Forum boards have been re-organized

[Adi]

What does everyone think?

We made the following changes:

Merged Freestyle Help & Advice with Equipment & Gear
Merged Meetings with Competitions

We wanted to make the forum simpler to navigate and to create more active discussions in each forum.

Let us know your thoughts and share any ideas you may have for the forum?

 

[Palgi]

I don't think it has an impact on forum activity. More boards made easier to find things, but they were more inactive. Now we have less threads which should increase their activity. But does this increase discussion in general?

[Adi]

It's proven that less boards and most active topics inside those forums create more activity.  It makes the forum look more active which encourages members to post.

Think about it... would you rather go into a board that has 5-10 unread topics, or a board that has 1 unread topic every couple of days?  You eventually lose interest in the low activity boards.

I wouldn't have done this if we had no good way to combine the boards.  Equipment is helps and advice related which fits perfectly with the Help & Advice board.  Same goes with Meetings and Competitions since they are somewhat similar.

Palgi, thanks for adding the Soccer Talk app on Facebook by the way.  I made some nice changes to the design and started posting there.  Please post away.  I really need a few people to be really active to get things running.  Cheers for any time you spend on there!

[Palgi]

It's proven that less boards and most active topics inside those forums create more activity.  It makes the forum look more active which encourages members to post.

Think about it... would you rather go into a board that has 5-10 unread topics, or a board that has 1 unread topic every couple of days?  You eventually lose interest in the low activity boards.

Point taken. Thinking before morning coffee doesn't seem very dimensional :P

Palgi, thanks for adding the Soccer Talk app on Facebook by the way.  I made some nice changes to the design and started posting there.  Please post away.  I really need a few people to be really active to get things running.  Cheers for any time you spend on there!

I will try, but I must warn you, I'm not a good spammer, I don't prefer to write anything if I don't have something really to say.

[L_I_S]

What about my freestyle misc section idea? 

[Adi]

I thought it was a decent idea, but would have condensed the forum too much.  This way it's about right I think.

Let me know if you got any other ideas for small tweaks.

[L_I_S]

It would have been the same amount of boards there is now plus the added misc freestyle questions that don't go in freestyle chat. This would have spread the focus away from freestyle chat and moved it across the whole forum.
Anyway, suit yourself.