Can a forum have too many subforums?

[Ravenfreak]

I'm curious to know if you guys think a forum can have too many subforums? I'm setting up a entertainment forum right now and I feel that I might be adding too many subforums. I have a category with five different sub forums based on different genres, and will probably end up with another five just for the niche itself. This doesn't include the off topic and site information area. Would having 13 or more subforums be too overwhelming for a new forum?

 

[meetdilip]

Keeping it simple helps

 

[Page]

maybe 5 is too much?

 

[Deleted member 49125]

I'd keep it low-key to start. The more sub-forums there are, the less active they can appear at the beginning. You can always add in more as time goes on when you have threads you can move over.
Let us know what you decide 🙂

 

[Katrina]

It depends on how you have them arranged.

For Crafter Craze, I have a lot of various forums, but that's because certain specific types of projects would get lost if I kept them in bigger groups. So I have many sub-forums purely for the purpose of ease for members to find the type of craft that they do. I recently removed 2 of the sub-forums because they weren't having any activity and aren't as popular in any of the crafting groups I'm in.

Another thing I wanted to do for Crafter Craze was to have the important sections at the top, the craft categories in the middle and things related to business at the bottom because that's the order of importance to me.

 

[Page]

Also to mention also that having subforums keeps your index smaller 😉 Having too much on your index makes people scroll and busy and people do not always scroll all the way down. Subforums allow that

 

[Moonface]

For a new forum I'd say that's far too many. If possible, maybe try implementing a tag system on the threads instead for the time being so you can still have them somewhat organized, but without having them spread thin across too many areas?

 

[Ravenfreak]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I've decided to reduce the number of subforums. So now I've only got 9 subforums counting my staff lounge. 🙂

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think it all depends on what the community wants.

You should give the members what they want more than what you want. You depend on them and their activity in the long run, especially as forums have declined over the years.

I am trying to start forums with fewer sub-boards than I'd normally make and then add more if they're demanded.

That's my new approach.

 

[Smokey]

Absolutely. It's unattractive if a forum has too many forums and a lot of those forums are empty with nothing in them. Just my two cents on the matter.

 

[zappaDPJ]

It's unattractive if a forum has too many forums and a lot of those forums are empty with nothing in them.

That sums it up for me. If a forum/category is largely empty or hasn't seen any activity in months, at the very least it's unlikely to encourage new registrations.

A single forum using thread prefixes is a viable alternative. The forum looks busy, members can sort by prefix and threads containing a particular prefix can easily be moved to a new forum at a later date when things get busy.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Absolutely. It's unattractive if a forum has too many forums and a lot of those forums are empty with nothing in them. Just my two cents on the matter.

I definitely agree with this one. If the forum has lots of sub forums that are empty, it doesn't look good. I have a bit more subforums than I stated above since I changed some things around, but I've made sure to add content to every subforum.

 

[PBear]

Keep it simple.

 

[bharath]

For Entertainment you need more sub forums like each channel must a seperate forum so users can browse easily, but you too have an active members for every forums.

More Forums = More members = More Spendings.

 

[Page]

you can add almost everything into one without so many subs

 

[Deleted member 17779]

Like everyone else has mentioned, if the forum is just starting out then there is such a thing has having "too many". Once a forum is established and has gained a certain amount of activity on it, I think it could be okay as long as there's regular activity in each area. You don't want to have an area that doesn't have any activity in it or hasn't had any activity in it for a while. That would make the forum look too inactive.....

 

[Nomad]

I think the number of boards, categories, and subforums you should have on your forum is entirely determined by your niche. If your niche is broad, you might have to add a lot of sub forums

 

[Shortie_]

I am a firm believer that if you have too many subforums it can make the forum look messy and just not very professional at all. If I go onto a forum and I see way too many forums and sub-forums and it just looks messy and confusing I will often leave. I always feel that a forum should look professional, clean, and easy to navigate.

 

[Page]

who really goes into each board to read everything anyway like MEeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Naza]

I am a firm believer that if you have too many subforums it can make the forum look messy and just not very professional at all. If I go onto a forum and I see way too many forums and sub-forums and it just looks messy and confusing I will often leave. I always feel that a forum should look professional, clean, and easy to navigate.

A lot is changing nowadays. A lot of people are beginning to take interest in commenting on those multiple sections because they find it quite interesting. So, for me, I see no reasons not to have more sub sections.