How do you decide the order of your subforums?

[Beverly]

So let's say you have an admin or webmaster forum. Or, maybe a gaming forum. How do you decide what order your subforums will be? For instance, on a gaming forum do you put general chat up top along with introductions/rules, followed by games for specific games? How do you decide which games go first? On a webmaster forum, should you put the 'webmaster topics' near the top and general chat near bottom? Does the position of subforums influence search engine ranking at all? Please talk about the order in which you have your subforums on your own forum and why you chose those positions and how you think it benefits your forum community.

 

[ForumSource]

I like to have news and an area to introduce yourself at the top, followed by the main focus of the forum... If it was a gaming forum, the gaming boards would be second, and then whatever boards are off topic after those.

 

[Moonface]

I run a gaming forum so I can easily chip in on how I organise such a thing. I put forum announcements, suggestions, and site contests at the top of the board, then in the next category I have the forums for video-game discussions, of which none are focused on a specific game and never will be. I have it as General Gaming, Video-Games (where specific topics for video-games are, such as a topic for SSB4, The Last of Us, Uncharted, CoD Ghosts, etc.), Consoles, and then a section for Reviews, Guides, and Let's Plays. Finally at the bottom are all the general social and off-topic forum areas.

 

[Mikaya]

in order;

- The main section (news, intro's etc)
- Main Game boards dedicated to specific game consoles (Wii U, 3DS etc)
- Other boards dedicated to specific game series (Mario, Zelda etc)
- Tech/music/media/general boards are the last.

very organized.

 

[Chadook]

*Unnamed Zone
*FTON Heart
*Non-FTON Products
* Nadia & Sam Zone (creativity and arts)
*Fathia Zone (off topic)

This is my organization of things, from important things, to chit chat.

 

[Migi]

I like to put on-topic, important sections at the very top. After those I'll put the forum-related business areas, such as news, suggestions, and introduction. Then member-related boards, like the general discussion area. No particular reason why, though, I just feel like it may help to concentrate the attention for visitors instead of looking at other not-so-important areas first.

 

[Forces of Steel]

Most of our child forums are for our band recommendations, because our direction is to have a universal perspective and understanding of metal music as a whole.

They also make the band recommendations easier to search for.