Categorization of forums?

Has anyone thought about the idea of categorizing our forums into different categories, to make them more manageable and easier to access?

Off the top of my head, the categories kinda of look like this:

Garden related:

• Water Gardens
• Herbs
• Bonsai
• Roses
• Bulbs
• Perennials
• Trees & Shrubs
• Garden Talk
• Seed Saving
• Propagation
• House Plants
• Plant Identification
• Heirlooms

• United Kingdom
• Farm Life
• Co-Op
• Market Growers
• International Discussion

• Home Decorating
• Stay at Home Moms
• Recipes
• Hands on Home
• Handyman
• Greenhouse

• Plant Trading
• Seed Trading

• Photos
• Mail Call!
• General Discussion
• Dave's Garden
• Computer Talk

Dave...The categories would be great, but I don't think the General Discussion forum should be included in the miscellaneous section. Could it be a section of it's own? I believe it is one of the most read forums and the welcome mat for newcomers to the site. Just my thoughts. Carol

This message was edited Friday, Apr 6th 12:18 PM

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Well, the categories were just small examples. They can be decided upon later.

But the big question is: what do you think of the overall concept of the categories?

Dave

Will it mean another click to drill down, or will you just arrange them under the main categories, but still display them all?

go_vols: The former.

Dave

[ Removed per member request. - Admin]

Or the main catagory listed, with a drop-down box to list the subcatagories? That was what I had in mind.

Trish

I like the category idea but without a dropdown menu.
Trish

I like it, Dave but I do have one suggestion. I would not include "Greenhouse" under the "Home" because it may be overlooked. If you notice, the other catagories under "Home" have nothing to do with gardening but "Greenhouse" does. I would put it under the "Garden" catagory. :)

Terri

No prob, Terri. We'll get into those details later. Right now I'm just trying to figure out if this is even something we wanna do.

It's a big decision.

dave

I think something like this will have to be done, Dave. The list of forums is growing longer and longer, and is getting to be somewhat less than manageable. There are, for instance, 16 or 17 forums that I never vist. But I have to scroll around and through them to get where I want to be.

I think most people would find the idea of a drop-down menu objectionable. Better, I think, would be to list the category as a link, with each forum as a subhead. Opening the category would then access all the forums in that group.

I agree with Brook, Dave. The list of forums is extremely long. It's so long that I find myself missing some forums that I really wanted to visit. I think catagorizing will be very, very helpful. :)

Terri

Yes Dave. I think it's a very good idea. Would make navigating a little easier :)

Paula

I agree it is a good idea, especially with all the newcomers you have. I still consider myself a newbie. It is easy to miss things. I get frustrated at times. However you work it is fine with me.

puttyrat

Dave, I think this is a great idea. The forums are getting longer and longer and I think sub-catagories would be great. I also agree with one other poster, I would love to see a health forum where we could discuss the latest medical news as well as vitamin and herb therapy. Natural "cures" or therapies are something neglected by most physicians.

I think it's a great idea Dave - just one thing (I know you haven't fine-tuned it yet) but maybe the Co-op should be included with Plant and Seed Trading since it does involve live material - just a thought!

Great idea Dave.

You could categorize them similar to how they are done here http://www.gardencountry.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi with no problem. I think that you shold be able to view each forum and access it directly from the home page, even if they are under a category. Categorizing is just a means of organization, and I wouldn't want to have to open Garden just to be able to click on Roses. However, organizing them under a heirarchy does make them more accessable. Taking away the feature that moves the forum to the top when it's had a post would seem to be an integral part of this, though, and that's one of the features that I rather like about this site. Maybe you could use some other method for highlighting the formums with new messages, though. At GardenCountry, Deb uses a flowerpot symbol, and forums with new postings have a flower in the flower pot. I'm sure you'll come up with something. You're a whizz!

"ROCK ON"
"YOU THE MAN"

another great idea Dave!

HandyWOMEN?

This would make things easier...But I have a problem...with only 24 hours in a day there is not enough time to read all the wonderful postings! I vote we go to a longer day!

A longer day, huh? Hmmm. By using a particle collider, I could, in theory, create a miniture black hole. If I can control the black hole enough to allow it to be open for a certain time, I might be able to change the gravitational properties of the Earth just long enough to shift the axis around, giving North America 20 hours of sunlight instead of whatever it is right now. Then, of course, add 10 hours for night time and we've got a 30 hour day.

I'll look into it.

Dave

Watch it, Dave. the coriellus (sp?) vibrations will get ya.

[ Removed by member request. - Admin ]

I say all sounds good. But maybe leave these in their subcatagories, on the Home Page for awhile( a week maybe) while we adjust?
I dont know. It might help, some know whats going on. If they missed this post they might think catagories had disappeared.

Catagories would be good, seems to me. We all have our favorites, at any rate you're doing a bang-up job even with the growing pains.

I think you'd better get on with this, Dave - it's taking ages to scroll down with all these new Forums, and I lose track of where I've been.

About that longer day thing - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Good Lord! Isn't it long enough now??????????? YIKES, and other assorted euphemistic comments.

This message was edited Monday, May 14th 6:26 PM

[ Removed per member request. - Admin]

Still in the works... I am basically finished with the work, now I just need to figure out how to present it and make it look nice for the homepage.

Dave

It's a good idea to categorise, Dave - only I'd say don't make it look too regimented like certain other sites. Also, it's kind of nice to be able to wander here and there in a cyber-garden the way you would in a real garden, seeing something new every time. Just a thought. I know change is important to keep up interest.

The categorizations are actually finished, and they are so non-obtrusive that you never even noticed them. :-)

The subscriptions are where you'll find the categorizations. Check the homepage of DG for more info on that.

I'll probably not do too much more to the forums for the time being. I'm fairly happy with the setup as it is right now.

dave