you’ll see this twice, now, on the forum, two placements, so that it can’t be missed.
the idea here is to aggregate tagged threads into categories (and sub-categories) to make for easier navigation. the problem here is too much information. too many threads that might be good but then might not.
so, i’d like this to be a community effort (ideally), where we choose the categories, then we choose sub-categories, and we choose the threads that belong there.
i’ve started the ball rolling with “Injury & Illness” and i’ve populated this category with 3 sub-categories, and then each of those with threads that seem most to pertain.
i don’t want to put every thread on a topic into this navigational aid, rather the threads that just are the most helpful.
as we go along, any suggestions you have for both categories and sub-categories would be welcome. i’d like to keep categories to a manageable number.
if we kept categories to, say, 8 or 10, what would they be? we talk about…
Dan, my $.02 from what I’ve seen with other forums and from when I was the admin for a forum years ago…
Too many subcategories becomes either confusing and/or frustrating for the members and they either ignore the rules, or worse yet, ignore the forum altogether.
It might be worth the experiment but pay attention to your traffic metrics and bail on it as soon as you see the downward trend (if there is one). You don’t want to turn into the Beginner Triathlete forum which was every bit as popular as ST but now has about 50 people.
Dan, my $.02 from what I’ve seen with other forums and from when I was the admin for a forum years ago…
Too many subcategories becomes either confusing and/or frustrating for the members and they either ignore the rules, or worse yet, ignore the forum altogether.
It might be worth the experiment but pay attention to your traffic metrics and bail on it as soon as you see the downward trend (if there is one). You don’t want to turn into the Beginner Triathlete forum which was every bit as popular as ST but now has about 50 people.
I don’t think he’s doing what you think he’s doing… I think…
I like the forum the way it currently is without subtopics.
It could be a nice feature if people were forced to choose a tag (from your sub topics) when they submit a post. A moderator could also edit/change the post tags. This could allow people to filter all posts by the tag(s) to drill down to specific content?
I’d be careful with this. Go look at beginnertriathlete. There’s entirely too many “categories” there. There was a debate a while back about how that (or what) killed the website. It is essentially dead now and IMO that had a lot to do with the demise.
ETA - +1 on what GMAN said except there;s probably way more then 50 there. You just can’t tell with where everyone hides
As another poster above me mentioned, you might be weary of having too many categories. Personally I browse on here to kill boredom at work and I wouldn’t want to have to click through all of the sub-forums to find an active conversation. Lumping it all together might not be pretty but it works. Maybe consider having a “Best of Slowtwitch” forum where threads are duplicated and curated. Only ST admins could decide what threads show up there. Examples might be the “BarryP” running plan threads, the Platypus thread, some of TomA’s stuff on crr testing, etc.
I like the forum the way it currently is without subtopics.
It could be a nice feature if people were forced to choose a tag (from your sub topics) when they submit a post. A moderator could also edit/change the post tags. This could allow people to filter all posts by the tag(s) to drill down to specific content?
^^^^^^^ yes!
Something similar to this is what I imagine you’re talking about:
we’re not going to give users the opportunity to auto-add forums to topics. that would’ve been the simplest to build and maintain. why not? we have way, way, way too many threads here, the great majority of which are a waste of time for someone searching for information.
for those who go way, way back, this will have much more in common with a usenet newsgroup FAQ. when a thread was really good, really helpful, and answered questions that kept coming up, somebody would say “add it to the FAQ” and it would be added (or not) by popular acclamation.
if you want to have search-access to a half-million threads and 6 million posts (which is what we’ve got here), you have this, via the search or advanced search tools, and your search can return either posts or threads (we will shortly change our default so that it gives you posts, and you click threads if you want threads).
there are 115 threads containing both the words “atrial” and “fibrillation.” there are 217 threads that contain “afib.” not 217 posts. 217 threads. we have 39 threads that contain “endofibrosis.”
what i’d like for someone coming here looking for useful info on iliac arterial endofibrosis, or atrial fibrillation, is a quick drilldown to the best 3 or 4 threads, with the most authoritative helpful responses. when we have such a discussion forward-going and it appears that it’s going to be very helpful for those who’re looking for help, i’d like that person to find the forum “greatest hits” on a subject quick and easy.
"I like the forum the way it currently is without subtopics. "
i’m not saying we’re going to have subforums. we’ve already made the decision not to do that. this is a navigational aid. the point here is to easily find the best threads on, say, learning how to flip turn. rather than navigating 150 threads on that topic, there’s a set of threads chosen by readers and moderators representing the best-in-class on a tutorial on the subject. either just above or just to the side you’ll see a blue navbar called HOT FORUM TOPICS which might or might not continue to be entitled that.
this is where you’d easily find the threads that the community feels are the best-in-class at identifying and helping those with atrial fibrillation, or who want to learn how to flip-turn, or how to train with power on the run.
“I’d rather my page selection/view all button to come back.
^^ This!”
we’re going to bring it back. when we finish up here. for now, what you’re asking for is still at the bottom of every page.
first, however, we’re going to finish up this discussion, and i want to make it extremely evident where and how to find this utility. hence the temporary double placement.
thank you. you’ve helped restore my trust in the internet. i privately had my over/under at 16 posts on everything under the sun before i got my first reply that actually answers my question. i got my first on-point reply with your post, #10
"I like the forum the way it currently is without subtopics. "
i’m not saying we’re going to have subforums. we’ve already made the decision not to do that. this is a navigational aid. the point here is to easily find the best threads on, say, learning how to flip turn. rather than navigating 150 threads on that topic, there’s a set of threads chosen by readers and moderators representing the best-in-class on a tutorial on the subject. either just above or just to the side you’ll see a blue navbar called HOT FORUM TOPICS which might or might not continue to be entitled that.
this is where you’d easily find the threads that the community feels are the best-in-class at identifying and helping those with atrial fibrillation, or who want to learn how to flip-turn, or how to train with power on the run.
Thanks for the clarification on what you’re trying to accomplish. I thought you wanted to add subforums which almost never works.
no. i hate subforums. if you look at the utility (it’s now deployed on the forum, twice, to make it harder to miss) you’ll see what i’m trying to get at. it’s an old usenet FAQ, just with threads arranged according to topic, with 2 heirarchical levels.
