How much is too much?[Tutorial]

[Shole]

Alright so going through a variety of forums here on SMF I noticed an all too familiar trend that plagues first-time form administrators: the creation of way too many boards.

But how much is too much? When do you decide that the boards you have are enough to satisfy your target demographic?

Nothing is worse than clicking a link and looking at a forum with 30+ boards and maybe 150 posts. Like I said in my previous guide, no new member is going to want to raise your forum from the dead for you.

The key to board creation is to keep quality over quantity. For example, 150 posts in five boards can make a potential new member think "hey, this forum looks kinda of active, I might join!" Likewise, if you have 5,000 posts in five boards, a potential new member might think that your forum is too cluttered and that the set-up is unwelcoming.

One thing a new forum should avoid at any cost is creating too many boards. Under no circumstance should you have more than 20 boards on a new forum. Some may argue that certain categories of forums require a lot more boards, and that's true, but let's look at the scenario from the proper perspective.

A new forum opens with 10 very well thought-out boards. Those 10 boards should encompass everything you want people to talk about on your site. For example, on my forum, we started out by having a board for media, video-games and debates. People eventually began requesting a sports and video board, so I had to split up the media board into three boards.

Now I have three very active boards, and all three are what people wanted. There is nothing superfluous. However, had I had those three (and potentially more) boards before getting a strong member base, I might have had people join that weren't interested in that subject and the boards would die.

What I'm saying is, forums are nothing more than a less complex version of "supply + demand." When the demand for a new board is high enough, you make it. Otherwise, no matter how much YOU may want it there, don't even bother

Source : Shole Company

[tassie73]

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

In your opinion, if too many boards had been created in a forum, would you suggest a cull or consolidation of some of them?

[ApplianceJunk]

I find it hard to take advice from someone who's link to their website gives you a 404 Not Found page.

[tassie73]

Agreed, but the principle seems a good one.

Anyone else have any views on this subject?

[TheListener]

The Op hasn't been back since     25 March 2012

so I guess they gave up.

[ApplianceJunk]

Content is king. Some forums have enough content to support more boards then others.

With a new forum you will have to create the content yourself, because no one else with give a dam about doing it for you.

[tassie73]

I have always been of the same opinion.... let the members and the content guide the number of boards...... The thing is that some members are asking to split boards up into smaller ones for convenience. I am just not sure that it is a good thing to have a heap of smaller boards with a few topics each rather than a larger one with a dozen or more topics.

I am of the opinion that great topic titles in a large board are of more benefit than poor ones in a small board when it comes to making content easier to find and more appealing to members.

[TheListener]

Childboards maybe?

These can be renamed as Sub Boards.

[ApplianceJunk]

The thing is that some members are asking to split boards up into smaller ones for convenience.

Members don't make them decision for me.
Members come and go over the years. I'm not going to let them decide.

[Kindred]

the way we work it on 40kOnline is

-- use the existing topic boards.  If a specific topic starts dominating one of the topic boards to such an extent that the rest of the subjects are being lost in the mix, then we start a new board for it. (We do not accept requests or demands from users)

[tassie73]

That is a great way of looking at it Kindred. Kind of what I was thinking, but in a much simpler explanation.

I am not going to let the users dictate the way I run the site, but I do listen to what they want.... Doesn't mean they will get it

I appreciate all the comments you guys that have been doing this a lot longer than I have make. Gives me an idea of what I am doing right, and what I am doing wrong.

Thanks and keep up the good work in general with SMF.