Hi all,

Please don't shoot me down for saying this but... Does anyone else feel that there are actually too many different boards in this forum?

I think the pleasure of other forums is that a lot of topics are clumped together which allows you to stumble across things you wouldn't necesserily have done. On here I feel like it's just too seperate and people feel like they only 'belong' in certain boards. I find it incredibly difficult to locate a thread I have seen previously because of the many boards and so many topics cross over subjects it's very hard to find where something needs to go and where you'll find it again later. I am a member of many forums with upwards of 30 thousand members but none with as many different boards as this.

A good example is 'Packaging' and 'Packaging Show-Offs'... Could there not just be one packaging area with a seperate sticky thread in there for people to post pictures of their packaging? Is there really a need to have different forums for all different types of soap? Many techniques will be relevant or at least interesting to all and there is always a search feature there if you need it.

Please don't think I am trying to tell you how to run the forum, but I just wanted to give your opinion of how I find it to use.

Kevin x

I agree Kev, I do think we could slim it down a bit. I was looking for a thread the other day and failed to find it.

Hmm, we started the soapy show-offs with a sticky but it became far too unwieldy. Because the forum can't do subthreads etc. it became difficult to see who was replying to what.

The MP board was created relatively recently and it was definitely welcomed.

Searching would likely be more difficult with fewer boards.

Newbies can follow a particular theme.

I agree but i sometimes struggle also looking up the boards and feel like there is  far too much but how it is now makes looking for things easy.

Perhaps we could have a general 'gallery' section for all the show offs?


I think the pleasure of this forum is both the vast amount of information, support and help available, and the generosity of members who have supplied that information, offer help and share their experiences.

And I come across things all the time when I dip into sections I don't always venture into.

I think that is why there is the 'Anything and Nothing' section as well as the General discussion. I know what you mean a little because I don't soap, and most people do, so I occassionally brave the soap forum for a nosey and occasional comment, but then feel like I kinda 'meet up' with everyone in the anything and general sections!

I sometimes visit a pet forum that has loads of sections for all kinds of pets, but I only go in two sections (dogs and small animals) then there is a general section for off-topic discussions. I think it is a good way of doing it so people aren't having to trawl through a load of posts about cats or other pets they aren't interested in.  :mwaha:

I have some sympathy, there does seem to be a lot of boards.
But it's hard to decide where we could slim down.

For example:
Your example of Packaging Show-Offs being a sticky on the face of it would be sensible.
But then when you think about it and review the Packaging Show-Offs board, you see just about every post has a reply; some feedback for the topic.  From time to time further discussion is prompted by replies to a topic.
With a sticky, you would lose that possibility, or else the thread would become a mess.

On the plus side, having several boards tends to present a more diverse range of topics for discussion.
Also, people can focus on discussions relative to their area of interest.

So it's difficult to find a happy medium.
On the face of it, I agree there are too many boards.
But getting down to the nuts and bolts of thinning down, it's more difficult to arrive at a decision what could be merged without losing some possibilities.

---

Thinking about it, I'm not sure if it's the number of boards or the layout that bugs me.
Too much scrolling to navigate stuff.

Maybe we need to think about that?

This site; http://www.online-literature.com/forums/ has way more boards than we do, but they are organised/grouped to make the site less difficult to navigate.
On the downside, they also lose some functionality (latest post to a sub-board) because of that.

Also Guests are able to read General Discussion but not Anything, Everything and Nothing which is a private area for chat or serious discussion.

I think there are topics in GD which should really go into AE&N as GD should be for general cosmetics/toiletries related topics not related to specific recipes/problems/products being made by members. It provides an opportunity to promote or compare handmade/natural products with some of the commercial stuff available.


I think the two Swaps, Trades, For Sale boards could be merged with no problem.

Possibly each of the Recipes boards cold logically be merged with the relevant discussion boards.


Personally scrolling on a forum doesn't bother me whereas I find it annoying on a site which is selling, promoting or giving information where ease of navigation should be a priority.

I am with Kevin on this too, I have often found it nearly impossible to re trace a thread just cos I cant remember which board it was under, its all a teeny bit confusing to me unlike other forums which I visit.
Ray.

The thing is boards have been added in response to requests for seperate discussion boards - most recent being the M&P and LS boards.  The forum can be collapsed by clicking on the icon.  I guess some boards can be merged

Precisely - and they were needed because topics on MP and LS weren't easy to find in the Soap (now CP/HP) discussion.

Personally I don't have a problem in the way the board is organised - I have been on boards that are just jumbles of posts posted anywhere and everywhere and I found that far more difficult to manage.  At least here, it's pretty specific - personally I find it easier to find things in a very well organised board with clearly defined (and managed) themes than one which is far more general.  In fact, I ended up setting up my own forum last year because a group of us had come from a board with no structure or rules or management and it ended up pretty messy. 

I don't know whether SMF has an optional Advanced Search as the current one is rather primitive and throws up lots of irrelevant threads if just one word is being search on - in addition it throws up such as melting if melt is the search word.

You have actually done a really good job of listing so many subjects under different boards and theoretically it should be perfect, but for some reason it just seems to be difficult to track a thread sometimes, but its not earth shattering and its probably just the way some of our brains work, as people in an office will often file in a completely different way, they probably are all right but mean different thing to different people. Definitely don't go upsetting the applecart for us few who get a bit confused, I know I can live with it.
Ray.

I think it could do with being slimmed down a bit. I think these boards are awesome and I'm not knocking the content but the structure could be improved. Maybe combining galleries or combining general business with selling and marketing tips. When I read the board it's usually the recent posts section I skip straight to. I think if there were less boards to click then I'd feel less overwhelmed. Maybe I should just click through and not be so lazy? :mwaha: