Forum Redesign

[Miles]

Hi Guys,

Scott and I have been talking recently about possibly redesigning the forum to be more user friendly. I know that term is very much over used today and needs a bit more clarity in this case. We have looked extensively at other sites that are much larger and they vary greatly in their forum design from places like ANAND that are very simplistic and general with 10-12 forums that include every thing imaginable, but with no categories. Then you have others that have a huge number of categories and subforums.

What we are looking for is a simple yet effective design. Let me state up front that whatever is decided no posts would be deleted, simply moved to the new corresponding forum. I've been tasked with the responsibility of coordinating this change (if we deem it necessary) and would love to hear your thoughts as you will be the ones using it the most.

The primary goal is to let others know that BJ3D is not just a video card and gaming site (as some have said) but a well rounded, all-purpose, non-specialty computer forum with many great features, people, and topics for discussion. In short we don't want to appeal to a niche market, but to all. We also want to call more attention to the reviews which we hope will keep perspective members coming our way. Even more important once here we want them to join and keep them here.

Please give us your unabridged suggestions for making this happen...thanks in advance!

[GIBSON]

The primary goal is to let others know that BJ3D is not just a video card and gaming site (as some have said) but a well rounded, all-purpose, non-specialty computer forum with many great features, people, and topics for discussion. In short we don't want to appeal to a niche market, but to all. We also want to call more attention to the reviews which we hope will keep perspective members coming our way. Even more important once here we want them to join and keep them here.
Isn't the forum already all of that?
Do you have more categories/subforums in mind (ranging about topics that aren't discussible yet) or just re-organising all of the subforums/categories there are now?

[Miles]

Isn't the forum already all of that?

That's our question to each of you...

Do you have more categories/subforums in mind (ranging about topics that aren't discussible yet) or just re-organising all of the subforums/categories there are now?

These questions could had three answers: Yes, No, and Maybe depending on what gives the best presentation to potential new users as well as our current members. Do we want to go ultra simple without any categories like Anand and combine a few of te current forums into one? Is the current forum arrangmement the best? Do we want more categories:

Operating Systems -> Vista -> Windows XP ( 32 & 64 bit)
-> Windows Legacy (95, 98, ME, 2000) -> Windows 2003 Server -> Linux/Unix as an example of more.

We could have put a design together and implemented as we have several we were considering, but felt it best to get as much member input as possible before making any changes.

Hope this clarifies the questions(s) a bit better.

[Das Capitolin]

I have seen forums that are so over-specific with topic sections that they make the Dewey Decimal System look disorganized. We don't want to go that route. Keeping it simple, such as:

Hardware
--- General
---Tech Support
---Motherboards...
---CPU...-- -- --
---RAM
---Hard Disks
---Power Supplies
---Tools
Software
---General
---Tech Support
---Operating Systems
------Windows...-- -- --
------Mac... -- -- --
------Linux... -- -- --

I think if we chop it too deep, then people are overwhelmed.

[GIBSON]

That's our question to each of you...



These questions could had three answers: Yes, No, and Maybe depending on what gives the best presentation to potential new users as well as our current members. Do we want to go ultra simple without any categories like Anand and combine a few of te current forums into one? Is the current forum arrangmement the best? Do we want more categories:

Operating Systems -> Vista -> Windows XP ( 32 & 64 bit)
-> Windows Legacy (95, 98, ME, 2000) -> Windows 2003 Server -> Linux/Unix as an example of more.

We could have put a design together and implemented as we have several we were considering, but felt it best to get as much member input as possible before making any changes.

Hope this clarifies the questions(s) a bit better.
Thanx for clearing that up miles. Well, personally I'd be OK with further dividing the subforums in more categories. I'd be however strongly opposed to getting rid of the categories. IMHO it would get very messy that way.

[Kasrkin Guard]

To be honest having so many sections can discourage potential new members in the long run... I think it could use just a little down sizing in that aspect so with sections that don't get however many replies, topics, etc can be merged back in with another section or turned into a subsection within another section. Just my thoughts.

[werty316]

I agree with Kasrkin Guard as having a forum with a general catagory for each section makes the forum look more cleaner. Frankly I think the forum has enough sections to cover everything and is simple enough for users to know where they are suppose to post their thread.

[Miles]

I definitely agree that some downsizing is in order to better clarify the forums...I like the overview that Das Capitolin has laid out very much, what do you guys think... feel free to add, subtract, multiply, or divide:mrgreen:

[tomato]

Commenting on Das layout: he's missing the essential "Video Card" category :P

And I must agree with the others on this, too many subdivisions would create too many sections that a user would have to go through in order to get to their desired section. It would also make the forums look rather messy after a while...

I for one am pretty happy with the forums at present. They work and are simple and efficient in look and functionality. I would avoid any fancy graphics and whatnot, as it would only slow down the forums overall...

[Kasrkin Guard]

I definitely agree that some downsizing is in order to better clarify the forums...I like the overview that Das Capitolin has laid out very much, what do you guys think... feel free to add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

I think a hardware general section would be good enough, so why divide each of them? 8-)

[werty316]

I think a section for each hardware like Das mentioned would be good as long as the sections aren't manufacturer specific like nVidia and ATi, Intel and AMD, ABIT and Asus for example. Basic Processors, Video Cards, and Motherboards would be good enough if there would be a more broad section.

[GIBSON]

I think a section for each hardware like Das mentioned would be good as long as the sections aren't manufacturer specific like nVidia and ATi, Intel and AMD, ABIT and Asus for example. Basic Processors, Video Cards, and Motherboards would be good enough if there would be a more broad section.
I have to agree on this one with werty. Must say I like Das Capitolin's layout. Simple, yet effective!

[Miles]

My sentiments exactly guys! Thanks!

[Miles]

The only addition I might suggest to Das Capitolin's overview is under hardware and it would be: "Video/Audio". What do you think?

[werty316]

Sounds good.

[Kougar]

I would definitely prefer something akin to Das Capitolin's structure. I agree in that I'd rather have a single "Graphics Cards" area, instead of a separate ATI and nVidia forum.

Also, since we have an "Announcements" area, I don't think we also need a separate "New Site Happenings" section? The same thing with "Member News" and the "News" sections as well.

The one kind of forum I really liked was taken down so I can't link to them as an example... But how much trouble would it be to change to a system that only marks threads as read after a person actually views them (With a click to mark forum/subforum as read button if they don't care to read every single post in that section)? Once a forum reaches a certain size or post count it gets time consuming just trying to find new posts, and I still will come across posts I missed to questions I'd wanted to know the answers to, and such. Not even getting into the times when I click "New posts" button and it says "no new posts", when infact there's been 20+ since my last read through... ;)

[XJnine]

I think the forum is actually set up pretty good right now but I can see your problem. With the amount of traffic this forum gets right now you don't want to divide it up too much or a bunch of stuff will sit there unused. I know you guys want to increase readership and broaden the appeal of the site and part of that is creating a forum that invites that kind of discussion. The problem is if the forum is set up in a way that is good for a very busy forum and it's not busy yet, it becomes like a ghost town with only a half of the forum categories being used.

Chicken and egg going on here I guess. Do you format the forum for what works now and risk keeping readers away or do you format it for a larger base and risk it looking unused?

As far as an actual layout goes, I happen to like this layout and also the layout at forums.2cpu.com (http://www.2cpu.com) . Those are also about the only forums I regularly read so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Das's suggestion seems to fall in line with the 2 forums.

[Das Capitolin]

It might just be me, but I just noticed that the forum index looks a little different. It now shows a unisex person in a circle, with arc segments depicting the status. This might be old, but I just noticed it. Can we put custom graphics inside that circle?

[werty316]

I noticed that too and its looks great.

[tomato]

Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed too.... undecided about it at the moment, but first impression was the hope that a newly re-designed Bjorn3D that isn't bogged down by a bunch of fancy-schamncy graphics/animations... but then again I'm a fan of simple and functional :P

[Rob]

I'd definitely like to change the forum index picture (the person in the circle). I have trouble distinguishing if there are no new posts or there are new posts according to the lightness/darkness of the icon. I liked the old way much better, honestly.

[werty316]

Well its does animate if there are new posts.

[Kasrkin Guard]

It seems all good, but I think it could do with making icons a little smaller aswell.

[liqnit]

i like the new design of the animated icons for new posts
very handy!!

[SwedBear]

They are going to get smaller. Since some of the are animated I just need to go through ecah gif to fix that.

You probably will see a bunch of different icons over the next few weeks as I'm testing a few that I downloaded. I kind of liked these since the animation made it obvious which had new posts. I had big problems with the old icons to see what was new and not. But fear not - lots of testing to do.

/B

[tomato]

Sounds good SwedBear ;) Keep up the good work

[Kougar]

Size and looks aren't really to much of an issue to me, and long as they can quickly differentiate between new/read posts I have no real preferences either way... That sounds good to me SwedBear, test away! ;)