Too many Boards For A New Forum?

[wangalang]

Don't hate me for saying this!

Fewer boards is would probably be better for promoting discussion and activity on a new forum. Then more specific sub forums can be added once this place gets clogged up.

Just an idea!

[Ben Herbert]

Thanks for the feedback wangalang. We wanted to set out the content from the beginning in order to keep the forums structured, but if other readers think it would be better to have simple main forums to start with then we will definitely consider it.

I may do some restructuring immediately though to make the prominent forums a bit more generic.

[yeoa]

I tend to agree with Wangalang on this one. It's almost like we don't know where to start! Even the existing posts are kinda specific to delve into. I think another thing that might need to happen to help this start off is more tweeting/spreading of this in social media. Just a thought but I'm a bit of a digital fanatic and when I heard of this, the first thing I did was tweet haha, so hope that brings on more guys here! Snazzy looking forum so far though!

[Ben Herbert]

Ok guys I am willing to adapt to the users needs. So which sections would you like to trim down or lose to start off with? Could you give us some ideas on which ones you would like to consolidate or remove?

Thanks for the help and glad you like the look. We wanted to make sure we didn't look like your typical forum as the FashionBeans site has always been about looking great as well as giving great advice.

[Tom]

Lifestyle definitely needs a trim, just call it 'Banter' or Chit Chat and eventually a "2011 Formula 1/Football Season" or "Photography" thread will pop up. If such casual topics are segregated they don't really promote casual browsing and contribution so they get a bit quiet. If there's a huge influx of one type of topic, like music, then make a sub forum for sure. From using/moderating other forums people get the jump when forums are taken away, but will love you when they're added!

[Ben Herbert]

Thanks for the help so far guys. Have now trimmed the lifestyle forum down to 4 major categories and the general fashion and footwear forums have been trimmed as well.

Once we build up more content we shall look at reinstating some new forum categories.

Again, any suggestions for further enhancements are welcome.

[Tom]

That looks a lot better, the 4 off topic categories look suitable different to warrant their own board and I doubt anyone will miss the fake forums, people probably buy fake intentionally or are too stupid to ever realise!

Layouts good though, nice and clean and easy to use. Can you get a 'News' forum and link it to the comments made under the articles on the main site or is that a totally different setup? (Look at Punktastic - It's Not Rocket Science and click on 'comment on this item' on the news posts to get what I mean)

[Ben Herbert]

Yeah we wanted to maintain a clean and easy to use interface as that is most important and I just don't generally like your typical forum layouts and styling!

Anyway, the forums have really been cut back now so thanks for the suggestions. We will see how we go and then make adjustments as time progresses and we learn what people like/don't like.

I am not sure about the 'news' forum yet but I will look into it. Do you mean link from the articles to the forum in order to comment and discuss - OR list all new articles in the 'news' forum and link to the comment section on the article?

Have a feeling that would make the comments section of each article redundant - don't know whether this would be a good or bad thing.

[Tom]

The former, link through to comment in the forums, mainly to direct some traffic this way but I don't know if having to click through a link would discourage people from commenting on the main site posts, as at the moment it's pretty easy to do and does get some good discussion going.

[wangalang]

Thanks for the help so far guys. Have now trimmed the lifestyle forum down to 4 major categories and the general fashion and footwear forums have been trimmed as well.

Once we build up more content we shall look at reinstating some new forum categories.

Again, any suggestions for further enhancements are welcome.

Thanks, looks much better.