More forum reorganisation...

[Ben]

Hi everyone, the forum is growing at a fantastic rate, thanks to all of your wonderful input and all the new people who are joining, and we think it needs a bit of reorganising so that it grows in the best way possible.

So, I have made some more changes this morning. In the Notes from Spain forum I have changed the first section to a simple 'Travel Advice' area, seperating off everything to do with culture and news into a seperate, new section - 'Spanish Culture, Spanish Life and News'. There is a bit of overlap between this section and the 'Your NFS' section, as both include film reviews for example. If you have any ideas on how to distinguish these better, please let me know below. When the forum grows even bigger it may be worth seperating off another section for news articles, but not just yet I think.

In the Notes in Spanish section we now have a seperate area to talk about Spanish language courses.

I have moved the podcast comments section to the bottom as I thing the Off topic section in busier. It may be worth moving 'feedback' and 'forum admin news and rules' below the podcast feedback area (ideas?)

Any comments or suggestions for possible further refinements would be very welcome.

Finally, at some point in the next few weeks there will be a small design change. The forum template will expand width-ways so that it fits the entire browser window (as it did at the beginning). This is so that we can have a very unobtrusive column of very unobtrusive ads in a left hand column. We promise to do this as tastefully as possible, and hope you understand that we need the small extra revenue this will give us to help cover increasing costs of running NFS and NIS.

Any comments on all the above will be very gratefully received!

[greytop]

Ben don't thank us for enjoying ourselves, you have done the hard work! Many forums are set up and never adapt to their users whereas you are proactive in keeping this one useable. :thumbs-up:
Also personally I don't mind ads (not pop-ups however!) and will often have a look at any that interest me. If they help support your running costs or better still make a profit then go for it.
My only suggestion as to layout would be to put "Off topic" into the "NFS Forum" group and then rename "Everything else" to something like "Forum matters". That way many of the most visited topics would be together near the top.

[cubix]

Ben,

It looks good. One thing though, might be careful not to make a forum for every seperate thing. Going through 15 different forums, and finding that each one has new post can get tiring.

Greg

[Ben]

My only suggestion as to layout would be to put "Off topic" into the "NFS Forum" group and then rename "Everything else" to something like "Forum matters". That way many of the most visited topics would be together near the top.
Thanks Greytop, I think it is worth moving 'forum matters' down as you say, but I might keep off topic seperate from the Notes from Spain section .... I shall definitely think more about that.
Ben,

It looks good. One thing though, might be careful not to make a forum for every seperate thing. Going through 15 different forums, and finding that each one has new post can get tiring.

Greg

I agree, but the best way around that is to use the 'New Posts' link in the blue navigation bar above, as it does that for you in one click. For me it's the most useful button on the whole board.

[Edith]

Hi everyone, the forum is growing at a fantastic rate, thanks to all of your wonderful input

And to yours and Marina's! You guys just keep on coming up with interesting podcasts! :clap: