Reorganization of the Forums

[PRIME1]

How about a Hobbies section that would contain:

Gaming
Sports
Photography
EDIT: BEER!
Dwarf Tossing (or some other related topic)

[thegleek]

more then ANYTHING on TR, we need a forum for:

BEER!

ok? PLZ? i beg of thee

[bhtooefr]

For the Off Topic:

TR Personals - Meet fellow geeks for folding of the other kind

[Yahoolian]

I propose adding a General Troubleshooting forum under the Technology section, because sometimes you don't know if it's software or hardware, and so that the troubleshooting requests have an obvious place to go.

I think it would be a good to rename the Networking forum to Internet and Networking, since so many of those threads relate to the Internet.

Also, I think just putting an Apple forum under general would be better than having seperate Apple Hardware and Software categories, since little discussion of those take place.

[mattsteg]

For the Off Topic:

TR Personals - Meet fellow geeks for folding of the other kind

Who or what do you expect to meet there?

[bhtooefr]

This was an offshoot of the one thread that I started.

I don't actually need it yet (read said thread), but it might just fly...

[Action Jim]

For the Off Topic:

TR Personals - Meet fellow geeks for folding of the other kind

Who or what do you expect to meet there?

This probably isn't a good idea. I could have WAY too much fun with this. For example:

Code: Select all

Divorced Asian midget ISO morbidly obese soul sister as a partner in a butter churning contest and for some musty coitus.  Must be into mooseback riding and chafing leather restraints.   I will come to your home or place of work dressed in nothing but cold cuts and mayonnaise, and will whisk you away on a rickshaw to the Wal-Mart food court of your choosing for a romantic dinner of grey hot dogs and pudding.  Serious replies only - no freaks!

[mattsteg]

Action Jim: don't tease me like that...

[bhtooefr]

OK, OK, OK...

Only one active thread in there per forum member?

So, you could only do one "asian midget" thing, AJ, and then you couldn't put your own in if you wanted to (unless you got a mod to lock your thread).

Also, a way to combat THAT is if someone knows that AJ isn't an asian midget, tell a mod to lock the thread, and provide evidence.

Advice would still have to be back porch - that would ONLY be for personals.

[Action Jim]

(unless you got a mod to lock your thread).

That won't be hard.

On a more serious note, though, it occurs to me that the probability of getting some stank on your hung-low through TR is vanishingly small. Why not go to more fertile grounds for that sort of thing?

[mattsteg]

On a more serious note, though, it occurs to me that the probability of getting some stank on your hung-low through TR is vanishingly small. Why not go to more fertile grounds for that sort of thing?

Who knows, maybe he's into ill-groomed deadbeat vagabonds?

"Fertile grounds" sounds kind of dangerous in any case.

[bhtooefr]

Could be worse - it could be the CAD Lovers LAN - "grow a pair of balls, drop the emo crap, and tell her to **** off, oh, and **** her mom and sister"

That's why I'm not going to ask for advice there anymore...

That said, these personals would have to be CLOSELY policed, with VERY strict rules. Also, I think a certain number of posts (maybe if you're a Gerbil, you can read?) just to view would be necessary, along with an even higher number to start threads (Gerbil XP, maybe? (I hate that name... at least I'm not one, any more...))

[FireGryphon]

For the love of all that is technology, can you people please keep this thread on topic?

Though I'll admit that I almost spat milk all over my monitor after reading AJ's code

[PRIME1]

TR Personals = Sausagefest

I vote for the BEER/Liquor topic, it will free up some room in DYMT. Although that may take away from the family site type thing.

[thegleek]

TR Personals = Sausagefest

I vote for the BEER/Liquor topic, it will free up some room in DYMT. Although that may take away from the family site type thing.

awesome. i vote for beer too. i mean have JBI be the moderator of that
forum (along with myself! woo woo) and man we would talk about so
much stuff, it would have 10000s of threads in it.. yay!

go beer!

[FireGryphon]

beer/liquor is OT, and belongs in the Back Porch. Photography is also sort of off topic, but a lot of people have posted to the official photography thread with questions about photographic techniques, camera selection and such. The technical questions belong in another forum, like "Mobile Devices", but I think it makes more sense to clump all of photography into its own forum.

[Kevin]

I had wanted to wait until I could properly respond to many of the suggestions, however, I just have to say NO to a personals forum. I'll respond to the other suggestions when I'm not quite so busy at work.

Kevin

[Dizik]

So far, I think what you have planned looks great. Of course, there will be a transitional period along with some changes. But all in all, it looks good. And if you need a moderator for any of the new sections, count me in.

=Ninja Edit=
I'm all for the hobbies section that was mentioned earlier. And I know it's unlikely, but I would get a kick out of the Beer/Liquor section. And JBI would definitely have to be the mod for that one.

[Kevin]

Okay, here's another look at the forum list when making some of the suggested changes.

Administration

• Announcements (Forum rules and other things of a critical nature.)
• there are a few other forums here that are hidden to regular forum users, such as the moderator forum

Hardware

• General Hardware (Don't see a specific place for your hardware question? This is the forum for you!)
• AMD Asylum (CPUs, motherboards, and chipsets from the little CPU maker that could.)
• Intel Realm (CPUs, motherboards, and chipsets from the 800lb gorilla.)
• Symmetric Multi Madness (All about multiprocessor and multi-core systems, Hyper-Threading, and the joy of creamy smooth computing)
• ATI Alcove (Graphics and chipsets from the frozen north.)
• NVIDIA Nook (The two-headed green monster of chipsets and GPU's.)
• Cases and Power Supplies (Enclosures, modding, blowholes, and the power needed to run it all.)
• Overclocking, Tweaking, & Cooling (Speed addicts anonymous.)
• SFF Station (For small-form factor PCs and the (extremely small) people who love them.)
• Storage (All things storage here: hard drives, DVD RW drives, little wicker baskets.)
• System Builder's Anonymous (Building a new system? Need help choosing between parts? Then step in and let our trained gerbils assist you.)

Software

• General Software (The place for all kinds of software for all kinds of operating systems.)
• Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness (Where Penguins and Daemons chill together in the warmth of the Sun.)
• Windows (Monopoly money comes in many flavors: XP, 2K, ME, 98.)
• Developer's Den (From Visual Basic to GNU C, this is the place to talk programming.)

Technology

• General Graphics (Discussion on how pixels, bits, shaders, and all other forms of graphics technology functions, from the hardware to the software.)
• General Processors (Discuss the functionality and implementation of all forms of processors.)
• Apple Sanctuary (From OSX to iPods, iTunes to Mac Minis, and all other things Apple.)
• Echo Vale (The place to sound off on all things related to audio technology, from sound cards to speakers .)
• Visual Cornucopia (The place to reflect on all things related to visual technology, from monitors to cameras to graphic design.)
• Gaming (How we justify all that high-dollar hardware.)
• Mobile Tech (Laptops, PDAs, cell phones, and all other tech that you carry with you.)
• Networking (From the small LANs to the large WANs, discuss all forms of networking (including the Internet) here.)

Off Topic

• Back Porch (Hang out, sip some ice tea, and shoot the breeze with TR regulars.)
• Bargain Basement (Buy/sell/trade with other forum members at your own risk. You must log in to view this forum.)
• Hot Deals (Share critical consumer intelligence on deals and steals.)
• Distributed Computing (Come join the... uh... er... fold.)
• Religion & Politics (Civilized discourse on religion, politics, and other social issues.)
• TR Sports (The Tech Report's fantasy sports leagues and general sports discussion.)
• Smoky Back Room (Contributors only.)

Be sure to compare this list with the one in my first post. Of note is the combining of the two Apple forums, creation of a "visual" tech forum (to go along with our current audio forum), and the removal of the proposed home theater forum.

As I mentioned in an earlier discussion in the Smoky Back Room, one of my fears is having too many forums. Now what exactly constitutes "too many" is open for debate. Anyone have any thoughts on that? With the list above, we are at 31 forums (compared to the 29 that we have right now). For some reason I have a feeling that 30 forums is the magic number, but then I always liked numbers that were divisible by 5.

[morphine]

I think the CPU forum is redundant given that just about all discussions about CPUs will invariably fall in either the AMD forum or the Intel forum. I could be wrong, but...

[Yahoolian]

The Symmetric Multi Madness forum has few threads, so I like the idea of combining it with the General CPU forum.

Also I would like renaming Technology to other technology, since Hardware and Software are also technology.

Surely General Processors should be categorized as Hardware.

What do people think about a Troubleshooting forum? (Maybe calling it Help would be better.)

[bhtooefr]

I think the CPU forum is redundant given that just about all discussions about CPUs will invariably fall in either the AMD forum or the Intel forum. I could be wrong, but...

PowerPC = IBM, Freescale
C3, C7 = VIA
ARM = Intel, yes, but also other manufacturers

I could go on and on...

[Aphasia]

For me the the "General Processors" forums is more like the general graphics in that its about technology and not specific cpu's or cards, etc, which make it unique compared to general hardware.

But everything should be balanced as well as it could. Theres only a use for a forum if it sees any traffics. Having lots of em doesnt matter if no one uses them.

[blitzy]

oh yea, i almost forgot about this idea. How about a "hot threads" page, with say the most current 25 or 50 threads listed.

saves me from refreshing the main page

[Usacomp2k3]

oh yea, i almost forgot about this idea. How about a "hot threads" page, with say the most current 25 or 50 threads listed.

saves me from refreshing the main page

search.php?search_id=newposts
Will that do you?
(it's in the main forum page, on the top right)

[blitzy]

oh good spotting, i don't normally login when i am browsing so it only shows the 'unanswered posts' thing

cheers

[Usacomp2k3]

oh good spotting, i don't normally login when i am browsing so it only shows the 'unanswered posts' thing

cheers

Ah, roger.
Oh, and thank Kevin for that link, he pointed it out a couple months ago, and that's been my TR bookmark ever since

[FireGryphon]

Isn't a symmetric multi madness forum redundant when within a year or so most procs will be dual core? If there's going to be an additional CPU forum, I think there should be Intel and AMD forums, and then one additional forum dedicated to other procs, like the Cell, PPC, and others. It just seems that within the next year the discussion in the Intel and AMD forums will render the SMM forum obsolete.

[Mr Bill]

I don't post much anyway, prefering the great reviews. But the forum topics named for vendors?

[flip-mode]

1. Overclocking forum is redundant
I'm probably the only one that thinks this, but I think the Overclocking, tweaking forum is redundant. You're either overclocking and AMD, an Intel, an ATI, or an Nvidia. so post about overclocking in the respective forum.

2. Posts since last visit
this is more of a phpbb issue, but it would be nice to be able to click on the column title to sort according to column, such as "sort by forum" or "sort by last post". This prolly falls out of the boundary of this discussion, and might not even be possible anyway.

3. Search functionality
For the love of all that is holy, is there any way to limit searches to thread title only?