An improvment suggestion

[Samuli Kolehmainen]

It's my first post and the ranting starts right away . Anyway I think that the number of forums (General Martial Arts Talk, Aikido, Capoeira, ..., Schools/Instructors, Merchandise) should be decreased alot. The volume of messages is just not high enough to justify the 32 forums. Four or five or so would be a far more reasonable count.

First of all, all martial arts could be combined to a single forum (if some art should clearly rise above others receiving a really high number of posts per day, then it should by all means get its own area). Now it's just awkward to go back and forth in the forum/thread-tree to get to read that one new message. I can understand how the administrator thought that it would simplify things if the most 'main stream' MAs had their own area, but maybe a misjudgement happened here (no offence). Most (if not all) of the threads have a topic anyway that states the art relating to the subject, so people who are not interrested in say jiu-jitsu would just skip over those threads as they've done so far. The pro of this merger would be that a person like me, who likes to read about every art, wouldn't have to jump between the forums so much.

Second the forums humor, horror stories, the library and websites really should be only a single forum. Again it might have seemed to be a good idea but again the amount of messages per forum per day/week/month is too low.

I don't know how hard it would be to accomplish these changes but IMHO they would improve the usability of the board at least for now when the user and message counts are low. So what does everybody else think?

P.S. I have followed the forum for a while and really appreciate the work and time Kaith Rustaz, Cthulhu and Renegede and of course the posters commit to make this a good martial-arts forum.

-Samuli

 

[Cthulhu]

We appreciate the input! Let me address some of your points.

Originally posted by Samuli Kolehmainen
It's my first post and the ranting starts right away . Anyway I think that the number of forums (General Martial Arts Talk, Aikido, Capoeira, ..., Schools/Instructors, Merchandise) should be decreased alot. The volume of messages is just not high enough to justify the 32 forums. Four or five or so would be a far more reasonable count.

You need to keep in mind that this is still a very new message board. We just got our 100th registered member a couple days ago. Some of the forums do remain inactive for some time, but eventually somebody starts a good thread in them. For example, the Tae Kwon Do forum was pretty much no man's land until a few days ago. Now it gets posts on a fairly regular basis.

I think it's still too early to decide what to cut, since we're still very young. The post volume may not be high enough now, but the amount of posts is growing considerably. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we reached our 500th post...and we just 2000 last night, I believe!

Give that some time.

First of all, all martial arts could be combined to a single forum (if some art should clearly rise above others receiving a really high number of posts per day, then it should by all means get its own area). Now it's just awkward to go back and forth in the forum/thread-tree to get to read that one new message. I can understand how the administrator thought that it would simplify things if the most 'main stream' MAs had their own area, but maybe a misjudgement happened here (no offence). Most (if not all) of the threads have a topic anyway that states the art relating to the subject, so people who are not interrested in say jiu-jitsu would just skip over those threads as they've done so far. The pro of this merger would be that a person like me, who likes to read about every art, wouldn't have to jump between the forums so much.

You can always adjust your preferences to not display older messages, making it a bit easier for you in that you won't have to wade through older thread. Again, we're new. Give it time.

Second the forums humor, horror stories, the library and websites really should be only a single forum. Again it might have seemed to be a good idea but again the amount of messages per forum per day/week/month is too low.

Actually, for a time, these forums were all pretty active. Again, we're new. For the time being, as our ranks increase, the influx of posts in various threads will be sporadic at best. With only a little over 100 members, it's really too early to start culling forums, since that really isn't a large population to base such a decision on.

I don't know how hard it would be to accomplish these changes but IMHO they would improve the usability of the board at least for now when the user and message counts are low. So what does everybody else think?

Again, try using the feature in your preferences that allows you to adjust the threads shown by their age. Also, if you think a forum doesn't have enough activity, and you think you can provide any type of insight appropriate to that forum, go ahead and start a new thread!

P.S. I have followed the forum for a while and really appreciate the work and time Kaith Rustaz, Cthulhu and Renegede and of course the posters commit to make this a good martial-arts forum.

-Samuli

I appreciate the sentiment, but most of the credit really must go to Kaith, the creator and Lord High Emperor of the board. It was a great idea, and the implementation of it has been superb. I can't speak for Renegade, but I do little more than hold down the fort for Kaith. Also, a lot of credit must be given to the active members of the board, who have provided us with many a lively topic. Without them, this board would be a ghost town.

:cheers:

Cthulhu

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Welcome to MT Samuli. :asian:

Please bear with me as my eyes are still a little outta whack (so im gonna make a lot o typos here)

Cthulhu hit alot of the points well. I want to see if I can flesh it out a bit more.

Number of Forums : We started out with a smaller number, and have added several 'auxilery' forums such as the Humor and Support forums. I'll be taking a look at the post counts and tweaking forums as needed though.

Organization : We set it up this way so that if someone was only interested in say, Ninjitsu, they could just look there, and not have to wade thru the Tai Chi info. I do realize that while for some who like to check out everything (like me ) this makes it sometimes harder to follow, but alot of others like the compartmentalization. There are other boards out there, and theres always RMA and RMAM that lump everything into 1 big forum, but I have problems wading thru everything looking for that 1 bit I want.

Post / Member / Forum ratios : As Cthulhu mentioned, we're new. Some of the forums are 'empty', others are really moving good. As we get more members, and posts, things will pick up.

There are a few ways to 'customize' the forum so its more enjoyable. At the top of the main page is a "View New Posts" link that shows all the new posts since you last logged in. Also, on the user control panel you can 'subscribe' to forums, track topics of interest, customize your profile, and a few more things I can't recall off hand.

We are evolving as time goes on, so there will always be some tweaking, and more forum manipulation. Right now, the top 3 forums are the FMA, the general and the JKD. Thats because the majority of folks who first saw us were in those areas of interest. I'm planning on some forum merging to streamline shortly, and a few other changes too. A key point to what happens is member feedback like yours. Without it, I'm clueless. So, keep the suggestions coming.

Peace.

:asian:

 

[GouRonin]

I'd like to see a forum dedicated to the most important topic we have here...

...me.

:wavey:

 

[Bob Hubbard]

But we do Gou...We Do..... Pick 1...the HORROR or the HUMOR!!!

:rofl:

 

[vincefuess]

Looks like problem solved!

Thanks

 

[arnisador]

I merged in a post.

-Arnisador
-MT Admin-