{Suggestion} Forum Consolidation

[Chatterbox Audio Theater]

Hey Crash,

I love this forum and have gleaned a lot of great info from it, but I find that I visit infrequently because there are only a few posts a week (if that) in the section I typically read -- "General."

Scrolling around today, though, I find that there are separate forums for show postings, audio writing, casting calls, news, and even another "General" forum. Each of these seems to have a few posts a week as well.

How about consolidating a bunch of these topics into broader, more active forums? There are almost 50 different forums up now, which as a reader I find too specific -- it takes a lot of hunting. And as a poster, if I want to announce a new show (for example), I don't know whether to put it in "News," "General," "Promote Your Show," or a dedicated Chatterbox forum.

The other benefit would be that, by bringing everybody into the same few rooms, the party would seem a lot bigger, and may really spring to life.

(I'm assuming the troupe-specific forums are a service you provide to groups who can't or don't want to host their own; if that's the case, then I'm not really talking about those -- though I do think they should be listed last since there are so many dead ones.)

So, I'd humbly suggest some simplification. A forum for production questions, one for show postings and other announcements, a general forum, and a few others -- but not many more than that.

What do you think?


bob

[Crash]

I have been looking at ways to simplify some of the sections, and your ideas will be added to to some of the current outline.

I know the boards have gotten a little fat, and I have to put it on a bit of a diet. we've been growing with a loose direction that I now have to tighten up a bit.

Thank you for your ideas.

[Serendipity]

Perhaps you could also create an "active" and "inactive/archive" status for different "group forums". Ones that haven't had any activity - in, say, three months - get moved to the inactive subdirectory until the moderator requests to be moved back.

That way, it's easier for people to keep up with the active ones - and the forum doesn't look like quite so much of a wasteland.... I hate to be a hardass, but there's even one group who asked for a forum, and then never posted a single message!

If a group doesn't have anything new to say for three months, then chances are they've gone the way of all flesh.... so many groups do - they vanish, fall apart, merge into other groups, or simply give up in frustration.

Sad but true.

[Chatterbox Audio Theater]

Thanks, Crash! Best of luck with the trimming, whatever route you choose to go.

And Julie, I like the active/inactive idea, though I have no idea how easy it would be to implement.