Suggestion: Consolidate Clothing, Shoes, Accessories Subforums into One

[Margotron]

Hey all,

I have a suggestion, and am curious what everyone else thinks. While I prefer the layout of the new forum, I do miss the fact that posts relevant to me (ie the clothing, shoes, and accessories subforums) were all accessible in one forum (and yes, I am aware I can sort by recent activity presently, but it's not the same).

I make this suggestion because I feel that the way it is organized now is causing the Shoes and Accessories subforms to get fewer reads than if they were lumped with Clothing. Those subforums feel like ghost towns at current (which further discourages traffic. It's basically a negative feedback loop). I think we simply don't have enough traffic to merit subforums for those categories.

My suggestion is based off the fact that Styleforum is able to pull it off all in a single forum for Clothing, Shoes, and Accessories, and they have a much larger community than we do.

What say you?

[bruschetta]

Margotron, are you suggesting that the Shoes and the Accessories subforums become sub-subforums under Clothing? That might be a possibility.

[Margotron]

Maybe...I am not positive of the logistics that I am suggesting, but that sounds like what I am suggesting.

As an "end" result, what I am hoping for (as a user) is to see, in one forum, all the clothes, shoes, and accessories threads. If we could retain the ability to drill down to reveal just shoes or just accessories, that would be some nice added utility. But mostly I am talking about the former. That make sense?

[llie19]

i actually don't mind all subforums merge into one pool, like before the system upgrade. this forum does not have so much traffic that people with say specific interests in shoes would be bothered to see a vast amount of clothing discussions floating around. just my 2 cents.

[Cannon]

i actually don't mind all subforums merge into one pool, like before the system upgrade. this forum does not have so much traffic that people with say specific interests in shoes would be bothered to see a vast amount of clothing discussions floating around. just my 2 cents.

I do agree that the traffic isn't high enough yet to require so many sub forums. I wouldn't mind some merging to make it quicker for everything to get seen and to encourage traffic on some of the less-visited forum pages.

[bremersm]

I agree that with the low traffic a single style forum is a good idea.

[Hardrain]

I also think they should all be together. My viewing and activity on the forum has really dropped off since the layout changed. It sounds lazy, but honestly I think it is because previously when I had a few spare moments at work I could just jump to threads and see a thread or two I want to read. Now you have to click through the "activity stream" or whatever that is, and then click into a sub topic. I liked just clicking my threads bookmark and seeing what was new.

I also posted a watch thread in the accessories forum and got no responses, I think that activity has dropped off

[LesserBlackDog]

I absolutely agree with consolidation. Right now I've basically been reading the Activity Thread as if it were the actual forum - to me, all the various subforums are way too much for the relatively small amount of traffic the forum gets.

[jeff4]

I absolutely agree with consolidation. Right now I've basically been reading the Activity Thread as if it were the actual forum - to me, all the various subforums are way too much for the relatively small amount of traffic the forum gets.

Completely agree. I honestly miss the old site...

[LosRockets]

@BenR: Same here! And it's hardly efficient as you'll see a dozen posts on WIWT or some other hot thread and miss something else. Would love to go back to a more consolidated format. But I do like a lot of the other changes that came with this move.

[Margotron]

Yup. Prefer the new forum, old format. I feel there has been a drop in activity too, likely due to the 3-way split. This is especially true for shoes/accessories posts

[JT10000]

Ditto - there is not that much traffic here that the separate forums are needed.

[Cannon]

So how should they be grouped now? I think having the Swap and Shop, Brands and Stores, and Other threads separate makes sense. I think everything under Style/Fashion category on the forum listings page might do best if consolidated.

Where should Deals be?

[greg_s]

I also like these ideas. I will shoot Paul an email so that he is aware of this conversation.

[DapperedPaul]

Any votes against this? Seems like a fine idea.