Organizing Your Boards

[Mandoli]

The order of my categories on the board that I run goes something like this:

- Rules, questions, advertising.
- The main focus of the board.
- Any secondary, yet important, topics that have to do with my board's theme.
- Off topic and games.
- Staff-only.
- Board archive.

I've seen boards elsewhere (on different servers) who have their rules and/or regulations in a category at the bottom of the boards. Doesn't make sense, in my opinion. I think the category with the rules has to be in a place where people can easily access it. Putting it at the top will keep people coming towards it.

OT needs to be towards the bottom of the forum, I think. If it's not the main focus, why have it above everything that is? It says that you want people to go to that part of the board, and not go to the board that is the reason why you made it.

I also make sure that I bold key information, such as "guest-friendly" or "PM a staff member". But I think that's for another topic altogether.

[Eileen]

Staff boards and announcement boards have come in handy for me. Sometimes I don't really know where to put a thread because it doesn't belong anywhere and is more like an FYI, so the announcement board is awesome. For my site, I've created a staff category which is hidden to everyone except staff. That's where we hold our "staff meetings" and I also put certain things there for safe keeping
It would be great if we could hide threads (unless there is and I just haven't figured it out, yet?). Due to my forum, there are threads that I've created and not ready to publish to everyone just yet.

[Ryanizme]

Do people go to the extent of having the same amount of boards in each category or are we talking possible ocd?

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

Lol, I'm not sure it's OCD, but I've never thought about doing that.

[loonawynd]

I have a Rules forum. That is where the introductions are, the rules, announcements and updates, suggestions, and a guest forum. The guest forum is the only place that the guests can post. This does allow them to get a feel for the members and topics in the forum though.

The next section of my forum is a primary theme specific. Since my whole forum is based around witchcraft, paganism, magic, spirituality, and the occult the categories for the different forums reflect that nature. In several of the individual forums under the vast categories I have sub forums. I am very thankful for this addition as it allows for even more specific discussion points.

The focus of my forum is essentially alternative spirituality, Pagan religions, and the occult. So there are many different topics and subtopics that exist. I had a forum on another site at one point where the organization wasn't as nice as it could have been. So I am thankful for these options and setups.

[loonawynd]

Jul 18, 2014 10:07:32 GMT -8 Ryanizme said:

Do people go to the extent of having the same amount of boards in each category or are we talking possible ocd?

I don't have that in my forum.  I have as many as I feel I need to cover the various topics on my forum.  There is a lot to cover.  So subforums are my friend.  Though I wonder if I started off with too many forums.

[Mandoli]

Jul 18, 2014 10:07:32 GMT -8 Ryanizme said:

Do people go to the extent of having the same amount of boards in each category or are we talking possible ocd?

I don't do anything like that. I agree with loonawynd. If I have two topics under one category and four under another, I don't see a problem with it. Whatever works on everyone's end is fine by me.

I also don't see a problem with people needing the same amount of topics under their categories.

[Ryanizme]

I know that in a new forum, the less boards/categories the better because of little activity. It won't look so dead. But the more activity, the more categories/boards you need.

[Mandoli]

Aug 4, 2014 16:43:09 GMT -8 Ryanizme said:

I know that in a new forum, the less boards/categories the better because of little activity. It won't look so dead. But the more activity, the more categories/boards you need.

You can't just whip up a board and have all of the threads mixed in with each other. You want to organize your board so that it flows. It doesn't matter how many categories you have. Just as long as everything is presented neatly to guests and fellow members.

[loonawynd]

Aug 4, 2014 16:43:09 GMT -8 Ryanizme said:

I know that in a new forum, the less boards/categories the better because of little activity. It won't look so dead. But the more activity, the more categories/boards you need.

There are just so many topics and themes under the umbrella of these topics that I felt I should have a place for basically any of the topics I have there.  I've been posting threads in different sections to get some conversations going and it has been worth it so thats good.  I just have very few members right now.  Granted I've been open a little over a week now and still need banners and a better theme.

[loonawynd]

Aug 4, 2014 16:42:34 GMT -8 Mandoli said:

Jul 18, 2014 10:07:32 GMT -8 Ryanizme said:

Do people go to the extent of having the same amount of boards in each category or are we talking possible ocd?

I don't do anything like that. I agree with loonawynd. If I have two topics under one category and four under another, I don't see a problem with it. Whatever works on everyone's end is fine by me.

I also don't see a problem with people needing the same amount of topics under their categories.

Indeed. As we run and develop our forums things may change and be rearranged. I think forums aren't static things. As the community changes and grows the needs of the forum will change with them.

As for the amount of forums so long as a place is organized and you can tell what belongs where it doesn't matter.  I think more forums should have subforum options honestly.

[Mandoli]

Aug 4, 2014 16:52:40 GMT -8 loonawynd said:

Indeed. As we run and develop our forums things may change and be rearranged. I think forums aren't static things. As the community changes and grows the needs of the forum will change with them.

When I first made my board, I had the basics: Rules, main focus, OT.

I had someone suggest that I add a board for tape trading (people often do that in the game show community), so I added that in. Then I "merged" with another board because the person who wanted to do this merge felt as though it made sense to do that. That's how I ended up with a section entirely dedicated to off-site game help.

So, yes. My board started out as the bare basics, but it's grown and changed over time because the people want it. I've had to tweak some stuff so that it all fits together, but it eventually gets the job done.

[loonawynd]

Aug 4, 2014 17:00:57 GMT -8 Mandoli said:

So, yes. My board started out as the bare basics, but it's grown and changed over time because the people want it. I've had to tweak some stuff so that it all fits together, but it eventually gets the job done.

The one I have set up now is based off of one that I created years ago on a site that allowed users to create their own mini forums or guilds for specific interests.  There was an ability to create boards for some topics but no subtopic or subforums were allowed.  Multiple primary forums sure but other than that it was difficult to manage.  The subforum ability on proboards allowed me to fix those navigation issues.  So its more clear where things belong.

[Cuethelaugh]

I always have a tough time with this (but I so desperately want to do it to keep things neat and tidy). For me the difficulty comes with roleplay boards. They're the focus of the site but I also want to make things simple and move them into categories problem being I have no idea which should be boards and which should be sub boards... I make it more tough than I should.

[_RainbowxWolf_]

Okay I am not sure where to post this. But I wanted to ask around for ideas for my Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul RP forum. I am trying to think of location ideas for the role play section. So I have been looking for Breaking Bad site that has information I can use to board names etc..

If anyone has watched Breaking Bad send me a message! And we can talk.