Site Reorganization Proposal

[mark]

Reviewing the general structure of this website, I’m considering re-organizing the forums in order to make the Categories/Forum Structure more logical.

In general, I hope to reduce the number of top-level categories, and increase the use of “Subforums”. Please note that “Subforums” can be (and will be) linked directly to this site’s main forum page. Also please note that all of the existing topic posts would remain on this site at the same URLs (no topic deletions).

I’ve attached an excel spreadsheet comparing the existing forum structure against a new forum structure that seems more logical to me. If any changes are to be made, I’d prefer to make them all at the same time. Please review, and give me any thoughts on the proposed changes…

Cheers,
Mark

[TardisDeli]

Hi Mark, It is a beautiful Site. As Jay says, YOU are our Enabler.

Moving stuff around is a good idea. Let me know if want help.

Suggest maybe not call "New Member" but instead "Member Intro" or "Owner Intro", as often postee has been lurker for months before posting: "Owner" not quite right word as often people haven't got deli yet, but we wanna know where they live, whether deli is for camping, commuting, herding children, etc, to help them with their questions.

Also move aforesaid "Owner Intro" into "Sightings" section, so it's all in one area.

By the Way, is there space in the box with logon Id & Location (that shows with each person's postings) for "Your Name" and "Vehicle Name". It's hard to remember people's first names, and now that we have met so many it's nice to say Hi Christine instead of Hi TardisDeli. As some people's online ID is a cartoon name, then they also have a different real first name, and a different vehicle name. Gets confusing round the campfire. Or Does anyone else Care???

Presume you're keeping the member only format for posting. One of the many things I like about this site is the lack of spam and junk postings, keep up the good work Mark.

The technical & info sections are getting fairly complicated. And I know it is difficult as often topic has multiple questions. Maybe more specific threads such as Sleeping Ideas. Inverters. Roof Racks & Ladders. Tow Hitch & Baskets.

Also, sometimes I wonder about renaming some of the older threads, ie; Hey!! or "Question" to be more useful. ie add the topic into the heading Ie: "Hey...Air Filter, K&N". That is a long term job as each posting needs to be read first. Suggest punctuation additions be only fullstop(.) or comma(,) as these translate on international keyboards, whereas other punctuation makes wierd stuff happen.

Cheers, Christine (Who would never have bought a delica without this site).

[Green1]

one quick note about sub-forums... I hate them... When I log on to the site, any forum that is on the main page I can quickly see if there are new posts and I click on those that do, the sub-forums don't make it obvious without clicking in to them first, this is why you don't see me post much of anything at "the watercooler", I never know that there are new posts...

[mark]

I take your point -- subforums need to be used with discretion (i.e., on less-active areas of the site). However, if used correctly, they can dramatically cut down on the clutter.

After giving it some more thought, I've revised the org chart as follows. Any thoughts?

reorganization.gif (25.87 KiB) Viewed 3083 times

[mararmeisto]

I like the look of the second presentation - nice and clean. I agree with Green1: don't make the tree into a hedge, otherwise it gets too big.