Lots of forums (too many?)

[the register]

I know I'm definitely setting myself up for getting some flak here, but it seems like there is forum overload going on at this site. I tried counting the number, but stopped when I got to about 40. There has to be 100 or so forums on here?

Many of these forums have < 100 threads in them. As a newcomer to this site (and scuba) its overwhelming to have all of these, and makes it hard to parse through the list of them to find which to post in.

It seems like there could be some consolidation. For instance:
* Dry Suits + Wetsuits = Suits
OR
* Suits + BC's ... = Suits + BC's

* WTB + Used Stuff to sell = Barter [WTB(S)]
* Job Well Done + Introduce = Shout Outs
* How do I fix this + DIY = DIY

Just some ideas. I know there are subtleties to all of these, but it seems like in the interest of simplicity versus specificity, some consolidation would help

[texdiveguy]

I think you probably have been out of the water to long and suffer from lack of diving=GO DIVE!

[navyhmc]

Nah, I like the amount of forums. Besides, if you post in the wrong forum, you don't get beat up on so it's okay.

[diversteve]

Been to Scubaboard? Now that's what I call a lot of forums.

[Matt P]

I cannot speak for the administrators of this site. But, my assumption is that it is organized this way to consider for future growth. Over the months and years those thread counts will grow. It is much easier to organize them now then to pour over them months or years form now in an attempt to sort them.

Also - I cannot speak for how other users putz around on this site. But, I come in and look at the main forum index. I look at the "Last Post" column and scroll through to find interesting thread titles. That's when I jump into a thread. The more rows there are in that grid the better chance there is I'll have of catching something interesting before it is relegated to the dust bin.


...just some thoughts

[ReefHound]

I agree that future growth is the key. Eventually these smaller forums will be full and some will want even more subforums. Use the Search feature to pull threads of interest from various forums at once. I check the board at least daily and use New Posts, which usually yields a few pages of threads that I skim for ones of interest.

[WV Diver]

Matt and ReefHound are on the mark with the idea of planning for the future. It has not been a topic of discussion really but I'm sure Larry was thinking somewhere along these lines. Also having the forums represent a more specific topic will help us all when it comes time to search for a particular thread.

If you post in the wrong forum it is no big deal. Someone will notice it and correct the problem for you. If you have questions just ask and if you look you will notice that the forums are neatly categorized to make finding a specific forum easy. Topics like Community, Scuba and Dive Gear etc. You get the idea.

I think with just a little time you will learn to quickly navigate our site.

Welcome aboard and don't sweat the small stuff. You only need to ask and someone will help you.

[ScubaToys Larry]

Really, you guys give me way to much credit... forethought... yea.. right?!

No, I'll blame the number of forums on the members. I'm tooling along nicely with just a hand full and someone pm's "Hey how about a night dive forum" and then someones asks "how about a this dive - or that dive forum" "How about womens issues" How come women have a place and men dont? "Why are you including a place for the people who dive with one black fin and one blue fin?"

So when people asked for stuff... I put it up.

Now to the new to the site, let me explain, if there are forums you don't want to view, you can just block them out in your control panel. But when it comes down to it, the people asking about a drysuit, threads on 2 mil shortys are not of much interest to them. So I think it's good having a fair number of forums, but normally... for me... I just click on New Posts, and search, and never really go into the different forum headings....

I think each person in time, finds their comfortable way to navigate around and you'll get used to it pretty quick.

[adv_diver1]

It is inda overwhelming at first, but after you post a few times you start to know your way around and the forums do make sense.

No need to cram everything into one forum. To hard to find old threads, etc.

This is a nice site.

[RoadRacer1978]

I have to agree. I like to way it is set up. Makes it easier to find specifc things once you get used to it. I mainly use the new posts link at the top each time I log in and if I am looking for something more specific I use the search feature. If that doesn't work I can go to the specific forum and browse the topics there. It would be more difficult to find info on a drysuit if wetsuits and drysuits were lumped together. As the site groes there would be that much more info to dig through to find a specific topic you are looking for.