new forum suggestion

[VGR]

Hello,

I suggest creating an "other servers" section in "webservers". There is not only IIS and Apache around, and I would find interesting to read feedback from users of alternatives (like the "sambar" mentioned By RQuadling in PHP latest thread)

[Anonymous]

Very much so.

[COBOLdinosaur]

Who will be Mentor for a new forum like Other Web Servers.  We have already got a problem with unused forums.  They make the forums look like a dead zone, and we actually need to be reducing the number of forums to make thing more inviting for registration.

If we are going to add forums we need:

1. An Editor or Mentor to manage them.
2. Some reaonable expectation that it is not going to just die.
3. A quick topic or to to start them off.

Every forum is sending a message to potential new member that there is no activity here. That is whay I created teh starter account to generate some discussions and I am encourging other members to get discussion threads started as well.

I am gettign ready to do an adword campaign and to get registrations of of that I still have a couple of things to finish up:

Custom RSS.
Integration of Nav between forums and the rest of the site.
Cleanup dead zones so new visitors see activity wherever they look.

Anything you want new and anything that is not active that you want to keep needs activity or it is not going to be there when the ad capmpaign starts.

[VGR]

ok, but what will happen when someone - anyone, a new member or not - wants to post a question about an other webserver ?

[COBOLdinosaur]

ok, but what will happen when someone - anyone, a new member or not - wants to post a question about an other webserver ?

1. They will post it in another fourm.
or
2. They will ask us where they should post it.
or
3. They will got to a site that appears to have support for whatever they need help with.

How useful is it to have a forum with no one supporting it?

If we want to support every possible technology tha someone has a question on we could probably have as many as 15 or 20 thousand forums.

I'm willing to put up any forum that is going to be supported.  I just added Online Marketing for an Expert coming over from TOS willing to support it.

I am also going to be removing topics that are unsupport and I am also going to be removing topics that are unsupported.  Topics that do not have any action in them are going to get removed until there is some demand.  

If a Mentor/Editor wants their forum to continue then they need to stimulate some activity in it, even if they have to start the discussions themselves, create a dup account for the purpose of getting things fired up the way I have done with the "starter" account.

If a user cannot find a forum to post in that would be bad.  If a user post in an unsopported topic and does not get any help that would be worse.  if you have to scroll down through a couple of pages of empty forums to get to the one your are looking for you are probably not going to be motivated to register for a forum that looks like it is dead.

We have had over 1000 unique visitors so far this month.  They look at the articles and other content and then they come into the forum look at the index and leave without registering.  The few who come back ar going to the content side without ever looking at the forum again.  

The forum looks dead because there are too many forums.  Some of the forums are unsupported and there are only a couple of actual tech forums that show any activity. The look fo the forum has to change. Not the presentation, but the activity levl has to look different.  Adding more empty forums just make the problem worse.

[VGR]

I agree.

Perhaps you could add to the "propose and consult" description that this IS the place where a would-be Mentor can propose a new forum he would take care of.

This way it will be clearer.

[coral1]

Perhaps you could add to the "propose and consult" description that this IS the place where a would-be Mentor can propose a new forum he would take care of

That shouldn't be hard to do, but "Help Build and Administer the Site" would be the best place, if they just "want" to do it.

P&C would be better suited if they wondered if others thought it was a good idea to start a specific subject.

While not mandatory, the main purpose of P&C is to take something to a vote.  

WooHoo! time for a  :coffee2:  break

[seandelaney]

We have already got a problem with unused forums. They make the forums look like a dead zone

I agree. I think we all got abit carried away at the start suggesting the different topic areas.  At the moment alot of them are not been required.

I think we should consider cleaning up some of topic area's as already suggested; if a topic area is required and there is alot of need for it, it should be available otherwise, remove it for now.

But we should have a notice for those who come looking for support / advice that if there is a topic area not listed, please contact our mentors...

we need to get more of our mentors / members thoughts on this too!

[VGR]

just an idea : why not a "others" or "not yet listed" topic ? this way, if demand is high enough a specific forum could be created - and already populated ;-) - and if the demand is too low, at least users will :
(a) have a place where ask their question - else it looks like a "closed skillset" forum
(b) have the relevant answer or redirection to a better suited place

that's also the solution I adopted for europeanexperts.org

It's painful to manage this "others" catcher topic, but I feel it's necessary to make the site "live"

[Huntress]

That's a good suggestion VGR.  I'll have a look when I get home tonight and see if I can come up with a preliminary list of topics that should be moved and then we can discuss it.

[Esopo]

I agree that we have too many unused areas, and I also agree that we need a catch-all for questions that don't yet have an area.

My suggestion:

Delete everything that has not moved yet (unless we truly expect it to show signs of live pretty soon) and make sure there is some catch-all area left for any channel that gets removed.

[CrYpTiC_MauleR]

I agree too, many areas are empty, yes some of them we may have Mentors for them but at the moment no one is asking questions in them. I say remove the dead forums, and put 'Other' in that category so any question that does not have a forum can go there. Once enough questions are made for a certain topic then a forum can be made for it and the questions can be moved there. That way it wont look dead.

[COBOLdinosaur]

Let's see what Sandi come up with.

I think any topic that does not have a mmentor or any interest at this point should go.

For topic with a Mentor but no action, i theink the Mentor needs to have input into it.  Perhaps in some cases we just need to do something to kick start it.

In forums where the Mentors have been pro-active and started discussions, that seems to get followed by questions cmoming in.  No one like to post in an empty forum.  If Mentors are not interested enough in their forums to build them up, then maybe we need to shut those forums down.  

However we want to be careful where tha Mentor(s) are working on material for the content side because an article of two may be all that is need to fire a forum up.

Cd&

 :^)

[Huntress]

Here's what I've got so far:

Clientside Technology:  Flash; editors: muso & j3one
Programming:  C; editor: Srirangan.  VB; editor: gecko2648
Graphics:  Animation; editor: j3one
Hardware:  Video/Graphics, Audio/Soundcards, Motherboards, Storage; editor: coral1
Security:  Security Alerts; no editor

I can safely remove "Security Alerts" and I've prompted muso to post something in Flash.  I think coral1 won't mind if we just split Hardware into the two groups for now.

[Esopo]

If we want to keep Flash alive, I can post some scripts I was playing with a little while ago.