Sprucing up the forum architecture in preparation of launching The Shipyard; our new classified listing system. I was thinking about sub-forums for the Technical Forum, separating engines and electronics into their own categories, but still leaving a General Technical forum in place for questions that aren't specific to engines or electronics. Cast a vote!
Kudos on the name change for the new MLS. Much better. Like the idea of sub forums, goes hand-in-glove with YF and JF. Oh wait...
These days, there is no divide between engines and electronics. Modern engines all have electronics intergrated in them. Sadly.
I agree, and I think sub forums might get overlooked by someone who has knowledge of the OPs issue, but doesn't bother looking in say the electronics forum just the engine forum. Also a lot of issues cross over. I don't think there are so many new posts each day where going through the technical items is a chore.
Divisions are useful when posting and searching for specific topics. Day to day I just scan all the latest posts from all categories.
I agree with everyone (mostly because it'll be a bunch of work to dissect all the threads!), but a new visitor may be daunted by 25,000+ discussions on various aspects of maintenance and repair. So far the poll is split. Let's give it a couple more days. BTW, I was thinking about several sub-forums... Engines & Interfaces Generators & HVAC Navigation Equipment Running Gear; transmissions, props, etc. Hulls; bottom paint, zincs, etc.
I think most people start with "New Posts" rather than going to a specific forum and looking in it. Otherwise they use the search feature. I looked over a recent period of time and the technical forum had an average of just over 1 topic discussed per day. I generally think of dividing into sub forums when the activity is too great for one forum and that's clearly not the case in this situation. By dividing too, you're just increasing the issue of people starting topics in what you consider to be the "wrong forum" and having to move them.
There isn't a lot of traffic in tech, a few posts in the last week. For regular users I don't think it matters especially when using the New Post page as the main page. Personally that s the only page I use For searching, I am not sure it's going to help much The only way it will help is when browsing, I guess if you're looking for general info on air con or engines then yes But then where do split some topics? Transmissions and engines are more tied together than transmissions and running gear for instance. Stabilizers? In running gear? Miscellaneous ? if it ain't broken don't fix it
I do think sub-categories would help in searching out info but I'm sure some topics will end up in the wrong place and maybe see multiple postings of the same subject in different categories. jmtc
+1 Olderboater & Pascal... Us regulars look for the "news", not the "olds". The search function works well for all else and, perhaps, those new to YF.
That's exactly how I use YF. In fact it's set up in my favorites to load directly on the new post page. Sub categories make search results more specific. Fewer categories means more content in one place and less chance of missing something in a sub category. I prefer the wider approach. I favor less categorization.