Subforums...

[Mas*Mind]

I find the current way of displaying subforums very confusing, I think you only have to see a subforum when you enter the parentforum...

Or make it a toggle

[The_Sisko]

Agree, it is very confusing. This is discused here a lot of time. So I think it need some changes!

[Menno]

I must agree with you.. it's quite hard to run trough all the forums, since their isn't a good way to get a view of all of them.

[James]

Hello,

Thanks for all your comments - I'll liase with John to see if we can put together a system that is a little more intuitive.

All the best,

James

[chrispadfield]

Ok this is how i think it is working now:

There are no categories anymore, there are only forums. Forums can contain sub-forums.

What is good about this:

1) Unlimited depth (i assume)
2) That you can have a forum with threads in it that still has a sub-forum beneath it.

What is bad about it?

1) You might want to organize forums into a group, but can't without making the group a forum accepting threads.
2) Some forums on the front page don't have there threads/posts listed in them.

So what is my suggestion:

- Basically, when creating a forum you set in the forum whether the forum accepts posts or not. If it does then it acts as a normal forum, if you say no then it acts as a type of organizing thing, a category bascially.

-- Looking at the demo:

Forum 1: I would set this to NO POSTS. This would be like an organizing category much like the many we use at our forums now. Clicking on it would just take you to a list of the forums contained within it. Having this as a forum accepting posts is just plaing confusing and pointless.

Forum 2: This is perfect. Forum 2 is set to hold posts, it also has beneath it forum 2 which is also set to hold posts. Again excellent. This is what is so good about the system.

Forum 5: This is a biazzare forum and i would think pointless. Its design is of a "category holder" which should thus contain multiple forums and no posts but it contains no sub-forums and just posts. This is useless because the posts and thread numbers are not on the front page. With my system you would not create forum 5 like this, it should be part of a top level category.

Another test: Should be set not to hold posts.
Sub Forum: This is fine.

FINALLY:

Say we have forums Cat 1, Cat 2, Forum 1, Forum 2, Forum 3, Sub Forum 1, Sub Forum 2, Sub Forum 3.

I want to do this basically:




Cat 1 (set to no posts)
>> Forum 1
>> Forum 2
>> Sub Forum 1
Cat 2 (set to no posts)
> Forum 3
>> Sub Forum 2
>> Sub Forum 3



that should be fine. But what if, say i want sub forum 3 to be a sub forum of both forum 1 and forum 3. So i can do this:



Cat 1 (set to no posts)
>> Forum 1
>> Sub Forum 3 (once here)
>> Forum 2
>> Sub Forum 1
Cat 2 (set to no posts)
> Forum 3
>> Sub Forum 2
>> Sub Forum 3 (and again here)



So thus sub forums should be able to be associate with more than one higher level forum. Make sense? I see many uses for this for example being able to have "moderator zones" listed in multiple sections.

I hope someone has read this far! what do you think?


[Edited by chrispadfield on 11-23-2000 at 10:01 PM]

[chrispadfield]

anyone manage to read my little suggestion/make sense of it? what do you think... i would love it to be like this.

[Acous]

how would you implement it? i love that idea (it would rock in a filesystem), but i cant see how it could be layed out so its easy to understand.

1 thing cant be in 2 different places in this universe so how to visualise it so people will understand?

[Richard Tafoya]

Chris,

I like it. Just to make sure I'm reading correctly, this would be a parallel example as I see it:

MUSIC FORUMS (Cat)
>> Rock Music (General Discussion)
>> Dave Matthews (Discussion)
>> Dave Matthews Tape Traders (Discussion)
>> Limp Bizkit (Discussion)
>> The Beatles (Discussion)

>> Pop Music (General Discussion)
>> Backstreet Boys (Discussion)
>> Backstreet Boys Ticket Trading (Discussion)

MOVIE FORUMS (Cat)
>> New Releases (General Discussion)
>> Charlie's Angels (Discussion)

>> Actors and Actresses (General Discussion)
>> Cameron Diaz (Discussion)

[Zecherieh]

Yea I was looking at that also

I was thinking of just hiding a bunch of forums and then having a drop down menu to access.


In my case I am looking to add about 150 forums when this version is released. I do not want 150 more forums displayed on the front page - would be one big mess for the eyes. All those forums would be in distint differnet subcatagories , about 7 different catagories.

[chrispadfield]

yes that works.

In the end my suggestion boils down to this:

1) Make a toggle to allow/prevent posting in a forum
2) If this toggle is = no (ie prevent posting) then use a different template to display what is now a category in display (ie so it displays like we have categories now).

That is all there really is to it.

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by Richard Tafoya
Chris,

I like it. Just to make sure I'm reading correctly, this would be a parallel example as I see it:

MUSIC FORUMS (Cat)
>> Rock Music (General Discussion)
>> Dave Matthews (Discussion)
>> Dave Matthews Tape Traders (Discussion)
>> Limp Bizkit (Discussion)
>> The Beatles (Discussion)

>> Pop Music (General Discussion)
>> Backstreet Boys (Discussion)
>> Backstreet Boys Ticket Trading (Discussion)

MOVIE FORUMS (Cat)
>> New Releases (General Discussion)
>> Charlie's Angels (Discussion)

>> Actors and Actresses (General Discussion)
>> Cameron Diaz (Discussion)




Going through this again:

Yes this is exactly what we want - you want to do almost the same thing as I do in the end. My system would make this work perfectly, you would simply set

MUSIC FORUMS = posting=N
MOVIE FORUMS = posting=Y

they would then default to the old category type template and on the page they are displayed list their forums (1st level only) beneath them.

Next

Click on Rock Music

You could either set this to allow threads and posts or not. If you don't then it is a category if you do then fine it works as a discussion place as well with the sub-forums listed at the top in the same way the vbulletin demo does. It then list the sub-forums.

PROBLEMS:

1) If a forum contains a category (ie something set with posting new threads off).

Not sure how this would happen but sat if you had

> Movie Discussions (forum) > Actors (category) > Actor A
and
> Movie Discussions (forum) > Actresses (category ) > Actress A

so you can have



Movie Discussions (forum allowing posts)
> Actresses (CATEGORY - no posts)
> Actress A
> Acrress B
> Actors (CATEGORY - no posts)
> Actor A
> Actor B


basically the problem is how to display the category Actors and Actresses in the movie discussions show thread. I don't know, perhaps list the total number of posts and threads from inside it.

So you can do something like when displaying it

Display Forum A
if forum (a) posting = NO
Then add all threads and posts from subforums of A
Display those as totals.

That should work

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by Acous
how would you implement it? i love that idea (it would rock in a filesystem), but i cant see how it could be layed out so its easy to understand.

1 thing cant be in 2 different places in this universe so how to visualise it so people will understand?

Because we think linerally partly so...


Movie Discussions
> American Beauty
> Mena Suvari (1)
> Kevin Spacey
> American Pie
> Mena Suvari (2)


etc

I don't see that being a problem, the same forum (Mena Suvari) appears twice but it is still very logical as to why.

Make sense?

James/John any words on this? as it stands the system is very confusing i just hope you consider this.

Cheers

[Acous]

hehe, true.

I was hoping to come up with some revolutionary diagram to display stuff like that but ah well :)

also.. would the root forum (if there was one) display all forum posts in all categories? would each forum contain all posts from its child forums?

[chrispadfield]

1) would each forum contain all posts from its children.

I would hope this would be an option. I can see some forums when i would like this but others when i would hate it. Should be togable like "Should this forums posts be displayed in its parent forum?" Y/N.

issues: Would a forum have its children posts displayed in its parent?

2) Root

Well depends on how you set the "toggle" for each forum.

[TWTCommish]

I would have to agree (for the most part) concerning the sub-forums - each main forum doesn't have any listings for the last poster, number of posts, or number of threads (or a description) plainly visible on the forum homepage.

I think the VERY best way to do this would be to simply display the sub-forums at the top of the thread display inside the main forum, as it is now, without the subforum listings on the mainpage.

[Mas*Mind]

Any updates on this? Is it still planned to be changed?

[Sharg]

What about this:

Sciences (mother forum)
- Biology (Child forum )
- Physics (Child forum

"Sciences" mother forum will display both post of the childs forums. So you can see the same post in the mother forum and a child forum.

In the mother forum (sciences), you can reply to posts: the reply will be shown both in the child the original message is AND the mother forum (since its the same message ID in the child and mother).

If you create a new message in mother forum it will ask you: Which forum does your post belogs to:
[Radio Check box] Biology [Radio Check box] Physics

Of course, you can initiate and reply to posts in child forums.
This specific configuration would be up to the webmaster to associate a mother and child subforums.

Benj


[Edited by Benj on 12-18-2000 at 12:07 PM]

[Mas*Mind]

All those suggestions are really good, but the main thing that has to be improved is the way the subforums are displayed...

Personnally I see more in subcategories than subforums, but that's just a matter of opinion.

The way I see it is that you only see a subforum when you've entered the parent forum...The way it's displayed now nothing really has changed.

[chrispadfield]

just to say that http://beta.jelsoft.com appears to have sub forums perfectly done, this is exactly how i want it. Cheers :)

The only things i can think of are:

1) Will it be possible for a forum to appear in more than one category? This would be very useful.

2) Will it be possible to have the threads of one forum appear in its parent forum (i don't really need this but some have suggested it)

3) Some way of indicating on the main page that there are subforums below that category and maybe even the option of having direct links to them although this could be done in the description i guess.

But anyway have to say it is brilliant. Thingy 1 is what i really really want though!

Cheers

[Sharg]

2) Will it be possible to have the threads of one forum appear in its parent forum (i don't really need this but some have suggested it)

Yep yep. This would be so helpful.