Is it possible to run 2 separate forum fronts, using the same database?

[Yikesfactor]

Just as a matter of interest,

Where are the boards layout stored? In the database? Or in a file?

[Gwenwyfar]

In the database. The display is controlled by boardindex.template.php

[Kindred]

... but you are trying to solve a social problem with a technical solution -- and  at is rarely the best option.

[Gwenwyfar]

... but you are trying to solve a social problem with a technical solution -- and  at is rarely the best option.

That is true, but from my own experience, some users will never let go of weird requests no matter what you tell them/do to ease it. That's not something we can decide without knowing all the details about his community

[Yikesfactor]

... but you are trying to solve a social problem with a technical solution -- and  at is rarely the best option.

That is true, but from my own experience, some users will never let go of weird requests no matter what you tell them/do to ease it. That's not something we can decide without knowing all the details about his community

A large part of the community came from a forum, where almost all their activity was in a single board. Some of them keep freaking out about it all being spread out now. Every time I add a board, someone posts wondering if they can all be rolled back into a lot less.

[Kindred]

In general, fewer boards is better, anyway...

[Arantor]

The other problem is that there are many subtle places where the board list can be shown, e.g. the jump to widget...

[Gwenwyfar]

In general, fewer boards is better, anyway...

Even when your community would be happier with only 2?

It makes you wonder why they are even in a forum to begin with.

[Yikesfactor]

In general, fewer boards is better, anyway...

It depends on the focus of the forum, and who the members are.

I found everything in 1 board frustrating as you could never find anything again, unless it was an active thread. Once it stopped being active, it was effectively lost forever.

On my forum, everything can be found much more easily.

[Kindred]

"happier" has little to do with it.
The biggest mistake that I see forum owners make is to force separation of topics into individual boards which don't have the traffic to support them -- and by separating discussions, they never will have enough traffic.

Rule of thumb...   have a single board. Split it when there is enough discussion on a specific (general) topic to support its own board.
e.g.
Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming

eventually split to
Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming
WH40 Rules discussions

then
Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming
WH40 Rules discussions
Eldar and Dark Eldar (faction specific discussion)
Space Marines and the Imperium (raction specific discussion)

etc... 

but the key here was that the additional boards did not get created until the number of topics in the original single board started overpowering the other faction, game and rules discussions.

[Yikesfactor]

Rule of thumb...   have a single board. Split it when there is enough discussion on a specific (general) topic to support its own board.

That is where we came from.

For most of us, our previous forum was bought by a rights usurper who made a living through ads. Neither were acceptable to most of us, so I made a new forum and we all left the old one.

The old one was 1 single board for most of us, which we'd been trying to get separated out for years.

The result now is based on what we used to have. I dont need to reinvent the single wheel to know we need 24 wheels to carry this truck.

[Gwenwyfar]

"happier" has little to do with it.
The biggest mistake that I see forum owners make is to force separation of topics into individual boards which don't have the traffic to support them -- and by separating discussions, they never will have enough traffic.

Rule of thumb...   have a single board. Split it when there is enough discussion on a specific (general) topic to support its own board.
e.g.
Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming

eventually split to
Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming
WH40 Rules discussions

then
Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming
WH40 Rules discussions
Eldar and Dark Eldar (faction specific discussion)
Space Marines and the Imperium (raction specific discussion)

etc... 

but the key here was that the additional boards did not get created until the number of topics in the original single board started overpowering the other faction, game and rules discussions.

Oh, I'm being literal... It's the two generic boards for games and one for chit chat/off-topic. In which no topic remains on topic about their initial post, either, while getting to dozens of pages.

I think the only thing that made them not mind the multiple boards was the "show all unread" feature. Then you can ignore all boards and let moderators move them. So if the entire forum was cut into two boards almost no one would really mind.

Similar to Yikes, it was a mix of a community that almost only used two boards, and had the others for show, with others that always had multiple boards and used them. But boards were cut more and more as they no longer were used like they used to be.

Also: That was partly a joke