How many iPodlounge forums do you visit?

[tonicboy]

It seems to me that there are way too many forums in the iPodlounge Forums - almost 30! I think this "wastes" a lot of good posts because they are hidden in forums people never read. Most of these forums seem way too targeted - for example, do we really need a separate Cases forum underneath Gear? How many forums do you read on a regular basis?

[Bob]

The reason a "Cases" sub-forum was set up was to prevent endless questions being asked about the same product - several persons were posting the same question time and time again and threads were springing up all over the place.
Unfortunately we have to try and keep the forums tidy so that info is easy to find and after directing endless members to existing posts it was decided to have a case forum as this was the "hot" topic with the launch of the G3 iPod.
The same reason that a sticky was set up in the old forum for earphones - there were numerous posts all about the same subject.
You only have to look at the Apple Discussion board - questions are all over the place and you have to trawl through page after page to find the post you may be interested in. At least here if you have a query about a case you know you can probably find it in the "Cases' section.
Hope this answers your question.
BTW - I visit all theforums ;)

[tonicboy]

Originally posted by MadPict
Unfortunately we have to try and keep the forums tidy so that info is easy to find and after directing endless members to existing posts it was decided to have a case forum as this was the "hot" topic with the launch of the G3 iPod.

I can understand categorizing information so it is easy to find but after a certain point, it becomes counter-productive. When you have to many forums, there are too many choices to make. For example, if I want some help with a problem with my Mac iPod, should I post in iPod Problems for Mac or iPod Problems Non-Platform Specific? The Mac forum seems more relevant, but the Non-Platform Specific forum gets much more traffic and is more likely to get a good answer. I think the rule of thumb for a forum should be that it gets at least 30-40 posts a day. Any forum smaller should be rolled-up into another forum.

[ashawley]

I too visit all the forums, but the Mac specific ones. I also tend to stay out of the accessories one. There's no need to rely on which forums get "traffic" tonic, you've no idea how many folk are actually browsing forums, they just might not pick your thread.

I agree with Bob on this one. I think the organization of the boards is great the way it is. It has been honed to this list for quite a while now.

I think that if you have a Problem that's platform specific, it should go in the Mac iPod Problems section. You're more likely to get an answer there that is correct which is what you want after all.

Adam

[sandeep]

Being part of boards that just have one or two broad forums, and others, like this one, which are organized as they are, I can say that there's pro's and con's to each method.

I think the way ipodlounge is setup works just fine. It seems that most people that come to these boards are just in it for the information and hinits (just look at now for example. out of 50 something users on the board, only 32 have accounts here. "there are currently 20 members and 32 guests on the boards. | Most users ever online was 131").
Having the board as organized as it is, makes it easier to get that specific information about problems that people may occur.


Plus, all these mods would be out of work if there were fewer forums :P

[StevoX]

Specialized boards are good, because if you don't care about Mac stuff, you don't have to go to the Mac iPod board. Nearly all forums online are set up this way, so you never have to accidently read something you really didn't care about.

[deftdrummer1]

i happen to believe that ipodlounge has the best forum system ive ever seen. Very easy to find info to anything ive ever wanted regarding the ipod, plus the moderators are the biggest help of all.

[mookiemeister]

I visit the following forums: Polls, iPod gears, cases, iPod Windows problems, iPod Windows iTunes.

[Sypher]

I go into the Lounge, Music Explorations, Music General, iTunes, Windows General, General, Cases, Polls, Gear, iPod Stories.. and look into the iPod Mini forum occasionally :)

[bognormike]

I rerd all of them but i regularly post on about 4 or 5

[Bethany]

On a regular basis, I visit:
- General (iPod)
- Stories
- Polls
- Gear
-- Headphones
- Future iPod
- General (iPod Windows)
- iTunes (Pod Windows)
- The Lounge

[iCanada]

Log in...then it's to "view new posts"...keeps you up to date on all the posts for the day...after that it's to the forums where I'm looking through the archives. Can't be easier then that.

[tiki_god]

ALOT of them. It's so addicting.....