How many subforums are too many?

[Ravenfreak]

So I'm currently working on a entertainment forum, and I was wondering just how many subforums are too many? Especially for a new one, is over 10 too much or plenty? I have categories based on retro entertainment, modern entertainment, an off topic area, and a site information area. The site information area has three subforums, and already the Retro entertainment has about five subforums. I asked this question on Forum Promotion, and the two people who replied said the less subforums there are the better. What do you guys think?

 

[Nebulous]

I think if you have 10 sub-forums maybe you should just create a new category and put them in there. That might make your index page run too long though depending on what you already have on your index page.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think many of us make the mistake of using too many sub-boards.

I know I used to be bad at this.

Nowadays, I'm trying to minimize them. I've been merging boards as much as possible on my forums.

I'm really trying to condense it all down.

 

[nomad]

I think this will be determined by your niche. If you have a broad niche, you will be needing too many sub forums, however, if your niche is narrowed down, a few sub forums will do.

 

[Daltonio]

If subforums start dying down, it's probably a good idea to merge them.

It's definitely possible to have too many though. One forum I'm a member on (SuperheroHype) is a pretty big forum (used to be a lot bigger) and they have a subforum for straight up like every single superhero movie that comes out. Which these days.. is a lot. I pretty much just hung out in the Spidey forums so the rest of the forums were like an entire different world to me, 90% of the users being ones I never interacted with. Some forums can make it work but these days I'd say it's probably a bit overwhelming.

 

[Nebulous]

One forum I'm a member on (SuperheroHype) is a pretty big forum (used to be a lot bigger) and they have a subforum for straight up like every single superhero movie that comes out. Which these days.. is a lot.

That is a lot!!! They should just have a forum for Marvel, DC, etc. Otherwise they'd have hundreds of sub-forums.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think keeping is down as much as possible should be the goal.

You can broaden your board descriptions and focus on more content within them.

When we add too many, keeping them all active becomes a challenge.

Inactive sections make the forum look "not as active" as it can be.

Working with fewer sections makes it easier to keep everything updated with fresh content and engaging discussions.

 

[Black Angel]

No joke, I was once on an IF forum, that was based on the exact same PB forum, and it had 10 categories with about 10 forums and then 3 sub forums each.. and it was run by the same admin on both services..

The site was slow as hell and navigation was just so overwhelming..

It definitely made me rethink how I ran my forum and it inspired me to change how I did things..

Instead of me trying to anticipate what subjects would come up and making a forum based on that, I instead let the content guide me and I'd follow along with that..

I would let my members post whatever they wanted to talk about and see how the topic went from there. If it became active and a lot of other members were posting topics that were similar and they took off, then I would do go and make an area for that topic on the forum..

And that is how I've always done things since 2004.

 

[passenger]

The navigation at this forum has not been exactly easy to learn....seems like there are LOTS of forums and subforums.

BUT
Whatever Nebulous is doing with this arrangement, he's doin' it right.

...... insofar as I'm concerned

 

[Daltonio]

That is a lot!!! They should just have a forum for Marvel, DC, etc. Otherwise they'd have hundreds of sub-forums.

Here's a screenshot of just a *taste* of how crazy it is there. And keep in mind lots of those have subforums within subforums you can't see.

 

[Nebulous]

Here's a screenshot of just a *taste* of how crazy it is there. And keep in mind lots of those have subforums within subforums you can't see.

 

[DrLeftover]

But how do you know what sub-forum or threads or topics will catch somebody's eye and suddenly light up?

And then again, a topic that you think is going to be hot ends up setting idle for a month.

so it goes

 

[Black Angel]

I take a laissez-faire approach.. I let people start the topics they want to discuss and go from there..

But sometimes a good discussion can be spun off of a thread and that is why I am a big fan of splitting topics as well.

I am not too strict regarding off topic posts.. I think it is natural to go off topic especially when people are comfortable talking to each other.. I mean it happens IRL too.. so why begrudge the same behavior when it happens online?

And as for the empty topics, I'll leave them for about a month or so before I move them to my recycle bin..

 

[Nebulous]

I think it is natural to go off topic especially when people are comfortable talking to each other.. I mean it happens IRL too.. so why begrudge the same behavior when it happens online?

We don't do that here, its in our name

 

[Tex]

I'd definitely start with bordering too few, rather than too many. Too many will just divide the discussions further and make the forum seem more empty.

Start with a few critical categories, and rather use prefixes within each forum to help segment various topics. Once a prefix proves to be popular, you can move it to its own sub-forum or a new main node depending on how it fits best in your structural node tree.

Just my two cents.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Here's a screenshot of just a *taste* of how crazy it is there. And keep in mind lots of those have subforums within subforums you can't see.

Geez that's overkill. xD As for that entertainment forum I mentioned in the original post, it's been merged with my other communities. I still hope I don't have too many subforums but I've worked to condense what I had. The community is three communities merged into one. I recently came across a forum hosted on Forumotion that has way too many subforums. It took me a while to scroll to the bottom of the forum to see the forum stats. xD