Sub-Boards Pros and Cons

[Enchant]

We have a topic on how many boards a forum should have,what goes on them, and even how to organize them, but what about discussing the pros and cons of utilizing the sub board feature? At the request of you members, I am starting a new topic of discussion.

Do you feel that sub-boards are a necessity or not needed accessory?

Some feel that the sub-boards help with better organization. Others feel that sub-boards tend to get abuse and get overlly done, and that tends to be a bit overwhelming to its members. At times can be confusing. How do you feel about them and do you use them?

I personally use them. I find that they do indeed help with organization and it allows the main boards to function as more of an index and lets the sub-boards hold the content.

[$hØ©Këyë]

Nice topic enchant

Well Sub boards are for if you have a RPG forum and make the main board a certain place like for example: St Mungos, well why not put other stuff in it like some other places within the place? Also sub boards are used mostly in General talk forums like if you have a science fiction board, why not put down sub boards of Star Wars, Star Trek and you name it? Also I had a member which found sub boards confusing to find but if your members find it confusing, use the forum jump or list the sub boards in the boards yourself? Also in website boards, you might put a affiliation sub board and a another sub board related to websites! Well that's all I have to say for this topic
BTW, Nice for you to bring this topic up

[HoudiniDerek]

I have to say that I have been on forums that have them and do not have them. Personally, I prefer the ones without them overall. Simple reason: The forum looks neater overall.

Most forums have several it seems and it just appears that they do not want to make more boards, so they create subboards and that just takes up more room...and can lead to frustration by members...especially if their posts keep getting moved somewhere else because a new subboard was formed and the like.

To me, it makes the forum look less thought-out overall and gives it an amateurish look. Granted, I have seen some forums (like Enchant's) and others that utilize it very well, but others that seem to have too many. For example, to me, the debate subboard and the Introduction subboard on this forum could be their own separate board under the section of the General Area...why have subboards? If people are worried about post count, it could still be turned off in the welcome section and such.

I guess they do not bother me enough to NOT look at the forum, but it does make them appear less professional to me...must be personal preference.

[Black Angel]

Well, like I said in the other sub-boards topic, I believe that it can go either way.. in that the use of them can be just as helpful as they can be hurtful..

How the use of sub-boards can be helpful:

I use them as well, on my board we have boards that talk about different things, and starting out, it was just those boards.. but eventually you start to notice a pattern.. where a lot of your members are talking about one thing, or another..

Here is an example.. we made a board for general gaming discussion.. and that worked out nicely.. but then I noticed that our members were talking about trailors that they have seen, or were posting the trailors themselves so everyone could watch them, and talk about it.. well, at first I thought it was refreshing, but then I noticed that some of the other members were doing that as well.. so I thought of making a sub-board for trailors, but I always held firm to my personal rule.. (if there are 10 or more [hot] topics related to something in a board, then it get's its own board, or sub-board.) and by the end of the day, there were 15 topics.. and so I made a sub-board.

Eventually, the same happened with respect to gaming reviews, challenges (where members challenge one another for online gaming) and member videos.. (where they post gaming vids that they have seen or have made themselves..)

Another example would be the board where members can talk about my brother's series.

He has a separate sub-board for his past series, his current series, and his next series..

We have conducted an experiment and had these forums on the index, above their parent boards, we wanted to see what effect it would have on the board as well as our members and the result we got was horrendous..

It was almost as bad as those RPG, or Harry Potter RPG Boards.. (no offense to those that have them) it took a very long time for me to get to the bottom of the page, and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of boards there were in each category.

I knew that if I as an admin, felt that way, then it had to be about 10x worse for our members, especially giving the importance we place on activity. I am quite sure that they felt a lot worse than I did..

So we put everything back the way it was, and had concluded that we had it right the first time.

I've plenty more examples, but I won't post them as I feel that I have made my point as to how the use of sub-boards can be helpful.

Now I'll go on to..

How the use of sub-boards can be hurtful:

In my experience, I have seen forums were so many boards and sub-boards on a forum, that navigating it was, in itself, a migraine-inducing, frustrating chore.

There is this one forum I've been to, where the admin has like 10 categories.. and in each category, is about 6 boards, each board containing 3-6 sub boards.

This board is a general forum.

I remember going to that forum, and then going through each board, feeling lost and overwhelmed, as if I was in a labyrinth. I am sure that if that admin could, he would have put a sub-board, within a sub-board, within a sub-board.

I thought I was the only one who felt that way, but when I went into the suggestions board, I saw about 30 or 40 topics from other members who felt the same way I did.

Another example of how using sub-boards can be hurtful to your board, is that if you don't have many boards, and have a lot of sub-boards, it can make your board look like there isn't much there to begin with..

I have seen a few boards that had 2 categories, and 4 boards in them, but that was it.. sometimes I just look and then leave, but if I see something interesting, for instance, if each of these boards have more than 1,000 threads, and 10,000 replies, then it will peak my curiosity, and I'll go in only to find that there were a few sub-boards inside them.

That is why I always make it a point to put the links to the sub-boards in the [root] boards' description.

This way my [potential and existing] members don't make that same mistake.

Personally, I believe that having too many sub-boards can be just as bad as having too many boards.. (and pure hell if combined) but, I believe that they are very useful in helping to organize your boards for a clean look.

I think that if done right, and in moderation, they can be very helpful to a forum, with respect to its organization, navigation, and overall appearance.

So, for those reasons, and those reasons alone, I believe that using sub-boards can contribute as much to a boards' failure, as they can its' success.

[kelendria]

I'm mixed about sub boards, on one forum I went on they gave me a headache trying to navigate.
But when first glancing at a forum I don't want to scroll down 50 boards to get to the bottom
I have a General/Music forum but I don't have too many boards on the main page OR as sub forums.
I've decreased & increased the use of boards & sub boards depending on activity

[Kaythara]

Moderation isn't just something Mods do, it's also the way sub-boards should be made and used. When I come upon a site with a main page that takes an eternity to scroll through, there is no way I'm joining that site. It's just too overwhelming and makes me wonder how on Earth I'll be able to find my way around. Sub-boards help reduce the size of the main page by nicely stowing away boards. However, replying to heavily on them can reduce the main page so much that, at that first and most important glance, it looks as if there's nothing to do, nowhere to go.

Sub-boards have to be used logically. If a board houses subs of unrelated topics, it's even more difficult to navigate than a massive main page. Using Harry Potter as an example: the only sub-boards that you can logically place in the Great Hall (dining area) are ones dedicated to the house tables and maybe one for events taking place in the Hall.

So, in order to effectively utilize sub-boards, you must use logic and always try to see what your set-up looks like to a new guest.

[mamamiamama]

I don't have any sub-boards. but I have many boards and I find they are used quite a bit when they are new but the excitement dies down after a few weeks as does the posting and everyone returns to the main board...I am the admin and I for one hardly visit the sub-boards. I stick to the main lounge. I don't know why. I just find it hard to keep up with so many! I make them at request to my members.

[.::Rebecca::.]

I think it all depends on how the admin uses them and the theme of your board. Whether it's sub-boards or not, too many admins add too many boards at once as it is. In that case it would be better to use sub-boards. I have yet to see sub-boards overly done, but the boards with categories? That can be way over done. Sub-boards really take a lot of loading time away from the forum. I hate it when it takes forever for a forum to load.

I think we should make a topic on sub-sub-boards because it keeps getting requested. I personally think some boards even need sub-board. Again, it all depends on your theme. Anime or manga is a GOOD example of a message board that's usually in need of sub-boards and sub-sub-boards. Role-playing is another good example as well. They're wide variety of topics.

[Kmylove]

Sub-boards are really good in my opinion. Their existence has helped me a lot in those times when all the rates I got tole me to reduce the number of boards I had. At first I had no idea how to do it, until I was told to make them into sub-boards. This way, with a bit of re-thinking things, I was able to make the front page look less crowded, while still keeping all the boards I needed.

I agree that they can be tricky sometimes. I mean, keeping about 2-3 sub-boards for a board can only be too helpful, but having a huge number of categories, with a great number of boards, which at their turn have around 10 sub-boards can prove to be a real killer for members, who'll find themselves lost in the organisation of the site. So I think that as long as a fair number of sub-boards are kept, they are of great help.

[Timothy]

I feel that for conversations regarding specific films such as The Dark Knight or Superman Returns, sub-boards are useful for distinguishing between two distinct topics.

[Des]

Personally I disagree with using sub-boards. While yes, they do seem to help in organization (All the professors on my site wish to have them in their class boards to help in organization) but personally they are very irritating and harder to navigate through. I don't want to click on one board (For eg. Fantasy in a forum for books) and then click on the sub-board (Fantasy Sub-Genres), when it could have been a category, and this one a board.

The one thing I absolutely detest is having only one sub-board in a board, and I feel sub-boards do not look nice without enabling 'Disable Posting' in that board, which kind of destroys the purpose of a one sub-board board.

Sure if you have Pokemon RPG, and you want to create a board 'Lalal Village' and have a sub-board, an excavation site, but you only plan the posts to be in the excavation site, then you could just make it 'Lalal Village - Excavation Site' and it wouldn't be so un navigable.

[Former Member]

I use sub boards to make my main page look more compact and friendly. I've been in too many forums that have far too many boards on there main page and it looks really disorganised, overwhealming and not well thought out. I think i use sub boards a lot more than most other general forums i've seen.

[HoudiniDerek]

empty said:

I use sub boards to make my main page look more compact and friendly. I've been in too many forums that have far too many boards on there main page and it looks really disorganised, overwhealming and not well thought out. I think i use sub boards a lot more than most other general forums i've seen.

I can see how they are useful in that regard, but if you get too many sub-boards, the problem just compounds.

I reread my earlier statement, and while I stand by it, I found it odd yesterday when working on a new forum that I was considering a few sub-boards so I would not overload guests and new members with so many boards all at once. I have yet to overcome this problem, but I found it funny that I am so opposed to them, yet may have to incorporate them.

[Bones]

I don't know about neccessatity but they do help forum organisation greatly, especially RPG forums where they can be essential.

On my Transformers forum i had a lot of sub-forums but one user had a slow computer and it took a while for them to load (hence the drop-down menu on the main page for sub-boards) so i looked at it again. One forum (for a the many carttons of our genre) weas split into several sub-forums but they weren't getting the activity and so were reverted, i then looked across the forum to see what i needed with sub-forums and didn't.

So in general, my advice is do definetly use them, but only use them where you need to. Whilst it's annoying to scroll many boards on the main page it can be just as annoying when you have loads of sub-forums in a forum board. So use it wisely according to activity and usage etc.

[jeff2khardy]

How do u even make a new board!!?

I am new and do ont get any of this stuff