to much to scroll down a lot..Thats a major turn off for me on a board if I gotta scroll a lot.

[Brandon D]

Not really a limit IMO (when you actually have the NEED for them)... just start with few forums in a category or two and ONLY create a new forum when the demand for it is high (like a ton of topics/discussions have been and will be made on the subject). A forum with a ton of forums on very detailed subjects with only a few hundred posts in each will turn me away faster than a forum with only a few forums with thousands of posts each. If your board gets to the point where you have tons of active categories and forums and you still find the need to add more, then I'd look into splitting it into two boards or at least get a skin that allows navigation between categories easily, at the top where people can see.

I think it just boils down to making sure you actually have a need for each of your forums, that they are active (coincides with the first point), and are organized well/easily accessible.

[suzie99]

Hmm..

I am thinking to lose a couple of forums, thanks again YM.

[YounGMessiah]

suzie99, on Sep 16 2008, 12:24 PM, said:

Hmm..

I am thinking to lose a couple of forums, thanks again YM.

What is your forum about anyway? I clicked your link but you have no content showing.. IMO I think it would be better to show a lil more to guests.

[suzie99]

Well,

I know 'some' Dreamweaver buut not enough to go it alone so I asked a lady from Adobe if I could have some of her tuts which she agreed. She is an Adobe Forum advisor and does seminars for Adobe. I am learning CSS so I have added that as a resource. Resource where you follow a link to go off site for the tut. Eventually sort of a huge resource. Dreamweaver Extensions, Project Seven for all things Dreamweaver. Adobe News. etc.

I love gardening so thats included. Some wallpapers from a designer named George Grier who gave permission to allow dl but not for adding to your collections. Not sure how that will fair with Dreamweaver stuff. The 3d wallpapers may go down ok, or it did a few forums ago in thaat forum I put 'site of the Day' and 'Flash Sites of Excellence like neostram.

Alsorts.

The thing is what to remove.



A sample of a wallpaper here:

[Stephen]

I wouldn't say there is a number that would stop being using it, you just have to make sure there are enough for your community. If you find that there is a lot of conversation about a particular topic area then make a forum about it, but don't make hundreds of forums for the sake of it so that you end up with it takes hours to find the correct one.

That said, one of the largest IPS forums has a lot of section and it doesn't seem to hurt them http://www.justmommies.com/boards/ so it just depends on the number of visitors you have I suppose, grow the number of forums slowly instead of starting with a shed load to begin with.

[Rikki]

As a general rule, always have as few as possible. It's better to have 3 active forums that have a mixture of subjects going on than 15 very specific forums that get very little posting. You'll know when you reach the point that you need to create a new forum for a specific subject.

[bfarber]

Rikki, on Sep 16 2008, 04:29 PM, said:

As a general rule, always have as few as possible. It's better to have 3 active forums that have a mixture of subjects going on than 15 very specific forums that get very little posting. You'll know when you reach the point that you need to create a new forum for a specific subject.

Totally agree.

If I go to a site and see 100 forums, and each has 1 topic, I'll never sift through them all.

If I go there and there is 1 forum with 100 topics, I will at least get to see all the topic titles even if I don't visit each topic - increasing the likelihood I'll be active.

[Amy T]

Rikki, on Sep 16 2008, 02:29 PM, said:

As a general rule, always have as few as possible. It's better to have 3 active forums that have a mixture of subjects going on than 15 very specific forums that get very little posting. You'll know when you reach the point that you need to create a new forum for a specific subject.

I agree and I deleted a few inactive ones on my site.
Just moved those posts into the general section.

[pePPersA]

hi all
lol

[BASHERS33]

Number of forums honestly matters very little. To ME personally it's MUCH better to have only a few and have subforums because then nobodyu has to scroll a lot. But trust me, some of the most popular sites ahve tons and tons and tons to scroll down. So obviously people would rather it look crappy like that.

[idav]

*REMOVED*

The number of forums matters a great deal in keeping users active. Having generalized sections exposes users to see threads that might catch their attention when they wouldn't have otherwise seen them.

In general the fewer the threads the better. Look around at failed and successful communities. Obviously there are exceptions like the motherhood forum Stephen linked. My guess would be that a topic like motherhood is specific enough to draw a large number of users based on it's genre alone as opposed to a general community forum that has no focus.

Sub-forums are annoying as hell to me personally. I don't understand their usefulness at all, they seem to just hide topics deeper and make them less accessible/visible.

[Amy T]

Ya I do not like subforums either. I like having lots of forums as long as those different forums are active having a forum that does not get many replies or any replies can look really bad, thats why I removed some as a few forums have not had new replies or topics in over 3 months.

[BASHERS33]

*REMOVED*

idav, on Sep 26 2008, 02:24 PM, said:

In general the fewer the threads the better.

*REMOVED* Anyone go to sites with the most posts and look how many pages of toipics they have. They have literally hundreds of pages in each popular forum.

[idav]

You could just say, "Hey idav, I think you mean to say sections." Which is obviously the case. The fewer sections the better. Anything to make yourself feel better eh Jason?

[LouisM]

Let's keep this topic friendly please.

[Morrigan]

I think it depends on the forum. I know that if you need the forums then make them, if they fit the purpose then they should be there otherwise you should probably get rid of them.