Too many forums!

[Anonymous]

A pain to scroll through all of them. I also feel that some interesting posts may not be read because they are in a category that isn't frequented by many. I don't have an interest in politics, but really enjoyed the occassional thread in the Off Topic forum. The Gay-lesbian, members only and single moms forums don't have enough posts to warrant their own forum. I would consider doing a poll and have the community vote on eliminating/combining certain forums.

[jsteele]

I was so expecting this post. But, hold on, I will probably add another forum tonight and I already have defenders lined up

See this thread:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/16829.page

The issue of too many forums was addressed fairly thoroughly here:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/6605.page

I'm really in an no-win situation. If I say "yes" to some requests and "no" to others, it can appear discriminatory. Also, its not always easy to guess what will work and what won't. I like to experiment.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that many of these small forums are that way by design. The single moms want to correspond with single moms about single mom issues. They aren't that interested in hearing from others when it comes to single-mom specific issues. If they are, they can always post in the General Parenting Discussion forum. So, if non-single moms miss their posts, they really won't be disappointed.

Similarly, the Expectant Moms forum is almost its own little community. I think they like it that way. Given time, the small forums may become more like that forum. Or not, more time is needed to see.

The most likely forum to get the ax is the Members Only and perhaps the Home Schooling.

The political discussion forum was suggested by a forum participant, but its something I had been thinking about doing anyway. I want to broaden the footprint of DCUM and make it more appealing to those who may be interested in more than parenting advice. If things go the way I envision, political discussions would overwhelm the Off Topic forum. If you are not interested in politics, giving those discussions their own forum will make it easier for you to ignore them. That's something you couldn't do if they started to take over the Off Topic forum.

There have been requests for a multiracial family forum and I'm willing to give that a try. Its up to those who requested it to make it successful.

Finally, our experience with polls has not been good. They tend not to reflect the views of the community so much as that of a vocal minority. We have very precise usage statistics and can track the success and failure of changes that we make. That's a much more objective measure. Don't take that to mean that I'm not interested in user feedback, because I am interested. Such feedback can be provided via this forum, through private message, email, or I'll even give you my phone number. Polls just haven't been the best means.

[Anonymous]

Try keeping your page on "Most Recent" as an alternative to looking through all the forums.

And I happen to be a fan of the LGBT forum.

[Anonymous]

I LOVE the multiple forums, and I am so appreciative of you for giving them all a chance. With all due respect, I don't get the "its a pain to go through so many fora. . ." For me, I like that the posts are organized according to topic.

So please know that you have a huge fan out here tonight of your strategy and openess. Keep doing the great job you do.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the poster that said it's much easier to scroll through topics, than to weed through one massive forum for a topic/posting that I'm interested in. I like having the multiple forums. Thanks for experimenting with them.

[Anonymous]

I don't see a problem with multiple fora and wanted to say thanks for the political one, what a great idea!

[Anonymous]

Would it be possible to have sub-categories under main category headings? Such as Politics as a sub-cat of Off-Topic, and GLBP, Single Moms, Multi-racial families, etc, under an All Things Family type of category? Or would that be even more confusing?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Would it be possible to have sub-categories under main category headings? Such as Politics as a sub-cat of Off-Topic, and GLBP, Single Moms, Multi-racial families, etc, under an All Things Family type of category? Or would that be even more confusing?

This is how I would like to organize things but the current forum software doesn't recognize the concept of sub-categories so there is no way to set it up.

[Anonymous]

I understand about giving new forums a chance, but maybe if there isn't very much traffic after three months or so, they could be subsumed into the most similar? I have noticed some forums have VERY little traffic.

[jsteele]

Yes. I am monitoring forum usage fairly closely. There are a couple which might not last much longer.

[Anonymous]

Just to add my 2 cents - I think the Older Kids forum is kind of a bust. There was a post today but before that nothing for almost 2 weeks. I mean isn't this General Parenting too? And I think there are way too many school-related ones. I agree with the poster above who said a lot of posts don't get many responses because people just don't see them. Because, for example, you may have had a kid who went to a certain preschool that you can comment on - but since your kid is now in grade school you won't be looking at the preschool forum. I would think that just Schools, Daycare, and Camp would probably cover it.

But regardless of the above I think DCUM and JSteele rock - so thanks.