Breaking the cycle?

[leangreen76]

I was reading the article on the front page about changing the way forums etc are designed, and whether paid for or hosting it is down to forum software designers but reading the article (Although old) was interesting and got me thinking. Can forum owners break the cycle themselves. In this age of mobile, tablets, reddit, tabs etc, can we get information quicker without mass scrolling or clicking?

My forum is currently being [a href="[URL]https://forumpromotion.net/threads/forum-blog-spotlight-total-transformers.164028/[/URL]"]featured[/a] here at FP. which links to the live forum, but would it be better I ask if the forums were boiled to 5 main forum aspects?

I did this on a test Proboard who host the main one:



Too severe? Thoughts?

 

[Katrina]

When my forum was first created there was a guy who came over from a successful forum who gave some tips and said at the beginning to consolidate the sections so it always looks busy. As you grow you can increase the areas to fit the needs. When I go to new sites and see 25 different sections to post in it looks sloppy. I personally don't see your site as being too busy or needing to scroll too much.

 

[meetdilip]

Responsive, gamification. You need at least these 2 to survive in this time of forums.

 

[leangreen76]

When my forum was first created there was a guy who came over from a successful forum who gave some tips and said at the beginning to consolidate the sections so it always looks busy. As you grow you can increase the areas to fit the needs. When I go to new sites and see 25 different sections to post in it looks sloppy. I personally don't see your site as being too busy or needing to scroll too much.

Thank-you. One of the ideas I've gone by is that at nearly 18 years old our message board can afford to have what boards we want, however; I've always tried to keep it in context of what we actually need and still not have too many. For now it's just about being more efficient and how we display our information in this day of said tablets. phones, reddit and social media etc. To have that immediate access and eliminate any scrolling.

For now I have had a small re-organization but mainly delved into the coding, especially to remove the replies and and threads column on the index page we had; something I've always been very weary of doing. I have done this for all of our themes however and staggered the board so the forums are right their after the portal page and seeing how it goes..

 

[Deleted member 4320]

I think forums have changed from what they once were and the traditional layout isn’t always the best way forward which is why I’ve removed sections from my forum to be one list instead.