I've noticed that the what projects thread is getting kind of large and unwieldy, and as I've already experimented with subforums on GamingFiguresForums.com (although KInG decided to do away with all the forums and just have 1 per game in the end) I was wondering if anyone thought it might be an idea to have some subforums in certain places. These would take the form of links under the main forum headings, and on the top of the topic lists on view forum indexes, it's just a way of grouping similar forums together rather than have them all listed as "top level" forums on the index page.

For instance, I could set up a Project Logs (or similar name) subforum to the painting/modelling forum where members could post topics about long term projects they are working on. Under Rules I could add a GW/FW Q&A subforum to store all the GW and FW unofficial FAQs and email replies rather than having them interspersed with the member rules queries so they're easier to find. The Army Lists forum could have race specific subforums to keep each codex separate and make it easier to find lists for a particular army. Of course you lot could suggest things too

Anyway, poll time. Please vote.

the main bonus of having the individual forums we have at the moment is that its easy to find threads that have slipped off the 10 recent topics list (to be honest, 95% of the time i just use the recent topics list). however, if threads were filed away into separate subforums within each forum, it might make it harder to find things when you arent sure exactly what sub-heading they came under.

would it be possible to have a button you could press when in a forum that shows all the threads - including those in the separate subforums - in one go (like a "include subforums" or "view all" button)?

if that was possible then there would be virtually no downsides to having separate subforums: when you know exactly what you are looking for you can go straight to it, and when you just want to browse through a category (rather than subcategory) you can do so. for example, it would be a shame to miss a conversion just because it was under "Modelling General" rather that "Modelling > Project Logs", and you happened to be browsing there instead.

even if this isnt possible, the positives may well outweigh the negatives, though.

one thing that might need to be considered though is page views/waiting time. personally i find it takes a little while for each page to load fully (i have to wait for it to sort of "pop" before i can start clicking things - almost like it has to load twice), and this would be made worse if i had to make more clicks to get to somewhere. although this could be negated if all the subforums could be clicked straight away from the main forum index.

if you were to give it a go on a trial period, would it be difficult to undo if we changed our minds?

cheers

~ Tim

It's simple enough to undo - it's just a selection per forum as to whether it has a parent or not.

Having all the links on the forum index isn't a problem either, it's how it's designed to work - each subforum name would be a little link under the parent forum link on the index page.

The Recent Topics it wouldn't make a difference, as it just pulls topics in reverse date order no matter which forum they are in.

For browsing a forum I'm not if it would be possible to pull the child forum posts into the parent list, that's something I may well be able to code in though using a simple join in the queries.

I'll take another look over the mod code and I may well just stuff it in anyway, if it doesn't work very well then I can just revert the forums back to the way they are now and move the posts from the new forums into the appropriate existing one before deleting them. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while now, just to give another option for grouping things together logically to try and make them easier to find (for instance, I ended up making the IG Heavy Weapons post a sticky because I was fed up trawling through the rules forum trying to find it )

Spack wrote:It's simple enough to undo...

...each subforum name would be a little link under the parent forum link on the index page.

The Recent Topics it wouldn't make a difference...

...I may well just stuff it in anyway, if it doesn't work very well then I can just revert the forums back to the way they are now

sounds good to me.



~ Tim

you could just change some of the topics in2 sub topics, ie the busy larger ones?

keep the quieter ones as the y r? but i do belive they are a good idea as opppsed to trawling through a long list

conscript

Yes, things can be split any way that we like.

I've made the changes, and set up a single subforum under Painting called "Project Logs" as a test - as you can see the posts still appear in the Recent Topics at the top, and the only other visual changes are that a Project Logs link is indented under the Painting forum heading on the index page, and when you go to the Painting forum page you'll see a Sub-forums section at the top with the Project Logs forum link in it.

Tim wanted to address something else in your reply:

the main bonus of having the individual forums we have at the moment is that its easy to find threads that have slipped off the 10 recent topics list (to be honest, 95% of the time i just use the recent topics list). however, if threads were filed away into separate subforums within each forum, it might make it harder to find things when you arent sure exactly what sub-heading they came under.

You do know you can use the links at the top edge of the Recent Topics to see the next 10, and the next, and move back or forth, don't you?

Spack wrote:You do know you can use the links at the top edge of the Recent Topics to see the next 10, and the next, and move back or forth, don't you?

yeah i know, but if its an old topic (like, 30+ threads back on the recent topics list) its easier to click on the forum instead (where chances are it will still be on the first page) and then click the thread - its less clicks that way. if its within the last 20 threads then yeah, it is easier to click "next" on the recent topics list.

cheers

~ Tim

Fair enough. Anyway, as you can see the only visual differences with a subforum are that it's doesn't have a large title on the index page (it's a smaller title under the parent forum heading), and when you click on a forum any subforums are shown at the top. If it ends up that it does make it more awkward to find subforum posts if they're not in the parent forum view I can certainly look at adding an option to turn a mixed view on and off.

just spotted a problem: it looks like you forgot to add Mod permissions to all 3 of the subforums (for example, i cant move threads in Project Logs).

could this be fixed?

cheers

~ Tim

Doh! Fixing now

Spack wrote:Doh! Fixing now

"You can moderate this forum"

cheers mate

~ Tim

im having the same permisssions issue with the other subforums.

~ Tim

I keep forgetting to set the moderator group status, sorry.

Spack wrote:I keep forgetting to set the moderator group status, sorry.

no worries mate - cheers for sorting it.

is there any way you can set it as a default when making subforums (i.e. the same permissions apply as in the main forum the subforum is created in)?

~ Tim