My way to organize a forum

[Steve]

I first want to say that Morgan, you did an exelent job in organizing this forum!

Okay, heres what I think about organizing forums. Before I made my own forum I couldnt stand how the administrator organized the place. Don't get me wrong, the site was awsome, the colors & everything except the organization. It was a very proffestional forum (not going to name names). ANYWAYS, the forum had the announcements & "chit chat" in the same ctagory! Heres a basic sketch of how I like to set up my forum.

(Forum Logo/Banner)

1=Welcome message to everyone on the main page.

2=Area for guests & newbies (incudes rules).

3=Official Forums; includes Announcements & News, Community Discussion for questions, concerns of members ect...

4=The main subject your board is about.

5=Off topic and/or General discussions.

(Info Center)

I like to put the main community stuff near the top so everyone can see it, then I go towards the main subject (whatever you board is about). Then lastly I like to put off topic areas, because they dont really matter as much, but are still important.

So there it! is my quirky way of organizing a forum. If you want an example check out my forum (see signature)

[Del 540]

Yeh, I layout mine similar to that, though there's quite a few main categories on my forum. Here's my lay-out of my board.

1) General:

1 = General Discussion
2 = Entertainment

2) Music:

1 = Rock & Metal
2 = Punk/Ska & Emo
3 = Other Music
4 = Music In General
5 = CD Reviews/Artist Profiles

3) Instruments:

1 = Instrument Discussion
2 = Audio Arena

4) Site:

1 = Site
2 = Mod Forum


The important announcements are in the site forum, and I prefer to keep it at the bottom. At one point, we had about 2 more music forums, but I got rid of them and we split the threads and posts into the other forums. One thing I hate about a board is having to many forums with no posts. Especially when a forum is just starting out. When there's 10-15 forums in a brand new forum, it doesn't appeal to me.

My forum started out with about 6 forums, and now we're at 11, and we'll end up adding more in time.

[Admin]

Great layout schemes and thanks for the good rep Steve

[Steve]

Your welcome.

[Admin]

Anyone else got a forum layout to share with us?

[tony84]

Music
==music styles
Entertainment
==things like albums events clubs etc
General
==general chat and introductions

[VRole]

My forum is as folloiws, go visit it if you would like www.domains-forum.com,
If any one would like to rearange it for me please give me the plan, i may decide to pay you please also add forums if you think they are needed.

Announcements (Forum without catagory)

Domain Name Discussion (catagory)

Domain Name Discussion(forum)
Domain Appraisals (forum)
Domain Newbies (forum)
Industry News (forum)
Domain Company Reviews (forum)
---------------------------------------
Design & Development (catagory)

Web design discussion (forum)
Programming (forum)
Webmaster Tutorials (forum)
Website Development (forum)
Graphic Design / Flash (forum)
Web Design Reviews (forum)
search engines (forum) Domains-Forum Search Engine (subforum)
-------------------------------------
Market (catagory)

Domain sales & Auctions (forum)
Web Design Projects (forum)
Web Hosting Offers & Requests (forum)
For sale / advertising (forum)
--------------------------------------
Community (catagory)

The Break Room (forum)
Welcomes (forum)
Warnings & Alerts (forum)
Helpful free Resources (forum)
Private Messages To Staff (forum)

That6s how it go's.

[crash]

Yeh, does anyone have any suggestions on how to layout an automobile website. It would have to do with classic cars.

[priji]

if you are interested in organizing or convening national issues forums in your community, there are a growing number of places around the country where you can get the help you need.