Suggestions for improvements to forum structure
Feb 14, 2023 13:58:44 GMT
rhythmmethod, Capital, and 3 more like this
Post by chang on Feb 14, 2023 13:58:44 GMT
Fellow members, two things:
First, a kind reminder to take care when choosing which board to post on. I just spent an hour moving threads between boards. I realize that a topic can overlap several boards, but some were just out of place.
When there's clearly more than one choice, go with whatever you feel like. But do please make a considered choice before posting. I know that on the old M* forum, some people liked to "hang out" on a particular board. That's actually not such a bad thing if it helps people connect and converse, but it does jumble up the boards a bit, and makes it harder to peruse them for ideas.
Just to make sure everyone has the ProBoards nomenclature right: the entire page (Big Bang! Investors) is a forum. The forum has several categories, and each category has several boards. Each board contains threads, and each thread contains posts. Expand (click) the picture below:
Remember that categories are collapsible. Try clicking on the red bars with category names ("General", "Buys, Sells, and Why", "Investment Products", "Mutual Fund Families", etc.) and you will collapse the entire category. This can streamline the main page, if you prefer.
Secondly, I'm open to suggestions for improving the forum structure. After a few initial changes and iterations, it hasn't changed in about two years. The original structure mirrored the old M* forum, more or less. A few observations:
Any other suggestions? Feel free to make them here.
First, a kind reminder to take care when choosing which board to post on. I just spent an hour moving threads between boards. I realize that a topic can overlap several boards, but some were just out of place.
When there's clearly more than one choice, go with whatever you feel like. But do please make a considered choice before posting. I know that on the old M* forum, some people liked to "hang out" on a particular board. That's actually not such a bad thing if it helps people connect and converse, but it does jumble up the boards a bit, and makes it harder to peruse them for ideas.
Just to make sure everyone has the ProBoards nomenclature right: the entire page (Big Bang! Investors) is a forum. The forum has several categories, and each category has several boards. Each board contains threads, and each thread contains posts. Expand (click) the picture below:
Remember that categories are collapsible. Try clicking on the red bars with category names ("General", "Buys, Sells, and Why", "Investment Products", "Mutual Fund Families", etc.) and you will collapse the entire category. This can streamline the main page, if you prefer.
Secondly, I'm open to suggestions for improving the forum structure. After a few initial changes and iterations, it hasn't changed in about two years. The original structure mirrored the old M* forum, more or less. A few observations:
- The "DoubleLine Funds" board appears to be essentially unused. If nobody is interested in this, I can delete it. (We originally had an "Oakmark Funds" board, but we got rid of that a while ago.)
- The "Market Insights" board is, not surprisingly, the most popular of all, now running 15 pages of threads. That's not a problem, since not many people really want to read all 15 pages of threads; this board tends to be "topical", i.e., discussions focus on what's happening right now. I gave some thought to dividing "Market Insights" into several, more focused boards (e.g., "Market Insights - the US Economy"), but ultimately decided not to do so. I don't want to force people to think more than is necessary about where to post. As long as we keep the meatloaf recipes and yoga routines out of "Market Insights", it seems to be working OK as is.
- The old M* page had a "TIAA" forum. As yet, I haven't seen much if any content that would warrant this board. Am I mistaken? Is there any need for this?
Any other suggestions? Feel free to make them here.
