Revamping the Forum Categories

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

I've been thinking for a few days now that maybe we should come up with a new format for the layout of the forum with some different thread categories. Maybe we eliminate some old ones (like the Election 2016 forum), perhaps merge a few, change the names of some so their purpose is more clear, and maybe add a category or two (like Second Amendment). We have a lot of different thread groups out there and some are hardly used, some are outdated, and some could be named better. I'm just looking for some better organization.

I started a conversation with the other moderators earlier today, but thought I would also solicit the board to see everyone's thoughts in general for suggestions of what some of you may want to see added or changed. I'm looking for constructive comments, please. Thanks

 

[rightwinger]

Some categories are woefully out of date

Tea Party
Obamacare
Wikileaks

 

[norwegen]

Why would we need a Second Amendment forum if we have a US Constitution forum?

Streamlining is a good idea. What is that USMB Mafia forum, anyway?

 

[DudleySmith]

You could merge the History Forum with the Conspiracy Forum. There's hardly any difference between those two.

 

[impuretrash]

I'm sure it would be easy to consolidate many subforums into one. Most of the hobby section, afghanistan, iraq, iran and israel/palestine.

 

[Toro]

You should put the Flame Zone at the very top of the list. Make the fonts twice as big as everyone else's. Have exploding gifs around the title.

 

[lg325]

What ever changes you do .I will adapt.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

drop tea party, add election controversy

 

[DudleySmith]

Some categories are woefully out of date

Tea Party
Obamacare
Wikileaks

A forum about the Constitution is unnecessary these days; nobody has read it and it hasn't been used since 1861 anyway. It certainly won't be used now that Democrats need to conduct endless pogroms and invade countries with lots of brown people in them.

 

[Pogo]

I've been thinking for a few days now that maybe we should come up with a new format for the layout of the forum with some different thread categories. Maybe we eliminate some old ones (like the Election 2016 forum), perhaps merge a few, change the names of some so their purpose is more clear, and maybe add a category or two (like Second Amendment). We have a lot of different thread groups out there and some are hardly used, some are outdated, and some could be named better. I'm just looking for some better organization.

I started a conversation with the other moderators earlier today, but thought I would also solicit the board to see everyone's thoughts in general for suggestions of what some of you may want to see added or changed. I'm looking for constructive comments, please. Thanks

I'd dump "Breaking News" first thing. No matter what it is that's breaking it must fit under whatever category it is, plus after a minimal amount of time it isn't "breaking" any more.

And to this day I have no idea in the world what the Bull Ring is for. Never been there.

There's a YUGE amount of overlap between categories. If George Stephanopolous announced he was running for Senate that could fit under "Breaking News", "Politics", Current Events", "Media", "Congress" and prolly a few more. Do we really need a Congress forum?

Agree on Tea Party forum too.

What the site really needs, not to derail the idea, is a reliable way for a poster bringing in a new story to check on whether that story is already posted --- considering it could have been placed in any of a dozen forums, considering it could carry any title at all, it's all but impossible to determine. Perhaps requiring keywords ("tags") would be one way, or part of one way.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

The hieroglyphics and the chariot racing forums are starting to get a bit stale.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

You should put the Flame Zone at the very top of the list. Make the fonts twice as big as everyone else's. Have exploding gifs around the title.

Added to that, there needs to be a program that automatically deposits all the taunting, partisan flame bait postings there.

 

[Missourian]

How about an "Around the campfire" forum to discuss camping, backpacking, canoeing, bird watching, wood carving and such...?

Then the Garage can be vehicular only.

 

[Missourian]

Personally, I'd ditch everything in "global topics"...only retaining "general global topic".

Put everything from all those smaller forums in there as a catch-all.

JMHO...YMMV

 

[Missourian]

I'd dump "Breaking News" first thing. No matter what it is that's breaking it must fit under whatever category it is, plus after a minimal amount of time it isn't "breaking" any more.

I agree.

But...I like the idea of coming in and seeing important topics of the day...

Don't know how to accommodate both though...not without giving the mods more work...which doesn't seem fair.

 

[Missourian]

Some categories are woefully out of date

Tea Party
Obamacare
Wikileaks

And the "mafia zone"...the last post in there was six months ago

 

[Pogo]

I'd dump "Breaking News" first thing. No matter what it is that's breaking it must fit under whatever category it is, plus after a minimal amount of time it isn't "breaking" any more.

I agree.

But...I like the idea of coming in and seeing important topics of the day...

Don't know how to accommodate both though...no without giving the mods more work...which doesn't seem fair.

Anyone who posts a story that's just coming out, is by definition posting "breaking news" --- so that category seems redundant. All it really says is "this is not history yet".

There's also an extremely loose collective definition of what qualifies as worthy "breaking news".

 

[Natural Citizen]

I think you should ditch all of the sub forums specific to individual countries and make just one International News section.

Additionally, if you keep it as is, Israel shouldn't just automatically be lumped in with Palestine as if everything about Israel revolves around Palestine.

Politics should be US Political News. Or something like that.

I don't go into the Clean Debate Zone sub-forum much, but whenever I do it seems like a sub-forum that people use to be condescending without risk of being told where to get off. But maybe that's why I don't go in that section. Could be it's just that I've clicked on those threads by chance and it maybe isnt always like that. I dunno.

All discussion technically should be clean debate across the site, aside from the FZ. Not that I'm some kind of little angel. I'm not, of course. I'm kind of a dick, really. But the rules allow it. And to my credit, I don't really like to be. It's not my nature.

Someone mentioned the Bull Ring. Meh. I dunno. Whenever people wanna talk smack upstairs without actually having to think critically and you invite em to the Bull Ring to force em to think critically they don't show up anyway. Pft.

Don't really have any kind of grassroots stuff going on so no need for individual state sub-forums for those elections. It's unfortunate. That's something that should maybe be a sub within an Elections sub-forum, though, on the chance that someone has local election shenanigans going on that they're involved with.

Obamacare sub can go and just keep Health. Though I'd rename it personally.

Immigration can go. It should be in US Politics.

Military can go. Perhaps a Foreign Policy sub-forum in its place.

Race Relations is a cesspool.

Tea Party can go, the neocons ruined that.

Wikileaks can go. That news can go under International News.

There's probably other stuff, but that's just off the top of my head.

Good luck with it.

Oh, and someone should get back on handing out the sweeties to the noobs.

 

[Missourian]

There's also an extremely loose collective definition of what qualifies as worthy "breaking news".

I agree.

I'd like to see the Breaking News forum reserved for earth shaking breaking news...like Fukashima, national disaster, mass shootings...

You know, like "we interrupt our programming to bring you this breaking news...now back to your regularly scheduled broadcast".

(Do they even do that anymore?)

If it's not important enough to preempt American Idol, it shouldn't be in Breaking News.

But how to accomplish that on a messageboard without leaving it to the absolute discretion of the moderators (ie... only a moderator could move a post there) I don't know.

Probably not worth the trouble.

 

[toobfreak]

I've been thinking for a few days now that maybe we should come up with a new format for the layout of the forum with some different thread categories. Maybe we eliminate some old ones (like the Election 2016 forum), perhaps merge a few, change the names of some so their purpose is more clear, and maybe add a category or two (like Second Amendment). We have a lot of different thread groups out there and some are hardly used, some are outdated, and some could be named better. I'm just looking for some better organization.

I started a conversation with the other moderators earlier today, but thought I would also solicit the board to see everyone's thoughts in general for suggestions of what some of you may want to see added or changed. I'm looking for constructive comments, please. Thanks

Frankly, I see far bigger and more important issues here worth fixing first such as:

1. Reformatting the page layouts to make it easier to keep aware of what forums you are in and the constantly changing rules as you jump from alert to alert.
2. Fixing the spell-checker problem.
3. Fixing the emoji shortcode problem so that they are easier to use.
4. Fixing other problems like the screen constantly jumping around, rolling as you type, dropping posts, the toolbar not displaying what modes of Bold, Underline, etc., you are in, and others.

I'm still trying to figure out why we need three rooms in the Taunting area, why I would go to Badlands instead of the Rubber Room or Flame Zone.

I'm with Lucy that we need a conservative chatroom free of trolls where serious conservatives can talk of serious conservative issues without constant trolling by the likes of Moonglow, Pogo, Asslips, JackofNoWorth and many others.