Decreased Traffic?

[Wayne]

Other that is there any problem with any of the other forum layout ? Looking for constructive criticism.
[/b]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I think it is important to keep the categories very simple on a forum that has so little traffic. While I understand the desire to sub categorize for purposes of making data retrieval on a specific subject easier, that only works if you have significant forum traffic whereby stuff actually gets posted in all the sub categories. I think a better strategy for small forums relative to data retrieval is to insure that the forum search engine is robust. If I want recent posts on 6-point harnesses I can just do a search and pull-up up the posts on said subject.

I respectfully suggest the following format:

Tech Talk

Rules, Regulations, and Classing

General IT Discussions

Driving Technique and specific Race Track questions

Specific car Models

When a person comes to the IT forum page they see the above categories only. When they click into one of the above main categories they see a list of posts only. No subcategories, no full page long list of "stickys" etc. Just a simple list of the posts under that main category.

When the forum reaches 75K active members, and new posts are rolling off first page of the main categories every 60 seconds, then maybe look at adding further subcategories.

Wayne

[turboICE]

I only use view new posts.

I think the top level topics are fine, the second level topics are uneccessary and burdensome IMO. Just have one level of topics.

As for the rest of it in off season getting involved in discussion which I ultimately have an opinion on that I will feel compelled to participate in just isn't worth the time during the season.

Also I think that anything that is worth discussing on this forum should be worth discussing publically - a locked section limited to those with the same views isn't much of a discussion.

I definitely like the new system and interface much better than the old forum system.

[tnord]

without reading this whole thing i drop some loose change on the original subject....

as some of you know me from other boards, and know that i post and read quite frequently, the forum breakdown does lead to less reading/posting for me. on a certain other board that just got created i'm there all the time because i can take a quick glance at everything that's being discussed in literally 10seconds (when it's working). here it takes about 10x longer to sift through everything. the result is that i really only click on two forums to see what's going on.

[imported_Webmaster]

I think the top level topics are fine, the second level topics are uneccessary and burdensome IMO. Just have one level of topics.
[/b]

You think there should only be 4 topics?
Or do you mean no 3rd level topics?


I have removed some of the subforums. I'm looking at removing more.
But I REALLY want to understand what is meant by "additional clicks"

If you want to read posts on Mazda IT cars or NE Division IT posts how is this forum any differnt than it was when started years ago?

Trying to understand.


>> and opening up more layers is really slow...you forget how frustrating it can be if you have fast cable.

At the very bottom of every page it says "lo-fi" Use this if yo have dial up. Aslo this can be set in your personal profiles to be the permenant look. That will make the site fly.

Also speed should be increased for eeveryone now. Some things were optimised while we were eradicating the hacker's crap.

[turboICE]

You think there should only be 4 topics?
Or do you mean no 3rd level topics?
I have removed some of the subforums. I'm looking at removing more.
But I REALLY want to understand what is meant by "additional clicks"
[/b]

Doesn't affect me as much anymore since the layering stopped me from looking in the layers for topics and I only view new posts now.

I guess third level in the admin hiearchy.

What I mean is that when I was looking at the forum page - and wanted to read on Tech Talk I wanted to click there and see everything I didn't want to have to go into and out of 4 subsections of Tech Talk.

All topics on the front forum page are fine - it was the subtopics below these that sent me to viewing new posts and avoiding the hiearchy of the sub-forums.

[imported_Webmaster]

subforums removed.

[Jeremy Billiel]

I like it much better! Thank you!

[imported_Webmaster]

Regarding the traffic...we dont even have a years worth of stas yet but the home page stats go way back and show a fluctuation every year. People seemed to get all geared up in the early spring and pre-ARRC.

Summer always slows down because some people with real lives dont sit in front of the monitor all day and night :P

Here are some #s to chew on....

Forum Popularity



Number of Monthly topics holding around 200+



Number of total posts is dropping since March.



Total MB of traffic through home page (not a good measure)

[gsbaker]

Posts per topic is down since March, but do you have a measure of views per topic? Without year-over-year stats it is difficult to draw a conclusion. Could just be seasonal.

One thing is for certain: There are too many rules nerds in the Northeast. :duck:

[ddewhurst]

***:duck:***

I like that ^ , some of them expect some of us to to them.

Next thing ya know taking the torch & whacking away on the chassis so that a roll cage will fit will be deamed legal. Don't matter that ya can lighten the crap out of the chassis.

[emwavey]

Lot's of stuff going on, both personal and professional have left me with not much time to visit IT.com

...

I'm just glad it's still here and you guys are still posting.

FWIW, I really like the new format and happy to see some effort making IT.com a better place. Anyone remember how we used to have to post wanted ads? 1000 x better!

[gsbaker]

Dave,

It gets better by the minute; we have Blethen doing rap.

[emwavey]

I saw that, kind of scary. Next thing you'll tell me is that he's actually able to take the ball to the hoop ...

Where's that basketball icon?

-dave, who's CRX is in the garage for no reason relating to the additional weight
8)