Stop with all the useless sub-forums. Virtually no one posts in many forums, meaning virtually no one browses them, meaning the few posts that do go there just languish often unread. Plus it is really hard to determine the proper place to post. If your video card is not working on a motherboard in Windows 7 is this a post for "Video Cards and Graphics", "Motherboards", "Computer Help", "General Hardware", or "Operating Systems"?
I would look back over the last few months and eliminate any sub-forum with fewer than an average of 5 new threads/day. Merge them into forums with actual traffic so users get their questions answered and their thoughts seen.
For example, when I click on Power Supplies, I get on the first page posts that are 1 month old (that doesn't count the 6 stickies). That sub-forum just isn't used. Same goes for "Cases and Cooling" and "Peripherals" which all really belong in "General Hardware".
For example, what is the difference between SFF and HTPC? They are essentially one and the same with just a slight tweak in usage.
For example, the "*nix Software" sub-forum only shows 19 threads TOTAL in the last month.
Deleting the useless sub-forums would really help with making the site more clean, give more users more threads to view without having to click on dozens of pages, and give more visibility to new users who put posts in unused sub-forums then quit the site disappointed. And for the dedicated long-term posters, it would help us from loading a page 6 hours later and seeing nothing new (boring). I cut back my posting about 95% when all these sub-forums popped up since it is too boring to see nothing new and too tedious to click on 20 forums that might interest me.
What he said.
