How Many Boards Should I Have On My Forum?

[#~CrAzY~ByOnD~ReCoGnItIoN~#]

i agree starting with to many boards is annoying for bot the admin and new users for the admin they havee so many boards to be mod of and the admin gets annoyd and gives od power to any old persn and its bad for new persons ecuase ther are so many opics and theres no one posting tats why im am starting with 5 boards

[kelendria]

For me it depends on activity & right now I'm cutting down.
If I go through a period of non activity I merge similar subjects or boards.
If people express their interest in something I create boards to suit them.
I wouldn't create boards however for just one or two people then it becomes dead or too personal so no-one else will post, or they might disappear & you're left refreshing it.
Just a thought!

[progers]

I agree. It's best to start out small and then let the forum expand with the members and their intrests.

I just looked at my boards and sub boards and (don't laugh) I have 33 boards and 66 sub boards. Given the subject that my forum is about, we are able to have multiple boards and sub boards. True that some do better than others but, I have found only one sub board that has no posts.

I started out with a phpbb forum but, changed to ProBoards and I absolutly love it and what you can do with it to individualize it.

We are only up to 102 members in 6 months but, 25% of the members post almost daily. That is a big plus.

[$hØ©Këyë]

I agree with Progers. I started with some boards and started to make more on my first forum. But on RPG forums, you should have lots of boards as it is their nature to have that.

[leah]

I agree, but you shouldn't have TOO many boards on an RP. I mean, you don't need 100 boards on a roleplaying board. I fit my Warriors RP into 20 boards, while some are 120. You don't really need that many boards. You just have to cut things down. People make too many OOC boards. You just need 1, and then maybe a suggestions board, a news board and an information board, and then you're done. You don't need anything else, you can just create threads and sub-boards!

On my newest RP, I only have 10 actual RPing boards. It looks really incomplete when I look at it, but it really is complete. You can fit RP boards into things like that, but with some boards, it's harder than others.

[myke]

shockeye said:

I agree with Progers. I started with some boards and started to make more on my first forum. But on RPG forums, you should have lots of boards as it is their nature to have that.

I disagree. Even in an RPG forum, the amount of boards should be in proportion the amount of active members you have. When creating an RPG forum, you should still start off small, then expand as your active member base grows. Starting off with too many boards, be it on a RPG forum, a Harry Potter forum, or a Football forum will keep the forum empty looking for longer.

It may be in an RPG's forum's nature to have a lot of boards - a lot of role playing areas, but it should still be in proportion to the amount of active role players.

[Gamoc]

myke said:

A very important decision when making a new ProBoard, is deciding the amount of boards your ProBoard is going to have.

It is important to have a nice variety of topics and boards, no matter what type of forum you have. You want to give people enough diverse content to keep them interested, and keep them coming back to post.

However, a common mistake that is made, is starting off a forum with too many boards. I once saw a bran new forum with 93 boards (Wolf and I counted in amazement). Having too many boards on a young forum will always hurt the forum more then it will help it.

It is best to start off small, then expand as you grow according to your members interests. If you start off with too many boards, then those boards will sit empty for an undetermined period of time, until you get a good amount of members to keep those boards active.

Even then, there is no guarantee each one will be active, as you don't know what kind of members you will get, and don't know what their interests are. Every inactive board will only make more of the forum as a whole look more inactive, which will drive visitors away.

There is almost nothing more unappealing then going to a forum you may be interested in, only to discover they have a whole lot of boards that are either empty, or dead. It gives them the impression that the forum is dead, and it would be a waste of their time posting on it.

General boards are real bad about doing this. A lot of times their admins have good intentions, and try to make a board for every possible interest. For example, let's say one general board has boards for Paintball, Skateboards, and Sports cars. There are so many people out there who has no interest in those three subjects that could join, but will never post in them, thus those boards would remain dead.

As members start coming in, notice their interests, notice the things they are talking about. If a subject is getting alot of conversation, maybe it could warrant it's own board. If you have 10 people who talk about World War II everyday, then perhaps a WWII board would be warranted.

I wouldn't suggest anymore then 10 boards for a bran new forum.

All in all, like I said, too many boards on a new forum will hurt the forum more then it will help it. It is best to start off small, then expand as you grow according to your members interests.

Thoughts, comments, questions?

When I started my board, i had quite a few boards, and it is succesful, so, i guess that isn't always true.

[myke]

pikablu said:

myke said:

When I started my board, i had quite a few boards, and it is succesful, so, i guess that isn't always true.

Did you forget to read the rules before posting?

[Gamoc]

Oh, sorry, the four sentences thing, I will ad on to that last one i made. Making a whole bunch of boards is pretty stupid, but making a decent amount and then adding the more members you get, that is okay, right. (hope that didn't break any rules)

[Beatle Aimee]

If I have several subjects that are the same, sometimes I made one board with subboards (I have a Beatles photos board on my forum, it has a subboard for each Beatle, one for "All Four" and one for "Miscelleanous pictures" which aren't the Beatles but have something to do with them). I use that one for when there's a lot ot threads.


(I tried blurring out my address but for some reason I couldn't. If it's not allowed, can a mod try blurring the address for me...thanks)

And for boards that don;t have a lot of posts, I combine them. "Songs, Lyrics, Albums" and "Books and Magazines" for example.

[racinfan88]

I think the following is a good amount of boards for the amount of members I have. I have 4 catergories and 3 boards in each catergory. All or most of them are actively posted in. Also, they all have their purpose on the site. I only have 5 members including me and 3 active members including me, but I think my site is improving. Anyway, I think that having as many boards as pikablu's site is a bit riduclous. It took me a while to scroll down his page. No offence pikablu. I think about 10 catergories and about 30 boards per 100 members is about perfect.



RF88

[pcdude]

My forum has 50 members, and 15 boards in 6 categories. At only 50 members this may seem like alot, but actually all are very active and well posted in. So I have to disagree with you racinfan. In my opinion, its not necessarily all about the number of members you have. I think you also have to take into account the amount of activity at your forum. At my forum, we average between 60-100 posts per day, and for such a small number of members that seems pretty high to me. Having a decent number of boards to post in seems to have helped to increase that number some. You also have to take into account the topic of the forum. Some topics have many different possible areas of discussion, while others only have a few.

10 categories and 30 boards seems like an awful lot to me. Even if I had 100 members or more, I probably would not increase the number of boards and categories I have. In my opinion, having any more than 15 boards is too many. Any more than that would make for too much scrolling in my opinion-especially when you consider that banners, affiliate tables, etc. all also add to the length of your page. Instead of creating a bunch of main categories and boards, its lot easier sometimes to create sub-forums. These allow for extra areas of discussion, without adding anything to the length of your forum. Alot of the forums I've been to have alot of boardsthat could be made into sub-forums in another forum, thereby saving some space. But for some reason, many admins don't seem to consider making sub-forums.

[Little Blind Earthbender]

Okay, it all depends on your forum. I own an RPG called City of the Dogs, an anthro dog/city life RPG that for good reasons needs plenty of boards. The average RPG would need more than ten boards. There are rules, help and general boards, and possibly an other games board. There is create board to create your character. That equals up to five boards. If it is a wolf or dog RPG, there will be some packs and lands/places to roleplay on. That can easily equal up to more than ten boards but the unnecessary ones are not needed like music board, sports board, etc. It all depends on the board.

[racinfan88]

pcdude that is a very good point. 3 including me of my five members are very active and none of boards arent. I agree with you 100%, so I hope you understand that. I like the amount of boards I have and I hope I dont need to add too many more. I dont like huge amounts of boards!!!

[pcdude]

toph said:

Okay, it all depends on your forum. I own an RPG called City of the Dogs, an anthro dog/city life RPG that for good reasons needs plenty of boards. The average RPG would need more than ten boards. There are rules, help and general boards, and possibly an other games board. There is create board to create your character. That equals up to five boards. If it is a wolf or dog RPG, there will be some packs and lands/places to roleplay on. That can easily equal up to more than ten boards but the unnecessary ones are not needed like music board, sports board, etc. It all depends on the board.

I agreee that it depends on the type of forum. Mine for instance is a computer forum, which is one reason why I have so many baords (15). There are many different areas of computers, and they all need to be covered in order to offer the most help possible. So, eyah, I very much agree that certain types of forums need more boards than others.