Hi--

Does it help participation to have many different forums with fewer posts in each, or just a few with lots of posts?

I am thinking seriously of consolidating my dozens of forums down to 4 or 5. It would at least make my efforts to keep the threads active a little easier.

Anybody have any experience on this? Any other ideas to improve participation?

I personally think fewer with more posts is better. It shows an active board and as a result it gives an incentive for people to return more often which generates more posts.

As a particular board expands then you always have the option to add additional more specific boards.

Yes, and it will make navigation by the users a little easier.

I have polled a half dozen of my more active users, and so far the 3 who have replied agree I should do the consolidation.

It is easy to add any board back when needed. But dead boards are a bad thing in my opinion. Our two main boards during busy season will have 100 to 300 posts per day each and during the slow season (which is just ending) it has been runing 50 to 100 per day each. Not a lot compared to some boards, but we are happy with the response so far. I can also use the activity and the numbers to help determine my computer and bandwidth resources and planning.Having fewer active boards helps with the other boards as you add them because you generally have some crossover traffic so it does keep the others alive and moving along. And if start getting requests for other boards, then you can always add them. I get requests on a semi regular basis. Generally I say that I have no problem adding additional boards but I want them to be used. Then you go from there finding out if there is real interest, etc.

I would definately suggest having a few steady forums as opposed to alot of forums with different topics that are infrequently visited. I've learned that the more you spread your visitors out, the more "alone" they feel, and the slimmer the chance they'll interact with other users.

ehill and hatter--

Thanks! I think you both give excellent advice. I have today reworked my forums down to two main ones, from about 8. It will at least make my job easier.

Sorry to open an old topic - but I am considering my forums for a transfer from UBB to UBBT.

I see that your forums are now much bigger - did you find problems with the reduced number, or was there a nother reason why you expanded them out.

Ian

As a general rule, when you have few visitors, fewer forums would be a better idea... when you have the traffic building up, add more forums for better organization. It's hard when you have 10 people posting and 20 forums. At the same time, a mess when you have 2,000 posting and 2 forums.

Hmmm...

Actually, I have left it at the two main forums. There are more than that, but most of them are for announcements (What this board is about, upcoming workshops, favorite books and links, etc.) and for archives of old discussions.

One thing that has seemed to help have been the interviews I have been doing. They seem to enliven the discussion and give it a focus. For instance, this one on Balance is the Booby Prize.

The reduced number of "active" forums has helped.