Moving / Adding / Organizing forums

[webmaster]

OK so now that the IT community seems to have become a bit more "Forum Savvy" in the past year I think it's time to revisit moving / adding / organizing the forums a bit...

For example.. would a guest coming to the site to find out about this new ITR class ever think to look for an ITR subforum in "Rules & Regs" when no other class forums exist there?

If a guest wanted to explore the various makes and models we race.. it's covered...

But what about the classes? Classes are always confusing in road racing. Without a firm grasp of the GCR nobody has got a clue... so I propose we add a new section with each class broken out (like the Gallery) so that discussions about specific issues within those classes can occur.

There can and should be a main "classes" forum where discussions not specific to 1 class can take place of course.


Perhaps like this:

• IT Classes (parent)
  
  • ITA
  • ITB
  • ITC
  • ITS
  • ITR
  • ITE/SPO/SPU/ITD/IT7 etc

If it turns out nobody uses it we can always roll the threads back up into teh genmeral discussions...

Thoughts, suggestions?

Give me any more ideas you might have about categories... especially how to expand the scope of IT.com. With the push to attract racers from other clubs and forms of racing we should be organizing our site to attract that curiousity and make it easy and fun to be aa part of IT racing.

[webmaster]

Nothin?

....ok then. Don't complain when I go hog wild with customization

[Butch Kummer]

I don't know about a newbie, but when I visit (often several times a day) I click on the "New Posts" to see who's whining about whom since my last visit...

[gran racing]

Okay, fine.

Give me any more ideas you might have about categories... especially how to expand the scope of IT.com.

I don't think adding information about each class is necessary, and in fact would just add clutter to the forum. More forums and sections does not mean better. I don't think classes are what people find confusing in Improved Touring, although I will agree that there is some confusion as to differences in categories. When looking at the discussions on this forum, it's not very often there are ones specific to an individual class.

Maybe there would be other sections or information which could be added to draw additional interest to this forum? I'm not really sure what since I rely so heavily on the "new posts" feature versus searching through the various sections.

would a guest coming to the site to find out about this new ITR class ever think to look for an ITR subforum in "Rules & Regs" when no other class forums exist there?

Probably not, but I'm not sure what value that seperate section adds anyway. Hey, you asked.

I'm honestly not sure what new approaches can be taken to encourage existing lurkers to participate in discussions as well as attract new members to the forum.

[Andy Bettencourt]

I think it's fine.

[Eagle7]

I think it's fine.

That depends on what the word it means.

[Ron Earp]

I think it'd be a good idea and like the attempts at more organization. Do it up!

[trhoppe]

I think you should leave it. Not enough traffic for 6 subforums, and stuff will get lost when a ITR thread tangents off to something the ITA guys want to give input on.

Make one called "IT" and thats it :-)

I was thinking about splitting up the sandbox (rr-ax.com) with subcategories and the members told me it was a bad idea.

-Tom

[tom_sprecher]

Like Butch, I tend to use "new posts" and like Hoppe I would suggest there are currently enough subforums.

What I would change is the fact you need at least 4 letters in each term to do a search. Makes it a pain to search for things like ITA, ITB, ITC, ITS, ITR, IT7, RX7, 12a, gas, oil, etc.

[Greg Amy]

That depends on what the word it means.

Well, according to Webster's dictionary and the normally-accepted, common sense vernacular, "it" is referring to....

Ah, never mind....