Too Many Forums Here?

[norite]

I thank Steve for creating this site, hope it is as successful as HEF. However I find there are too many individual forums here. I found the same thing at HEF but to a much lesser extent. I find the forum list is so subdivided that it takes too long too read it all. Seems that a few forums get most of the traffic while others get hardly anything at all.

For example wouldn't a single forum on suspensions be enough? Then if it proved to make sense in the future to divide it up, add some subforums for popular topics under that?

I find with everything divided up the way it is, I miss posts I would like to read that are in other forums I don't usually follow.

Looking forward to comments from Steve and everyone else.

 

[Steve Frazier]

There are a number of reasons I set the site up the way I have. I've selected topics I believe will eventually be popular enough to warrant their own slot, it's much easier to do this initially than to move existing threads into their own forum at a later date. The staff have enough to do just monitoring posts, it's a multi-step process to move each thread to another location, by the time we realize we need another forum it could involve several hours of work.

At HEF I'm constantly receiving requests for more forums from members who think they would be successful. It's a careful balance of necessity vs. clutter.

And finally, by splitting out forums the way I have, it assists in searching the site when you need specific information. That's what my hope the site will become, a resource of information for truckers to use when they encounter problems with their rigs. Say someone with a Mack has an electrical problem, they can limit their search to the Mack forum and get info only related to Macks instead of every electrical issue that has been discussed here in total.

I find the easiest way to navigate the site as a regular member is to click on the "New Posts" icon, this will bring up every post since your last visit and you won't miss anything.

 

[norite]

I know about the "New Posts" icon, but my preference is to read the posts with some kind of structure.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, I see your point as well. Hope this site goes well. HEF and weldingweb.com are my 2 favourite websites, hopefully this one will succeed and join that group.

There are other websites I visit such as the duramax diesel site, some machinist sites, hunting and fishing sites among others. Where do people find the time to read and participate in all this? lol