Another forum consolidation is needed

[eric]

Guys,

So let's face it. The forum isn't anywhere near as active as OGPCF was. This means that subforms, such as philosophy, economics, society, etc... are often unused or un-viewed, or at least not looked at as often. I think until/unless we have way more members, it would be much better for discussion to consolidate some of these sub-forums. This is what I suggest:


A. Consolidate the following into General Discussion:

General Discussion
Economy
Society
Gun Rights
Abortion

Reason: These topics are largely discussed in General Discussion already and are important topics. They can just be discussed there where more people can see relevant threads.

B. Remove Conspiracy Theories (that subforum is f**k dead. It's a fact. No need to have its corpse lingering around.)

C. Consolidate Philosophy and Religion to a new subform titled Philosophy and Religion

On their own, neither is very active. Combined though, they might generate more discussion.

We had the same success imo when we got rid of the media/sports/etc sub forums a couple years ago. It's time to do that again.

[Southern Dad]

I agree with B and C but not A. The bigger problem is why isn't the forum at the level it used to be, and how do you (we) fix it? When I came, I thought this was a great place but a personal issue with a user soured me and the number of robo-type posts where someone posts a topic and never responds, caused me to look elsewhere for a primary forum to support. I still come here because I want this place to stay alive. Hell, I may need it one day if I get banished. LOL

[eric]

Why do you disagree with A?

[Southern Dad]

For someone who doesn't visit every day, and the number of robo-type posters, sometimes you get a long list. I like to keep things sorted. I don't put my socks in my t-shirt drawer.

[eric]

Yeah but you can also be too compartmentalized, which I think is the case here.

[Southern Dad]

What about a button to View All Topics with Unread Posts? I've seen that on other forums.

[Philly]

I always just do "view active topics". Can't tell you the last time I looked at a specific section.

[exploited]

There should be no more than five subforums for a place this size.

[John Galt]

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing but I do see the merits to it, simply, that the subforum doens't look like it hasn't been used often. I'll use the subforums to place topics at times but like philly I just look at active topics pretty much unless searching for something specific

as for conspiracy theories i believe that was an attempt to placate some people while still getting crap out of the main forum. arguably we could be moving things into them even today but the theorists are so few no one really does

that said we're going to newest version of phpbb soon and can do consolidation at the same time, i think, if desired.

[NAB]