The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Ameraucana Marketplace

Multiple Categories in the Forums

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Guest:
I have suggested that more categories be added to the forums to allow more organization of our discussions.  All the existing threads in the \"Ameraucana Marketplace\" would then be sorted into the new categories so users could find relevant information more quickly.  I would leave Ameraucan Marketplace as the \"For Sale / To Purchase\" category where users would post \"looking to buy and sell\" threads.

Personally, I use forums for not just topic disussions, but as a knowledgebase where information can be found quickly when needed.  Having to look through hundreds and even thousands of threads makes for a daunting task.  

For example, a user has a heating question for chicks.  They come to the forum and run a quick search for \"heat\" (and several other keywords) and don\'t find what they are looking for.  Just a couple of months ago, they saw a great discussion that had exactly what they needed, but can\'t find it again.  Now, they are faced with going through each topic one by one until they run across it again.

In this scenario, their pile of threads they have to go through one by one can be significantly reduced if they were categorized  and the discussions contained in each category were limited to subjects falling within that category.

What are your thoughts?

John:
When I started the ABC Forum it was going to be just for a few purposes so that it wouldn\'t compete with the ABC Sharing Place which was started by ABC members.  The Sharing Place is an MSN message board and they have rules that don\'t allow buying and selling on their boards.  The ABC Forum is a Mercury Board and doesn\'t have those restrictions.  Originally we had about three categories, like the Market Place for buying & selling, a Club Notes section for club news, meet info and such and I think some other category.  Some folks started having discussions anyway.  The Forum was hacked and went down.  Rita and Vicky were managing the Sharing Place and both said they welcomed the Forum and didn\'t see it as competition or a conflict of interest so with their blessings I brought the Forum back with just one category open for any Ameraucana related stuff.
The Forum has grown quite a bit in the last year or so and we now have several members that post on a regular basis.
It may be time to do as Wes suggests and come up with some categories.  This Forum is paid for by the ABC, but whether you are a dues paying member or not if you use the Forum I would like to know what your suggestions are.
Leave it as is or add categories?  If we add categories how many and what subjects should we use?

Suz:
When this forum first started, I expected there to be other categories as in most other forums.  However, as time went on, I haven\'t missed other categories.  ABC Shareing Place has several categories, but since I am really interested in all of the discussions there (because they are mostly about Ameraucanas or at least from Ameraucana people) I always click on \"View all Messages\" rather than one of the forum categories.

I can see the point of being able to search for old discussions better, but many of the discussions get off-topic from the actual name of the topic--which is okay, too, it just happens with any good discussion on a forum or in real person-to-person communication.  So I don\'t know whether categorizing the topics would really help with that or not.  The \"search\" feature has worked pretty well for me, so far, for wanting to find something that I\'d read earlier.

I\'m pretty happy with the way it is, but I wouldn\'t have an objection to categorizing the topics as long as an option like \"View all topics\" was available, too.

Susie

Guest:
John,
  You titled this forum the official forum of the ABC.  There are little message boards all over the place for different breeds....that\'s fine....But, if this is the official club forum, maybe it should be enlarged to encompass different aspects.
  When I want reliable information, I come here....I don\'t go to some message board...no matter who runs it.  I refer everyone to this web-site.

Angela

Oh, and just a thought....  Wouldn\'t it be lovely to have a breeder list available to the public so that they can find the varieties for which they are looking?

Guest:
One of the traits of a good message board which has many categories is a group of moderators and administrators that move topics and discussions to where they need to be (under the proper category) and keep discussions from straying from the original post.  

If more than two or three posts are entered \"off-topic\" then the thread is split into two separate discussion threads, each one containing the relevant parts.

Then, you don\'t have the problem of a post that encompasses a dozen different thoughts and seems to be jumping with no clear relationship and natural progression of discussion.

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