Dave, I’m active on quite a few forums for different topics and have noticed that there tends to be a lifecycle, and some manage that transition well while others fail.
For a forum to thrive, it needs to have activity, which drives users to come back and engage. If there aren’t any new topics or discussions, traffic starts waning and users leave.
A common mistake is to have too many specialized sub-forums, which lead to postings sporadically specifically related to that sub-topic. Again, vicious cycle which reduces activity. The most active forums tend to have just a main discussion area, with perhaps one or two specialized sub-forum for topics that might clutter the main forum (for Axis & Allies, this might be TripleA and variants discussion sub forums). However, everything else could be in one main forum, with perhaps a tag to identify which game(s) you are discussing.
I’m just trying to drive traffic and spark interest again in this forum.
Some more reflection, and I reviewed a couple other forums I frequent that have been active for a couple decades:
One main Axis & Allies forum for everything. Yes, it can sometimes cause a bit of clutter, but in general it works extremely well. The experienced Anniversary player can answer the random Guadalcanal question, the newbie can discuss sculpts in 1940 with the collector of 1984 2nd edition etc.
A very very limited amount of subforums. They should focus on removing the large amount of posts that do not belong in #1, such as Triple A/online games, A&A variants, etc. Keep this number minimal (less than 5).
Perhaps (to be explored, because it kills traffic to #1) a temporary sub forum for the latest title (I.e. Axis & Allies North Africa). Segregates the majority of new content, but reduces overall traffic in the main forum. Important to merge this into the main forum after a few months, in any case!
KILL THE STICKIES. A max of 1-2 stickies at the top of a forum, they must be new. Right now on some forums you have stickied topics from 5+ years back…
@reloader-1 I think these are good ideas.
@djensen - Dave, thoughts?
@reloader-1 regarding “culling the stickies” I do think that much of the information they contain needs to be preserved for swift access - but they could be greatly condensed. Instead of the threads themselves an “index” could be stickied that summarizes key info and links users to the previously-stickied threads. Take the “Customization” subforum for example - my favorite haunt as an incurable tweaker. It has 12(!) stickies - Three of them are Tjoek’s awesome maps; one of them is Siredblood’s map; one of them is IL’s map… and another of them is a “community maps” thread. These could be unstickied and/or split off into a “Maps” subsection, or replaced with a master index thread that links to each of the map threads in a similar way to YG’s already-stickied community maps thread.
@vodot Right. We need to keep files in some fashion that are easily accessible for particularly new members whom are directed to this site to find them from other sites. Perhaps David can create a subforum by game that includes the file links for every creation/file.
@reloader-1 I would like to clean things up a bit but I’m not really into the idea of removing the sub-forums. Maybe folks don’t post about Revised anymore, but it’s there.
There’s also the negative SEO implications of consolidating forums.
I also do think there are too many stickies/pinned-posts.
Not to jump off topic to much here but the House Rules and Other Games and Variants should have there own Category outside of Customization.
Did mention that a bit ago and Dave said he look into it but must of forgot. Just saying. I mean if you add 1 house rule to your game and post it it should go under House rules and not technically Customization.
90% of discussion on here is in those 2 categories. Helps if it’s not buried some what.
@general-6-stars said in Suggestion: removal of sub-forums:
Not to jump off topic to much here …
Well, that was totally off topic where you posted this. I moved it here, … only one topic away. Better create a separate topic in the future.
@panther said in Suggestion: removal of sub-forums:
@general-6-stars said in Suggestion: removal of sub-forums:
Not to jump off topic to much here …
Well, that was totally off topic where you posted this. I moved it here, … only one topic away. Better create a separate topic in the future.
Really ? It was about sub forums in away and in the discussion thread. Maybe it’s time for me to leave this site after backing it for 10 years.
It was about GeneralDiscussion/Politics actually.
I did not want to hurt your feelings, just separate different topics from each other. Simply the moderator’s job. :wink:
@panther said in Suggestion: removal of sub-forums:
It was about GeneralDiscussions/Politics actually.
I did not want to hurt your feelings, just separate different topics from each other. Simply the moderator’s job. :wink:
Ya. I get it
