Site Reorganization

[Badger3920]

Some friendly recommendations - It's time to clean up and rearrange the war-torn forums:


Although hardly scientific, I just took a snapshot of the main forum landing page - to see how the population was distributed. After adding, I found the following amount of viewers per subject:

Total bd/hddvd/gaming viewers: 1090
Blu-ray: 579 (53%) 5 forum sections
HD Gaming (including game room): 245 (22%) 2 forum sections
HD DVD: 138 (13%) 5 forum sections
HD Smackdown: 128 (12%) 1 forum section

The question begs to be asked: when is this forum going to get cleaned up a bit and reorganized? The forums are still setup at pitting hd-dvd vs bluray, but very few of the topics are anymore. That thought sort of is what brought on the idea of moving the game room up to the top, where it could be used and seen more (if it were next to "General Discussion". Page space, on forums such as this, are at a premium - especially the top slots.

I think this site needs a bit of attention - and it would serve its interests well by building up some of the areas that drive traffic while minimizing some areas that relatively dont. It would justified if this site were to allow space and prominence to subjects based upon interest. Another flourishing area of our forums is the home theater gear which now usually boasts between 50-80 viewers!

[SoundsLikePink]

I agree. I bet a third of the members don't even know that the water cooler exists. On more than one occasion I've seen someone say they were happy they stumbled upon it, which obviously means they never knew it was there. Who would put that down at the bottom? No offense to that person, but it wasn't smart. People can only talk about HD movies for so long. If this place is going to be a community, that general discussion area should be towards the top.

[kch2003]

I agree that a re-model might help, but I don't think it should have the Water Cooler front and center. First and foremost this is a 'Hi-Def' site meaning people come here to talk and learn about high definition gear and products. It would be nice to see separate review threads in the Game Room to keep the smackdown forum uncluttered with twenty different takes on MGS4 (just a recent example). Also create a larger section for gaming, as it is a large part of why people get into high-def in the first place, and put it more up front where more people will see and use it.

I think the threads like Water Cooler still need to be at the bottom and stowed away because it has nothing to do with why the site exists, just an added plus that not even a majority of the users (guestimation) visit.

[Badger3920]

It seems like there is a happy medium to reach with respect to how large a section should be and whether or not that population is growing or shrinking. For example, our HD DVD folks would likely benefit from fewer discussion areas (maybe 3 areas instead of 5??) as their userbase is shrinking and those who are left are so spread out -- this would put more of them together and make their community feel larger. Gaming continues to grow and could maybe warrant another section in addition to the game room and smackdown.

In any case, these are just ideas. I guess the point is that you don't want too many or too few sections for topic-specific populations.


Edit: after reading my post, I hope it doesn't look like it's anti-hd dvd. It was just an example of what's changing on our site, and I can change the example if necessary

[kch2003]

Originally Posted by Badger3920

It seems like there is a happy medium to reach with respect to how large a section should be and whether or not that population is growing or shrinking. For example, our HD DVD folks would likely benefit from fewer discussion areas (maybe 3 areas instead of 5??) as their userbase is shrinking and those who are left are so spread out -- this would put more of them together and make their community feel larger. Gaming continues to grow and could maybe warrant another section in addition to the game room and smackdown.

In any case, these are just ideas. I guess the point is that you don't want too many or too few sections for topic-specific populations.


Edit: after reading my post, I hope it doesn't look like it's anti-hd dvd. It was just an example of what's changing on our site, and I can change the example if necessary

Hey man, I'm still HD DVD exclusive and I don't take offense. It's understandable that there aren't as many HD DVD visitors. Unless the guys running the site are in need of more room, I don't think they need to trim off sections. They could simply consolidate already created sections and force them into sub-sections, so less was shown up front. i.e. Put "Bargains" under Software, and Does that make sense, haha? And putting the "HD DVD and Video Game Consoles" and "Blu Ray and Video Game Consoles" into a new Video Game section. Just some ideas for feedback.

[Badger3920]

Originally Posted by kch2003

Hey man, I'm still HD DVD exclusive and I don't take offense. It's understandable that there aren't as many HD DVD visitors. Unless the guys running the site are in need of more room, I don't think they need to trim off sections. They could simply consolidate already created sections and force them into sub-sections, so less was shown up front. i.e. Put "Bargains" under Software, and Does that make sense, haha? And putting the "HD DVD and Video Game Consoles" and "Blu Ray and Video Game Consoles" into a new Video Game section. Just some ideas for feedback.

Yeah, consolidation is exactly what I mean, and not actually doing away with any content or coverage.

[Harbinger]

I agree. There's no need for seperate BD/HD/VoD sections anymore.

I think it would make more sense to see a general HD forum, a Hardware subforum, a Software subforum, bargains, and maybe an imports thread if there's demand to keep one (I think it would work just fine being rolled into HD software). And of course a consoles/gaming forum, as well as a water cooler forum.

I also recommend keeping the Smackdown area so that the general forum would not be filled with bickering or anything of the sort. I think the other forums are fine as is.

[melodywhore]

what is the rush? and what is with the constant interest in re-organizing the site? who here has a financial stake in the visibility and success of Internet Brands ventures such as High Def Digest? sites like this were spawned from the interest of the format war and will have to eventually evolve if they want to survive considering that a lot of people have moved on since the format war ended. whether you guys like it or not, the site's functionality is still valid for a lot of visitors and projecting your own needs and/or agendas on the rest of the internet community that may come here is unnecessary. i'm sure that the mods and Internet Brands have their own ideas and agendas about the continued progress of this message board and how they can assure that it isn't going to suffer the same fate as the format war: to become a fading memory.

change is inevitable. i don't think the site is suffering because it is war-torn. i think the site has seen a reduced number of visitors because the format war is over and that is to be expected. there are still people that come here looking to buy/sell/trade both formats... there are import group orders still going on. there are people that still are using the review sections. i know this because i am one of those people.

there's no need to push for this change now... as i've said in the other "when are we dropping hd dvd" threads. there are still people that are buying hd dvd and that use this site for reference. get over it already.

[melodywhore]

Originally Posted by Harbinger

I agree. There's no need for seperate BD/HD/VoD sections anymore.

I think it would make more sense to see a general HD forum, a Hardware subforum, a Software subforum, bargains, and maybe an imports thread if there's demand to keep one (I think it would work just fine being rolled into HD software). And of course a consoles/gaming forum, as well as a water cooler forum.

I also recommend keeping the Smackdown area so that the general forum would not be filled with bickering or anything of the sort. I think the other forums are fine as is.

i disagree with you.

when i come to peruse the buying/selling/trading sections here, i'd prefer to not have to weed through a half dozen BD threads to find what i'm looking for. same thing with bargains and format specific sub-sections.

the great thing about running a message board is that you can have a thousand sections and sub-sections and the interest in these sections isn't going to make or break the success of the board. you can look at hundreds of message boards and they always have high traffic areas. the sections are there for organization and when you start integrating things together for simplicity, it can be detrimental to the success of the board.

good luck.

[james]

Originally Posted by melodywhore

i disagree with you.

when i come to peruse the buying/selling/trading sections here, i'd prefer to not have to weed through a half dozen BD threads to find what i'm looking for. same thing with bargains and format specific sub-sections.

the great thing about running a message board is that you can have a thousand sections and sub-sections and the interest in these sections isn't going to make or break the success of the board. you can look at hundreds of message boards and they always have high traffic areas. the sections are there for organization and when you start integrating things together for simplicity, it can be detrimental to the success of the board.

good luck.

I agree with you. Having specific buying sub-forums makes the process of finding what you are looking for much easier.

[Badger3920]

This is absolutely ridiculous. We were talking about a site reorganization and you're attacking us for talking about it? What sort of rush are you talking about, it's been nearly a half year since the end of the format war. That fact alone dismisses any claims that people are "rushing" to do anything. To add to that, the OP has **ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO** with getting rid of hd-dvd or any of buy/trading subforums.

You bring negativity to this subject every time it's mentioned, even when you're not under attack. If anyone, YOU need to suck it up. I bring it up because I'd like to respectfully discuss a way to make the site better for US ALL to use - and you go and try to make it about agendas.

FYI - The original idea for this entire post is that some of us want the game room up towards the top so it can be used more. Thanks for jumping on my back anyway though and pretty much ruining this thread.

Do you know how many more members are here mostly to discuss hi def gaming than they are hd-dvd? Yet hd-dvd gets a ton more spotlight. Maybe you should think about that the next time you accuse me of being selfish for simply wanting to discuss this.

[JackBauer24]

I also vote that sections should be integrated. One Imports section, one bRagains section, One smackdown section. There's already a general discussion section so we could eliminate the individual blu-ray/hd dvd software discussion.

[The BJD]

I would like to keep the buy, sell and trade threads separate as well. I see no need to mess with the Import sections and bargains as long as titles can be had on HD DVD. Many people have found movies for $5.99, $3.99 etc through the forum and it has been a good service. We could integrate the much of it since the war is over but I tink HD DVD needs some love since product is still available and importing is still a lot of fun for forum members.

[Detroit Tigers Fan]

Yea HD gaming needs to be more towards the top.

The water cooler can stay at the bottom as this is not a gossip and drama site but a High-Def site.

[Merlins]

Replace the Blu-ray tab with a HD-Gaming tab and the HD-DVD tab with a review tab. The format tabs does not serve any purpose now then one tab is a copy of the another and the other does not contain any new information or information for coming events.

Format war is over. No need to front Blu-ray and HD-DVD anymore. Front HighDef gaming and HighDef reviews which is this sites two main parts now (reviews have always been an important part, HighDef gaming came afterward).