Yet another site succumbing to "Forum Sprawl."

[Brazen]

One of the things I've hated about many other forums sites, and what drove me away from them, is the "Forum Sprawl." You end up getting so many categories that people can't decide which one to post in when their topic would apply to the description of multiple categories.

Plus you end up with few categories that have regular visitors who are knowledgeable and give helpful answers to questions. Other categories get ignored (due to less interest or less activity) even though those same members could answer those ignored questions. It's a no-brainer that forums are made successful by member activity, and certain categories are going to fall off the radar just because veteran members tend to congregate.

Anandtech's judiciousness with categories is probably the biggest reason I've stayed with ATF rather than moving to other forums with other nice features (such as a working search function) but had a dizzying amount of categories.

Since I dare not hope that the extraneous categories will soon be dropped from ATF, I may offer one solution with "tagging." Give user's the ability to tag their threads with multiple categories. Say I tag my new thread with the "Unix," "Networking," and "Software" categories, then it will show up in all three categories. Since I'm not sure which category my problem would best fall in to, it'll show up in all three categories (should probably be a tag limit) and have a greater chance of exposure to who could answer my question or be interested in my comment.

 

[tigersty1e]

I agree.

There are way too many categories. What's with the Power supplies category? I didn't realize there were so many threads on power supplies. No wait, there's only 5.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
I agree.

There are way too many categories. What's with the Power supplies category? I didn't realize there were so many threads on power supplies. No wait, there's only 5.

We'll be adding power supply reviews to AnandTech in the next few months. We added the forum as we hope to attract more attention from those looking to discuss PSU issues after we start reviewing them.

Since I dare not hope that the extraneous categories will soon be dropped from ATF, I may offer one solution with "tagging." Give user's the ability to tag their threads with multiple categories. Say I tag my new thread with the "Unix," "Networking," and "Software" categories, then it will show up in all three categories. Since I'm not sure which category my problem would best fall in to, it'll show up in all three categories (should probably be a tag limit) and have a greater chance of exposure to who could answer my question or be interested in my comment.

We will be looking at how these categories perform over the coming days, weeks and months and will determine what to do based on a number of different metrics. We may or may not remove categories, and going forward we will certainly be cleaning things up and making sure it's obvious where to post about something.

I like the tagging idea, and I will definitely look into whether or not our forum software provider is interesting in enabling this ability for us. In the mean time, we are open to looking at other forum solution. If you know of one that supports this, please let us know.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
I agree.

There are way too many categories. What's with the Power supplies category? I didn't realize there were so many threads on power supplies. No wait, there's only 5.

We'll be adding power supply reviews to AnandTech in the next few months. We added the forum as we hope to attract more attention from those looking to discuss PSU issues after we start reviewing them.

For exmaple. You guys have a notebook forum. Who IN THE WORLD is going to post a question or statement in there rather than Notebookreview.com?

Free stuff? Is that meant to compete with the Fatwallet free stuff forum? Seriously?

I've got a statement about the state of Everquest 2, shall I make it in the Anandtech - Software - PC Gaming forum (where I can argue back and forth with the same three guys) or IGN?

Isn't there already a YAGT.com? Wouldn't that get me far more reactions and responses and offer me far more threads to laugh at people in than Anandtech - Social - Love And Relationships?



In reality, people will forfeit the convenience of having a conglomorate of categories for the proficiency of specialized ones. It's no more effort on their part and reaps more reward. The experts in cars and notebooks and relationships and hot deals aren't here....they live on those specialized sites and they are whose input you are after when you have a question or statement or want to read what they've posted.



I understand you want to grow the forums. But sometimes you just need to settle in on your niche and be happy with that before you foul everything up with these delusions of grandure. Anyway, I've said my peace. I hold out no hope that it will change anything as it's CLEAR you guys COMPLETELY missed the point of this whole forum.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
...
Notebookreview.com
...
IGN
...
YAGT.com
...

Actually, this is kinda of illustrating my point, but because I would NOT go to those places. I like Anandtech because I know there are knowledgeable members all active in one place. I don't want to go to Notebookreview and have 25 different categories on the same thing, most categories full of zero reply threads. DISCLAIMER: I have not visited Notebookreview.com so I don't know if this is true, but I have seen MANY forums which this is the case.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

We will be looking at how these categories perform over the coming days, weeks and months and will determine what to do based on a number of different metrics. We may or may not remove categories, and going forward we will certainly be cleaning things up and making sure it's obvious where to post about something.

Well, sounds good to me.

I like the tagging idea, and I will definitely look into whether or not our forum software provider is interesting in enabling this ability for us. In the mean time, we are open to looking at other forum solution. If you know of one that supports this, please let us know.

I really just made it up, but it does seem to me like it would be a more popular feature. I don't remember coming across it though.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Brazen
Since I dare not hope that the extraneous categories will soon be dropped from ATF, I may offer one solution with "tagging." Give user's the ability to tag their threads with multiple categories. Say I tag my new thread with the "Unix," "Networking," and "Software" categories, then it will show up in all three categories. Since I'm not sure which category my problem would best fall in to, it'll show up in all three categories (should probably be a tag limit) and have a greater chance of exposure to who could answer my question or be interested in my comment.

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Shawn

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

Ah yes, I remember I was disappointed when I click on a category and didn't see the threads from the subcategories. That too would be a good idea.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: Shawn

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

Ah yes, I remember I was disappointed when I click on a category and didn't see the threads from the subcategories. That too would be a good idea.

that would be a very cool idea. i'll look into this with the fusetalk guys as well.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: Shawn

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

Ah yes, I remember I was disappointed when I click on a category and didn't see the threads from the subcategories. That too would be a good idea.

that would be a very cool idea. i'll look into this with the fusetalk guys as well.

Here is an example from another forum.

 

[everman]

Instead of adding so many forums I think we need a good tagging system. IE: make a post in general hardware and the author can tag it as memory, power supply, etc, instead of new forums.

 

[episodic]

I love it. . .

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: Shawn

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

Ah yes, I remember I was disappointed when I click on a category and didn't see the threads from the subcategories. That too would be a good idea.

that would be a very cool idea. i'll look into this with the fusetalk guys as well.

Here is an example from another forum.

I think you just inspired us to upgrade to vbulletin in the mean time.

Anand liked the idea of tagging a lot as well ... if there isn't anything out there that does that exactly, we might look into getting someone to develop forum software just for us to do that kind of thing...

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: Brazen
Since I dare not hope that the extraneous categories will soon be dropped from ATF, I may offer one solution with "tagging." Give user's the ability to tag their threads with multiple categories. Say I tag my new thread with the "Unix," "Networking," and "Software" categories, then it will show up in all three categories. Since I'm not sure which category my problem would best fall in to, it'll show up in all three categories (should probably be a tag limit) and have a greater chance of exposure to who could answer my question or be interested in my comment.

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

I like that idea. :thumbsup:

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
I agree.

There are way too many categories. What's with the Power supplies category? I didn't realize there were so many threads on power supplies. No wait, there's only 5.

We'll be adding power supply reviews to AnandTech in the next few months. We added the forum as we hope to attract more attention from those looking to discuss PSU issues after we start reviewing them.

For exmaple. You guys have a notebook forum. Who IN THE WORLD is going to post a question or statement in there rather than Notebookreview.com?

Free stuff? Is that meant to compete with the Fatwallet free stuff forum? Seriously?

I've got a statement about the state of Everquest 2, shall I make it in the Anandtech - Software - PC Gaming forum (where I can argue back and forth with the same three guys) or IGN?

Isn't there already a YAGT.com? Wouldn't that get me far more reactions and responses and offer me far more threads to laugh at people in than Anandtech - Social - Love And Relationships?



In reality, people will forfeit the convenience of having a conglomorate of categories for the proficiency of specialized ones. It's no more effort on their part and reaps more reward. The experts in cars and notebooks and relationships and hot deals aren't here....they live on those specialized sites and they are whose input you are after when you have a question or statement or want to read what they've posted.



I understand you want to grow the forums. But sometimes you just need to settle in on your niche and be happy with that before you foul everything up with these delusions of grandure. Anyway, I've said my peace. I hold out no hope that it will change anything as it's CLEAR you guys COMPLETELY missed the point of this whole forum.

I disagree... previously offtopic just had way too many threads... it was in severe needing of breaking down. I had my view on so that I could see 100 topics per page, and there were days that i still had to navigate 3 pages to read every thread posted in a day.

Despite the fact that other forums exist like YAGT.com etc... AT doesnt need to compete with YAGT.com because that isnt its purpose... but what it can do is give its large member base a place for discussion for the types of topics posted here. AND despite the fact the YAGT.com exists, ATOT has a significant volume of YAGT... which tells me it needed its own specialized area...
What... you expect the moderators to tell everyone, not to discuss these things here, that they have to go somewhere else??? That would be the dummest thing ever... because the more people on a messageboard the better. (I cant speak the same for notebook area because I never posted or read it)...


Again the same with the FATWALLET.com...

I dont want to be a member of 35 smaller specialized forums (and i suspect that many other people feel the same way)... too many passwords to remember, and not enough time to visit them all... I might get to 1K posts on 3 of them, and like 50 on the others...
I want to be a member of one forum with the largest and most diverse membership... with categories for everyone. I want to have 50000 posts all in the same community. It just makes sense that way.

 

[crimson117]

I'm glad you're looking into vBulletin as well. Too many times do I see requests for seemingly common forum features, only to hear "hmm we'll have to see if fusetalk can support that".

Aside from the important fact that your forums are already built using Fusetalk, what is it you prefer about Fusetalk compared to other forum software?

 

[Brazen]

I hope you are looking into opensource forum software, too. SimpleMachines Forum is pretty nice and phpBB is a very popular one. I don't know if either of these support the features mentioned in this thread, but you would definately be able get it coded in, thanks to the nature of opensource. (I think you would get a lot of attention from people just knowing they were coding for ATF!).

Also, pretty cool to hear Anand likes my idea

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: Shawn

The tagging thing would be really cool. Another possibility would be when you click on a major category all threads from each sub category would show up. Then to post a thread you would need to enter a sub category.

For example, if you were to click on Hardware and Technology, all the threads from 12 sub categories would be visible. Then you could click on a sub category to get more specific.

Either way this isn't something that is currently possible with Fusetalk and would have to be added.

Ah yes, I remember I was disappointed when I click on a category and didn't see the threads from the subcategories. That too would be a good idea.

that would be a very cool idea. i'll look into this with the fusetalk guys as well.

Here is an example from another forum.

I think you just inspired us to upgrade to vbulletin in the mean time.

Anand liked the idea of tagging a lot as well ... if there isn't anything out there that does that exactly, we might look into getting someone to develop forum software just for us to do that kind of thing...

vbulletin :thumbsup:

The tagging idea is very cool.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
...
Notebookreview.com
...
IGN
...
YAGT.com
...

Actually, this is kinda of illustrating my point, but because I would NOT go to those places. I like Anandtech because I know there are knowledgeable members all active in one place. I don't want to go to Notebookreview and have 25 different categories on the same thing, most categories full of zero reply threads. DISCLAIMER: I have not visited Notebookreview.com so I don't know if this is true, but I have seen MANY forums which this is the case.

We have lots of active members NOW, but as the forums get watered down watch that number steadily and slowly dwindle.

Case in point, some guy once asked about an affordable gaming notebook in the notebook forum. He got about 4 replies after 3 days and all were lousy. I chimed in with some good advice, but it was obviously too late.

It supports the suggestion that ATOT feeds the other forums. You aren't expecting experts on notebooks to come haunt AT Notebooks because their knowledge and experience would be wasted.

Aside from that and DESPITE the fact that the responses you'll get from a specialized forum are far more accurate and come more quickly, I fail to see how it's that much easier to navigate through the maze of forums here rather than keeping a tab for a different site. 35 was a gross exaggeration (not sure why you're so hell bent on defending the forums that you'd stoop to logical fallacies).....a more realistic number of forums for somebody to actively participate in, even casually, would be a half dozen.

As for Fatwallet, if you aren't actively on the Hot Deal forum there, then you are missing at least 80% of the deals. It takes two seconds to tab over there refresh and come back. The Hot Deal forum here was just a nice tech-centric version and, as such, I'd have renamed it to Tech Deals or something.

 

[RaiderJ]

I like the sub-forum idea.

PLEASE reduce the number of categories! I agree there needed to be some splitting, but with all the different ones it makes it more difficult to browse.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
...
35 was a gross exaggeration (not sure why you're so hell bent on defending the forums that you'd stoop to logical fallacies).....a more realistic number of forums for somebody to actively participate in, even casually, would be a half dozen.
...

Wow. First of all, I said 25. Second of all, it's called hyperbole. Third of all, I specifically said I had never been to that particular forum.

 

[crimson117]

I think a great solution to the TOO_MANY_FORUMS exception many people are raising would be to be able to click the major category, such as Hardware and Technology, and get a list of all the posts in every subcategory, together as if they were in a single forum.

This should be a lot easier to implement than having posts belong to multiple categories. Instead of it returning posts where catid=28, clicking the major category header would find posts where catgrpid=1, with 1 representing the entire Hardware and Technology group.