Topic: Forum Organization

I am a little confused about the organization of the forum.  Frankly, it's a mess. I have never seen a forum on a site like this without categories for topics.  Even the most rudimentary forums have basic categories, such as Writing Tips, Resources, New Ideas, Meta, What are You Reading, (some category to post all the stuff that is just ramblings), etc..   Then, topics can be assigned to these categories to make the Forum more useful.  It's add that a site that has been operating so long has such a primitive forum.  Is this not an issue for anyone else?

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2 Reply by njc (edited by njc 2014-11-30 00:28:46)

Re: Forum Organization

The old site was organized like that.  The decision was made to organize the new site by groups.

I keep meaning to go properly analytical on the subject, but other things come up.  I'll file this data point away.  (In case you haven't noticed, I'm the cranky one about the new site.)

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3 Reply by Temple Wang (edited by Temple Wang 2014-11-30 01:59:15)

Re: Forum Organization

Well, the obvious solution is to do both.  There should be a Forum for the site that is well organized, and there should be forums for the Groups that are more freeform.  This is just common sense and is the way 99% of  other sites work - for a good reason.  The way this is set up, it's almost useless.  It's like walking into a crowd with a thousand people and trying to have a meaningful conversation with someone other than the first person you bumped into...

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Re: Forum Organization

I'll try to get a few hundred coherent words on the subject by Tuesday Midnight EST.

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Re: Forum Organization

njc wrote:

I'll try to get a few hundred coherent words on the subject by Tuesday Midnight EST.

I don't think this one of those things where the wheel needs to be recreated.  This is pretty basic stuff, and virtually every website of this nature: Scrib, CC, InkedVoices, ad infinitum has a basic structure in place for organizing forum categories: Site Technical Issues, Writing Craft, Group Creation, Critiquing Tips, Meta, Resources, Reading, Unategorized, just to get strarted....then add, change as you need to.  Dumping it all into one big pile simply isn't s sustainable model for a vibrant forum.

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Re: Forum Organization

I've found one central forum to only exist in writing sites with a few hundred members. In my experience they tend to cause problems once a community reaches a certain size. At that point, arguments break out and the community convulses and then splits. I've seen it on the old site and other writing sites I've been on like writerscafe. The other sites you mention are ticking time bombs if they have a site forum.

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Re: Forum Organization

cobber wrote:

I've found one central forum to only exist in writing sites with a few hundred members. In my experience they tend to cause problems once a community reaches a certain size. At that point, arguments break out and the community convulses and then splits. I've seen it on the old site and other writing sites I've been on like writerscafe. The other sites you mention are ticking time bombs if they have a site forum.

So, it you have a technical issue with the site, you discuss in in a Group Forum isolated from other Groups?

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Re: Forum Organization

Well they could add some help forums for help and bugs. I think that's a good idea.

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Re: Forum Organization

cobber wrote:

I've found one central forum to only exist in writing sites with a few hundred members. In my experience they tend to cause problems once a community reaches a certain size. At that point, arguments break out and the community convulses and then splits. I've seen it on the old site and other writing sites I've been on like writerscafe. The other sites you mention are ticking time bombs if they have a site forum.

I think Scribophile is the granddaddy of all of these kinds of sites.  I haven't been on in awhile, but it had a great, very active Forum, and part of its effectiveness was its organization. I had other issues with the site, but it's the best model of Forum that I have used.

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Re: Forum Organization

cobber wrote:

Well they could add some help forums for help and bugs. I think that's a good idea.

I think the idea might be to keep the General Forum focused on topics of use to all.

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11 Reply by cobber (edited by cobber 2014-11-30 03:41:06)

Re: Forum Organization

This site had a forum like that. It's still up.
http://old.thenextbigwriter.com/forum/index.php
I think this site is moving away from that kind of organization. Having used it in the past, I found it problematic and a source of ongoing friction. I don't think you'll see any site of significant size with a general site forum. Scribophile is not a very big site and I don't think where TheNextBigWriter is going.

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12 Reply by Temple Wang (edited by Temple Wang 2014-11-30 07:26:30)

Re: Forum Organization

dagnee wrote:
Temple Wang wrote:
cobber wrote:

I've found one central forum to only exist in writing sites with a few hundred members. In my experience they tend to cause problems once a community reaches a certain size. At that point, arguments break out and the community convulses and then splits. I've seen it on the old site and other writing sites I've been on like writerscafe. The other sites you mention are ticking time bombs if they have a site forum.

I think Scribophile is the granddaddy of all of these kinds of sites.  I haven't been on in awhile, but it had a great, very active Forum, and part of its effectiveness was its organization. I had other issues with the site, but it's the best model of Forum that I have used.

I'm on Scribophile now, and it's set up is just like this one. You join groups and post to groups and each group has its own forum. smile

I beg to differ.  The main forum site screen on Scribophile  is open to all-not segregated by Groups.  Its categories are: Writing, Publishing, New Members, Book Discussions, The Cool Hang Out Chill Zone, and Meta-Scribophile.  While it does have separate Group Forums, this home page for forums is open to all.

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13 Reply by Temple Wang (edited by Temple Wang 2014-11-30 04:56:32)

Re: Forum Organization

cobber wrote:

This site had a forum like that. It's still up.
http://old.thenextbigwriter.com/forum/index.php
I think this site is moving away from that kind of organization. Having used it in the past, I found it problematic and a source of ongoing friction. I don't think you'll see any site of significant size with a general site forum. Scribophile is not a very big site and I don't think where TheNextBigWriter is going.

Scribophile is not small.  In terms of "active users" and in terms of new work posted each day, and in terms of dialogue on forums, I can assure you that it dwarfs this site.  I am not suggesting this is where this site should go, I am simply making the point that there are some forum discussions that should occur at a site level, rather than a group level.  Furthermore, I think having some sort of organization to the Forum rather than just one big basket in which too toss every topic makes for a forum that is less useful.

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14 Reply by njc

Re: Forum Organization

And I'd suggest that some should occur on the level or a work or a division of a work--and perhaps some at the level of the author.

Which suggests that using groups, and groups alone, to organize forums is probably wrong.  I don't know whether they are using any packaged forum software, but it might limit their ability to create forums skimble-skamble all over the site.  In the new site, the author links in the forums go the the authors` main pages; in the old they went to forum-specific places.  That suggests that the software MAY be different, or that it may be being used in a more customized or more sophisticated way.

But it seems like forums, and forum hierarchies, should be placeable in many places in the site's data model.

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15 Reply by maxkeanu (edited by maxkeanu 2014-11-30 17:52:03)

Re: Forum Organization

SCRIBO - The desire to write is no indication of talent. So many immature newbie writers there (like me, at times, when i was there)... all trying to cram their myopic writing ambitions into blind eyes and deep throats. That 'free' option creates the feral 13-21 year-old trolls who assume they have the wisdom of the ages in their gonads. Some great writer there, like George Wells, but a 'karma' system?... no politics or religion in the forums? What is writing about if not politics and religion... and good writers know to add love, death and taxes, of course.

SOl has a good formula going here. The main site is a 30/7/365 job for him... and us, for now. Yes, I agree with njc, forum software has its own parameters and can be inflexible.

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