I think one of the reasons it hard to find things on the site is cos of the forum display, starting from the index, you have to click in twice to find the europe forum and if not there clikc out twice?

as opposed to this

http://www.politics.ie/index.php?sid=b25fbb9d21ba24059dc5565b57018b29

with headings but with all forums listed

i can't remember how the old p.ie was layed out?

love to compain me, it get me up in the morning

I think Auditor is very busy today with the blogging. I don't expect he would have time today. But otherwise agree: I just want to be able to leap into a pile of posts unhindered.

Oh we can do that. Hang on a minute...

How is that so far ?

I think there is some mixing up between categories and forums, so that may need to be rationalised a bit more.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

How is that so far ?

I think there is some mixing up between categories and forums, so that may need to be rationalised a bit more.

I like that.

Me too ibis.

To rationalise this setup, we need the highest hierarchial levels to be Categories.

Categories then contain forums, which contain threads.

Template:

Category A

----Forum 1
--------Thread Q
--------Thread V
--------Thread W

----Forum 2
--------Thread Q
--------Thread V
--------Thread W

Category B

etc.

The Categories will be represented by the big boxes on the home page.

Sounds like you're gearing up for a massive site. Should we condense some forums before we make them into categories? Ard T reckoned two or three SuperForums with the subforums as above inside them. I've already done this with the category 'Machine Nation' and 'Vibes and Scribes' (needs a better name (?))

What do you think? Three/four/five Superforums with some of the present ones condensed into them ...

Well, it's not really about making it bigger, just structuring it so the top levels get represented properly on the home page.

The top levels should be categories, containing forums and sub-forums if required.

I think it looks well. I suggest that the top level categories should be listed (unexpanded) in hyperlinks at the top. You could then click on them to jump to the expanded version lower down.

i.e.


Category A
Category B
Category C
Category B
Category E


Category A

----Forum 1
--------Thread Q
--------Thread V
--------Thread W

----Forum 2
--------Thread Q
--------Thread V
--------Thread W

Category B
....

Shou if you look at the Portal and the Select box... but EVM can do what you are saying while he's in the guts of the site...

EVM Sorry I meant Categories when I said 'Superforums'. Any ideas which forums would fit more neatly together the way it is presently? - IF any -? I'm wondering if the Gaeilge forum shouldn't go with Art, Music in the Category called Vibes and Scribes? People may post Gaeilge anywhere in the forum so why have it seperate?

I don't know if History and Law etc. should be put somewhere together too...

Also the Blogs forum in Vibes and Scribes will disappear too soon ..

That has the same functionality but the drop-down list does not appear in the home page where I go for forum lists. Also, after you use the drop down list it is not replicated on the page you navigate to, i.e. it is not above the single expanded category.

It looks like you have it looking well anyway. Anyone with half a brain will be able to get around as it is.

Well P.ie only has 6 Categories

Topical Disdussion
General discussion
Political parties
Admin and Development
Regional Discussion
Private forums.

If we can get our category list down to about 6-8 headings, that would be ideal i think.

The category names only have to reflect the broad forum subject matter.

Vibes and Scribes is actually a good name because it is broad in definition and memorable.

So can anyone come up with 6-8 broad headings that can encompass ALL machine nation discussion ?

There are 9 forums currently here - thePin has 15 ...

Religion, philosophy law are about The Meaning of Life, sort of.

Economics, Business, Finance = Money, Money, Money

Is the fada over the right vowel in Fóram na Gaeilge? My Irish isn't that shiny but it doesn't look right to me.

The Decompression Chamber = Welcome

Vibes Tribes and Scribes? = Current plus Gaeilge

No Money no Funny Bunny Honey = Economics and Business

Descartes' Barrel = Philosophy etc.

The Past is Prologue = History

Nepotism, Clientelism - What else is there? = Politics

No?

I'm doing an opposite end thing and looking at all the threads to see what the main categories of things are that people are posting.

Shouldn't we be trying to entice/coerce/force people to post in a certain way by making categories for them to post in?

"Buddha Butchery" might be a better name for philosphy law etc. no?

Auditor #9 wrote:

There are 9 forums currently here - thePin has 15 ...

Or 15 even. Actually I think 15 is too many.

If we have say 8 categories with 12 forums(max.) in each category (so the forum view does not run to two pages), thats 96 forums. That should cover everything should it not?

I dunno..

96 forums = boards though.

How about 5/7 categories with 7 forums max in each?

It's probably more imortant to rationalise it first though isn't it and then populate with forums...

Auditor #9 wrote:

96 forums = boards though.

How about 5/7 categories with 7 forums max in each?

It's probably more imortant to rationalise it first though isn't it and then populate with forums...

I think so Audi. It will look better too.

So how do we start rationalising it? The Politics forum seems pretty integrated except for p.ie Gold which I think should go out of there and the other one.

I'm happy with the contents of the Machine Nation one too but I'm open to suggestions. The rest I'm not sure.

We need a Welcome/chat/entertainment forum I think as we're doing a lot of that here and a Change the System area too I think. Where that could or should be I don't know.

How about some very broad brushstrokes first - Leisure and Entertainment ... etc. ?

I'm having a good trawl through the Fora. It will take me a day at least to get my head around it.

ah much better could you squish them all together a bit, don't want to wear out my scroller, and maybe give more room to 'last post'

and put
Politics and Current News as the second box (vertically)