Discussion forums failure.

I guess I'm about ready to admit defeat on my idea of the structure of the specific herp groups discussion forums. They are rarely being used here, so either something has to change or I might as well do away with them all. I check the stats regularly and most people spend their time exclusively in the classifieds or the BOI.

The structure is used on my CornSnakes.com forums and seems to be working very well there, but it just is not happening here at all. I thought it would take a while, but current traffic to those forums does not support that hope any longer.

I guess they are TOO structured for most people's tastes.

Any feedback?

maybe you could group it up better
like colubrids as one group
boids another, torts and turtles together as one group,all lizards together
then a general group of discussions pertaining to herp related items in general
I think you get the idea , it might make it easier to maintain and 'watch over'...spend more time with your corns and wife

I have decided to restructure the Discussions Forums substantially. Move things around so that some of the intermediate levels will be gone and most of the forums will be directly visible when you go to the main Reptiles & Amphibians area.

This will probably take me a few days to implement, so during the transition stage, things will probably look real ugly. Just bear with me during this time. Perhaps the levels are just too deep and it is too confusing for people to find those forums, much less utilize them.

Thanks.

Well, that didn't make a bit of difference. I guess there just is no need for discussion forums at all on this site.

So much for that idea.... I guess I will go back to having this site targeted towards the business aspects of the animal trade only.

When I get the time, I'll just put the axe to them.

If you really feel the discussion forums warrant removal, then that's fine, but personally I think there is still the potential of them being utilized. It's just a matter of determining where the problem lies exactly with the current layout.
I don't have the answer, but I have made some observations. The cornsnake forums are working well with the similar layout, but the difference is they are one catagory and all the forums more or less pertain directly to that one subject. The result is a fairly short list of forums that are all easily seen and found by anyone browsing the list.
Compare that to the main reptiles and amphibians page here. The forums here are aimed at many catagories, which is good, but using the same layout as the cornsnake forums here results in a much longer page requiring a user to scroll way down to discover the discussion forums.

As far as I go, if it's posted on this site I see it, because I use the "view new posts" feature. I think it's safe to assume however that only a relatively small percentage of Fauna users know of this feature.
I am more of a responder than a thread starter, but when I am starting a thread I still have to hunt for a minute to figure out where I should be.
I think the lack of use in the forums is at least in part due to the inability of many of the users to access them.

I think the vbulletin forums are one of the best applications for this purpose, but when used on such a large scale it becomes problematic to the ease of use.
Look at a forum that does receive alot of traffic, such as the forums at k.com. They also have a substantial list of forums, but the list has a concise layout and it's relatively easy to locate whatever forum one needs. The web has created an environment based on impatience and the desire for immediate results. The majority of people just won't devote much time to exploring a site that requires much effort on their part.

I could be completely wrong about it, but I do believe the forums here would be used more. I just think that many don't know they're there, or can't understand how to locate them.
I know you made the forum map, but how many people do you think actually utilize it.
I wonder if an HTML page listing the forums in a more concise manner with the links leading to the existing forums would make any difference? I'm just shooting in the dark there, I don't know what the best course is to take. It's just my opinion though that I'd like to see the forums stay around, if something can be figured out to gain the usage.

would it be possible or even practical to set them up so that a user would type ina keyword in the "Post subject" of the posting or start thread so that it could be directed to a specific area? i tend to agree with Clay , with as many options and drop downs for all the many areas to post a sepcific subject it can tend to be tidious task to locat Exactly where your post should go. i also agree with no ill mannered meaning behind this that if the forums were set up like clay suggested in a manner like ( the other site) that it would be apt to be used for it intended purpose discussions. so if i was to want to ask a Boa question i could look at one page that would have them listed in a short form like Amphibians: and a short list
Lizards: short list
Colourbreds: species lists
Boids: short list
Caging & aquariums:
with that i would tend to beleive that more use would be a direct result

As Clay also stated the first thing i do when i log in is use the New Posts button to see where and what is new and then i go off from there to my intended needs well now im going off to my needed sleep

I honestly do think that the forums were to specific. It was a nice idea for someone who wanted to be able to ask a question about opal corns not to have to read posts about egg incubation temps for gopher snakes, but it was probably too much. A forum for colubrids is fine, one for boids, venomous, lizards, turtles are fine.

There seems to be some fear that this site will turn into another KS but my question is is this neccesarily a bad thing? I know that the vast majority of us here do not think we are above helping out the the 5th person to ask this week what 0.1 means. So fauna starts attracting more beginners, this can only be good right? So it get a little annoying at times. As long as they stay out of the BOI with their inappropriate threads they shouldn't be scarred to badly

Steve Schindler

Well, as I find time, I am going to remove the subforums underneath each forum for a specific animal. For instance, the forum on Ball Pythons will have all the subforums removed, such as Behavior, Photo Gallery, etc. Perhaps it is just too complicated for most folks here to utilize it in the manner I had hoped it would be.

I have already done this in the Amphibians and Crocodilians section to see how easily the threads can be moved around.

So we'll see if a bit of simplification helps to get more traffic in the discussion forums or not.

I have started the simplification process of the Discussion Forums. The first few snake forums have been consolidated into a single forum. If that still does not work, then I will likely consolidate them yet again. The final result may wind up being a single Snakes Discussion Forum when all is said and done.

Further, I will be reviewing all of the other forums on the site and evaluate their effectiveness of taking up space here. Anything that is apparently not being used will be deleted. I will set an arbitrary number of days as the limit, after which time elapses with no new posts, the forum will be gone.

These forums were put here for your use. If they are not being used, then you all are telling me that you really don't want them or need them. So if it will simplify things so the other forums are easier to be found, then I don't have a problem getting them out of the way.

But I have to admit that I am certainly glad I am using a system where this is very easy to accomplish!