board77

The Last Homely Site on the Web

Restructuring the Boards

Post Reply   Page 1 of 4  [ 62 posts ]
Jump to page 1 2 3 4 »
Author Message
Estel
Post subject: Restructuring the Boards
Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 5:42 pm
Pure Kitsch Flavor
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5159
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:47 pm
Location: London
 
Alright, so I've gotten a few PMs from people about this, and entered into a few discussions about it, and thought it should be brought up as a general topic.

This isn't to do with admins rights/poster rights or anything covered by the Dirt and Wires/Constitutional convention.

Basically, with all the new members, the board has become a bit unwieldy (sp?), and there's been talk of doing a basic overhaul.

Pretty much what I've discussed with others is this:

[list]1. Three new sub-forums
---------- a. A m77t and geek type forum, for discussing RL meetings and Tolkien related events

---------- b. An admin request forum, for people to make requests of the admin - ranks/titles, etc.

---------- c. An addendum to the Symposium we have now, keeping the symposium for more philosophy/religion/politics type stuff, and a different forum for more personal but still very serious discussion.

2. A splitting up of "The Round Table" into two master forums
- one for more serious debate/discussion/philosophy and the other for general chat / good fun / hobbies / homebase type threads, etc.

3. A creation of an Inside/Business type Master Forum
- where the subforums of Business, Admin requests and invites would possibly go.[/list]


Not all of these would need to be done, obviously, but they are some of the things I have heard others make mention of, or that I have thought of because of such discussions.

So, thoughts? Opinions? Idea's?

How can we make the board more organized and efficient, without making it / keeping it unweildy?

Unstickied by Leoba: 22 March 2005


Top
Profile Quote
laureanna
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 12 Mar , 2005 9:27 pm
Triathlete
Offline
 
Posts: 2711
Joined: Wed 26 Jan , 2005 2:08 am
Location: beachcombing
 
Say, I was laying in bed this morning thinking about just this thing. ;) So if I could be so bold, I would suggest this:

1. Symposium - single topic serious discussions (as it relates to real life and/or fiction). Hopefully these would have clearly identifyable titles like "Atheism in Politics" or "Tolkien's Use of Light and Dark". I like the idea of having the symposium be like a learning experience - we take one topic to a thread and tease out all the good stuff. I look forward to being able to do this with book-loving, movie-loving, movie-hating, philosophising people from all over our membership.The thread might be 2 pages or 20 pages, whatever it takes to come to a satisfying conclusion. Discussion would generally be at a college or post-grad level.

2. Rivendell - A forum full of threads for small groups of people to chat aimlessly about whatever moves them. A way to connect with others in a more intimate way. I'm thinking of "Orphans", "Frodo's Kitchen" and "This Month has no Theme, This Month Needs no Theme" threads. It could include serious discussion, chat, spam, RP-lite, RP or a mixture, and would go on as long as those people could stand each other. :roll:

3. Passions - Not threads with a specific topic like in the Symposium, but long-lived, open-ended threads that stay on one topic and anyone interested in that topic can drop in. I'm hoping my "Black Dog Inn" thread that discusses mental illness will be in that category, as well as threads for ongoing discussions on Meyer-Briggs, cats, gardening, and learning Spanish. Hopefully they will remain inviting to newcomers and casual visitors. This forum could also include personality cults (e.g. swooning for Whistler or Frodo), game threads, trivia threads, and studies of a particular book.

4. Short Stories in RL - All those threads with "WTF???" or "Huh??" as a title - you just have to read them and decide to comment or not. Generally subjects with short term interest, or just an excuse to connect with others.

5. META - threads about B77, which would include business, archives, and requests, and "What do we want to do next?" type threads.

6. Mooting and events. Perhaps regional threads, too.

7. Critics' Corner - for reviews of books, music, movies, plays, artwork, etc.

8. Mathom - the inevitable unclassifiable.

_________________

Well, I'm back.


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 12:46 am
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
Thanks for discussing this! ;)

I really like ideas 1 a, b and c - especially c!
I think it would be very helpful if there were a separation between theoretical philosophy/religion/politics and serious real life subjects, which are too valuable to get hidden among all the light-hearted theoretical stuff.

(I say light-hearted because, I think, no matter how fervently you argue for the political left or right, it still is not really something that touches anyone intimately, like vison's diaires, for example, do.)

I've suggested this some months ago already, so no surprise that I'm all for it, but the people who have such real life threads up or plan to have them, should give their opinion on that.

I don't like the idea of a big all serious and a big all fun master forum, suggested in No. 2, so much, though.

No. 3 sounds reasonable, too, although you might say that the Info forum already has that role.

So, for a solution maybe move Invites to the Welcome section and add a second symposium (no idea for the names right now, way too worn out and tired here) and an events forum to the Round Table.
This would mean only one more forum for the latter, so it would not become unwieldy.

Some good ideas from laureanna, too, I think.
A forum of their own for the group meeting threads, like aunties, the diner etc might not be a bad idea. Or else a seperate one for the threads laureanna calls RL short stories - where people only post a story or a joke or so, and no real discussion follows, just comments on how people liked it.
This would help to unclutter the Turf, where at the moment there's are a lot of new threads all the time, I think (and just like on TORC, only the ones on the top page get any attention ;) ).

We do, however, already have forums for discussing books, movies and music. :scratch

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
TheEllipticalDisillusion
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 2:30 am
Insolent Pup
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5381
Joined: Wed 09 Mar , 2005 8:31 pm
Location: Many Places
 
An admin request forum would be a good idea. Kind of like (dare I say) TOR, but where the admins listen and don't lock threads immediately. The META idea is a really good one. Some of the business end stuff can be placed together in one forum so as not to make the board look untidy.

The m77t (?) and geek forum sounds like a fine idea. It could be the official Events forum where people let others know about some sort of Tolkien or not events happening in their area for others who may be interested.

I don't think splitting the Symposium is a good idea. I like it the way it is. For the most part I like the board layout because it doesn't have a whole bunch of very specific topic forums. Too many forums is harmful.

A critic's corner might be fun...but...I don't know. I'm wary.

A hobby forum might be a cool addition, too. If I wanted to discuss board games, card games or video games with anyone interested, I would have to make a thread in Turf (which doesn't bother me too much), but I figure that there have to be at least 10 other people here who might like to discuss these topics.

I think a separate forum for the group meeting threads might be a nice addition, but it might just be cluttering. I'm not sure. I know I have yet to join one of those threads because they are so long and I don't want to read all those pages to catch up.

Oh well, those are my thoughts.

_________________

The 11/3 Project


Top
Profile Quote
Eruname
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 3:19 am
Islanded in a Stream of Stars
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 8748
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:24 pm
Location: UK
Contact: Website
 
I'll second TED about too many forums being harmful. Best to keep things concise as possible.

I do think an admin request forum would be good....though could the now forum management be used for that?

I'm also for a m77t forum and definately a hobby forum. I hate to see thread like the Cooking Guild or Aromatherapy ones get buried.

_________________

Abandon this fleeting world
abandon yourself.
Then the moon and flowers
will guide you along the way.

-Ryokan

http://wanderingthroughmiddleearth.blogspot.com/


Top
Profile Quote
Voronwë_the_Faithful
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 3:29 am
Offline
 
Posts: 5170
Joined: Thu 10 Feb , 2005 6:53 pm
Contact: Website
 
[quote="Eruname"]definately a hobby forum.quote]

A forum all about truehobbit? I think that's a great idea. Then we can talk about her all day!

Voronwe_the_ :devil:


Top
Profile Quote
laureanna
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 3:30 am
Triathlete
Offline
 
Posts: 2711
Joined: Wed 26 Jan , 2005 2:08 am
Location: beachcombing
 
I like the idea of grouping by type of thread. Otherwise, if you try to group by subject, some people will never go in there. I almost never go into a games forum, but I would go into a hobbies forum, and might find a chess thread.

_________________

Well, I'm back.


Top
Profile Quote
Lhaewin
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 8:21 am
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 578
Joined: Fri 25 Feb , 2005 3:40 pm
Location: searching for peace
 
I´d also like a m77t and a hobby forum (laureanna, I love chess too.)

The idea to separate Real Life and general philosophic threads sounds good to me.

_________________

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde


Top
Profile Quote
Teherin
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 9:34 pm
Titch
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 372
Joined: Thu 28 Oct , 2004 2:43 pm
 
I think the ideas for 1a, b and c are good - fine with all of thsoe.
No opinion on 2 and 3 sounds fine.

I think if we start splitting into too many forums, I for one as someone who has a very limited time on b77, will completely lose touch with whats going on ... having the Turf forum with the Orhpans in there for instance is great as once I have finished with that, I can wnader into other threads - if they are all alone in their own forum, I will probably not have the time / effort to get involved in other areas ... sorry i know I am probably in a minority but its just my thoughts :)

_________________

All I have to do
Is forget I ever loved him ...


Where are you Sirel ...


Top
Profile Quote
Estel
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 12:13 am
Pure Kitsch Flavor
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5159
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:47 pm
Location: London
 
Titch - the reason why I am asking for as many master forum and subforum options as possible, is that it's easier to have too many, and then cut down, than to have not enough, and add on hapazardly (sp?) later.


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 3:09 am
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
Voronwe_the_Faithful wrote:
Eruname wrote:
definately a hobby forum.
A forum all about truehobbit? I think that's a great idea. Then we can talk about her all day!

Voronwe_the_ :devil:
:LMAO:

I'd be very flattered, to be sure! :D

Well, depending on what people would say, of course! :blackeye

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
*Alandriel*
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 10:38 am
*Ex-Admin of record*
Offline
 
Posts: 2372
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 10:15 am
 
My preference is to have as few fora as possible to avoid fragmentation - but at the same time OF COURSE an adequate number is needed to satisfy the members and that can and should be revised every now and then as the board grows :D
I like the suggestion of re-organization very much and also see the need for a moot subforum.

We don't (for the moment) need to change the 'Dici hoc opus artem esse', 'Outside' and 'Hidden Porn Trash'. It's a reorganization between the existing main fora of 'Welcome' (containing currently the busines room which I think should be moved) and the 'Round Table'.

Splitting the Round Table into two seperate fora is a very good idea :D but can we keep some names? My suggestion would be, split the current 'Round table' and make new the 'Symposium' into a main category.

Round table = more 'fun' stuff
Symposium = more 'serious' stuff

In the Round Table would go subcategories:
- The Turf (for all chat/fun threads, homebase)
- forum for hobbies -type threads (name?) since there seems demand for that :)
- There & back again (RP forum)
- Thinking of England
- m77t/geek subforum

Symposium would go subcategories:
- Business room (moved from Welcome)
- Requests to admins - forum name?
- Invites
- phylosophy, religion, politics - forum name?
- more personal yet serious threads - forum name?

I'll try and think of some name suggestions.
Why we would need a seperate main fora for the business room and Admin requests I don't quite see.. but then it's my preference not to splinter too much ;)

PS: on further pondering ;) The current Welcome forum which will only hold 'welcome/info' once the Business room is moved from there could be re-organized to hold

- Welcome -> all welcome threads
- Info -> FAQ type threads, the constitution (once we're there), and how about having the 'ask an admin' subcategory in there rather than in the 'Symposium' master categegory. Would make it look more friendly IMO :)
_______________
Resident witch [ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Nin
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 10:55 am
Per aspera ad astra
Offline
 
Posts: 3388
Joined: Thu 28 Oct , 2004 6:53 am
Location: Zu Hause
 
I don't like too much splintering either....

And most of Alandriel's suggestions seem more that sufficient to me - although I cannot restrain from adding that I hope that one day there will be no invite forum no more....

Thinking of names.

_________________

Nichts Schöneres unter der Sonne als unter der Sonne zu sein.
(Ingeborg Bachmann)


Top
Profile Quote
MariaHobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 4:08 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 8041
Joined: Thu 03 Feb , 2005 2:39 pm
Location: MO
 
Something I liked on another messageboard that I visit sometimes was a "Barter Forum". People would put up threads for things they wanted to sell, or were looking to buy and it was always awfully interesting to go through, especially when a couple of people were actually working out a barter!

_________________


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Estel
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 5:56 pm
Pure Kitsch Flavor
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5159
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:47 pm
Location: London
 
I was kinda hoping to post my general idea post *before* getting a response to it specifically Alandriel.

Let me make a point here.... again:

I was asking for as many idea's as possible BECAUSE it is easier to have too many ideas and then combine, reorganize and shrink it all down afterwards.

And about changing the forums later - when we move to the new board, it won't be as easy as it is here. We should have as close to the final product as we can BEFORE we move. Even if we limit the invites, after we re-open them, to 3 a day, thats 84 new people a month, minumim - probably more around 90. We need to have a finished product for a board with a large amount of members.

Yes, we want to keep the board feeling small and homey, BUT with all the members, if we keep it too small, threads will disappear onto the second and third page from the sheer weight of posters. We need some sort of compromise in the middle.

So, this was the post I was gonna make after I had gone over it with the admins first. Yes, it has many options - like I said, I'm looking for as many additions to those options as possible - make it the biggest thing we can, and then work on cutting it down after we have as many add-on suggestions as possible.

I seriously don't think people understand my reasons for this - it isn't because I want the board to be some big huge thing. I'm just looking for OPTIONS.




So we definitely want an "Admin Request" subforum, and a "m77t and geek" (m00t and tolkien events ;) ) subforum. There's also been talk of basically what amounts to a "homebase forum", so I'll throw that in my example as well as well.

We could also - based on the "Home Sweet Home" thread - have each master forum named after part of a home - if forum creators / namers are willing. I'll add in examples of that in my example below. Not saying that if there is a restructuring of the board, there would have to be a re-naming as well! No, no, no - just an idea that's been bandied around.


Now what about Master forums?

Lemme kinda show you guys what I meant with my little thingy I talked about.... I'm gonna go all out here - as many different forums as I can think of - after all, it's easier to cut off what's not needed, than to keep adding ;) . Say the following is the index page:





Welcome/Info Forum - Master Forum (could be "The Front Porch")
  • Info Forum / Welcome - subforum

    Homebase Forum - subforum

    m77t and g77k forum - subforum
The Round Table - Master Forum (could be "The Family Room")
  • The Turf - subforum

    Hobbies and Games - subforum

    The Symposium - subforum

    Thinking of England - subforum
The Library - Master Forum
  • Critics Corner - subforum

    There and Back Again - subforum

    Literary Rambles - subforum
Dicisne hoc opus artem esse? - Master Forum (could be "Music & Media Room")
  • The Small Screen. Television - subforum

    Vidistine nuper imagines moventes bonas? Movies - subforum

    La Camerata. Music - subforum
The Conference Room - Master Forum
  • The Business Room - subforum

    Invites - subforum

    Admin Requests - subforum
Outside - Master Forum
  • The BikeRacks - subforum

    The Jury Room - subforum

    The Archives - subforum
Hidden Porn Stash - Master Forum
  • Deleted Threads Storage - subforum (which y'all can't see, but we're trying to keep the postcounts from going all weird ;) )

    Forum Management - subforum

    Sensitive Admin Information - subforum (which y'all can't see, cause it's passwords and such ;) )

Last edited by Estel on Tue 28 Jun , 2005 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile Quote
*Alandriel*
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 6:46 pm
*Ex-Admin of record*
Offline
 
Posts: 2372
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 10:15 am
 
Sorry Estel I got ahead of my self :( As always it was just a suggestion, I was sharing my view.

I like your suggestion very well and as you said, trimming is always possible :)

Might I suggest actually adding (or rather 'splitting' in a sense) and making welcome/info two seperate subfora under (the possible new heading) Front porch (nice name! :) )? The reason for this would be to keep all welcome threads in one place seperate from info threads and possibly adding also in there the 'Admin requests' forum - would be very friendly to have this in the Front Porch rather than in the Conference room -- but of course that's just my opinion.

To the library could also be added a 'study' forum, containing group reading threads, language study threads etc. Again just a suggestion. Don't quite understand what would go into the 'Critics corner'.

All else I find very comprehensive and excellent. Thanks for lending your energies to this Estel :)
_______________
Resident witch [ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Leoba
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 7:33 pm
Troubadour of Ithilien
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 3539
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 11:04 am
Location: Bree, Buckinghamshire
 
Thanks for kicking this off Estel! :D




A few random musings...


I certainly second the idea of a 'm77t etc' forum.

Also I particularly like the idea of syphoning off some of the slower moving hobbyish TURF threads somewhere where they'll be less overwhelmed, perhaps. I'm a little more reserved about moving homebase threads out. I see the likes of Aunties, Orphans, the German thread all fitting very nicely amidst less cliquey chatting and perhaps more inclined to draw the casual poster in by virtue of their proximity to general faster flowing chat,

Admin requests are currently either in PM or in the Business Room? The thing is, as we get the constitution together the use of the Business Room may well return to just Admin requests, as well as admin elections. Would it be overkill to have two forums? I guess we could try it and see? :)

_________________

Also found on Facebook - hunt me down via the MetaTORC group.

[ img ]

I just adore the concept of washing Dirty Horseboys!


Top
Profile Quote
Estel
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 8:36 pm
Pure Kitsch Flavor
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5159
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:47 pm
Location: London
 
Ok - just adding stuff ;)

Any admin, feel free to edit this post to add idea's of yours, or that other people have mentioned. Once we get get every forum that everyone has mentioned in there, we can start slicing/dicing/re-organizing.

Maybe, in the end, we could have three or four options that I can edit into the first post, and we can do a poll on it? Have a goal of getting this all done by April 1 as well?

Just idea's again. :)



Welcome/Info Forum - Master Forum (could be "The Front Porch")
  • Info Forum - subforum

    Welcome Forum - subforum

    Homebase Forum - subforum

    m77t and g77k forum - subforum
The Round Table - Master Forum (could be "The Family Room")
  • The Turf - subforum

    Hobbies and Games - subforum

    The Symposium - Philosophy, Politics, etc - subforum

    The Symposium II - serious but personal, experiences, diaries, etc - subforum

    Thinking of England - subforum

    Barter, Buy and Sell - subforum
The Library - Master Forum
  • Critics Corner - subforum

    There and Back Again - subforum

    Literary Rambles - subforum
Dicisne hoc opus artem esse? - Master Forum (could be "Music & Media Room")
  • The Small Screen. Television - subforum

    Vidistine nuper imagines moventes bonas? Movies - subforum

    La Camerata. Music - subforum
The Conference Room - Master Forum
  • The Business Room - subforum

    Invites - subforum

    Admin Requests - subforum
Outside - Master Forum
  • The BikeRacks - subforum

    The Jury Room - subforum

    The Archives - subforum
Hidden Porn Stash - Master Forum
  • Deleted Threads Storage - subforum (which y'all can't see, but we're trying to keep the postcounts from going all weird ;) )

    Forum Management - subforum

    Sensitive Admin Information - subforum (which y'all can't see, cause it's passwords and such ;) )

Any additions, please feel free to add!

Alandriel, did I get your idea for splitting the Symposium correctly?

Last edited by Estel on Wed 16 Mar , 2005 2:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile Quote
Lidless
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 8:45 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
Offline
 
Posts: 8261
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 8:21 pm
Location: London
 
Given this is "home sweet home" and the "last homely site on the web", I have to say that I like the idea of structuring the forums and naming them as parts of a house.

Porch, living room, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, family room, games room, library etc.

I really like it.

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
*Alandriel*
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 9:09 pm
*Ex-Admin of record*
Offline
 
Posts: 2372
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 10:15 am
 
:D yep... I like it too.

You almost got my idea right Estel ;)

Welcome/Info Forum - Master Forum (could be "The Front Porch")
  • Info Forum subforum - seperate from welcome for FAQs, Constitution & by-laws etc, kind of like the 'announcement' forum you know where ;)

    Admin Requests - subforum (moved from business for easy access and 'friendlyness'

    Welcome - subforum only welcome threads

    Homebase Forum - subforum though I somewhat share Leoba's concern re 'banishing' them away from general talk

    m77t and g77k forum - subforum
The Round Table - Master Forum (could be "The Family Room")
  • The Turf - subforum

    Hobbies and Games - subforum

    The Symposium I - Philosophy, Politics, etc - subforum :)

    The Symposium II - serious but personal, experiences, diaries, etc - subforum :)

    Thinking of England - subforum

    Barter, Buy and Sell - subforum
- nice one! :)

.. the rest as you have it :D
_______________
Resident witch
[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Display: Sort by: Direction:
Post Reply   Page 1 of 4  [ 62 posts ]
Return to “Business Room” | Jump to page 1 2 3 4 »
Jump to: