Awesome first day and a half of the board. We’re thrilled with the interest, the activity, the discussions, meet ups, etc. Starting this thread for a couple of reasons.
We’d like your input on how to categorize the board. It’s clear that it needs some more organization. We’re definitely going to make a separate “Roll Call” forum, but what other categories would you guys want to see?
There’s a LOT of topics getting created. This is great to see, but we’ve changed the settings to require approval before opening a new topic. We’re going to approve and reject based on our own merit, but in general just ask yourself if this topic really adds to the conversation. Also ask yourself if an entirely new topic needs to be created. Again, no specific rule here, just trying to keep some sort of organization in here as we try to scale this thing.
We’d like to hear what you like about the board.
We’d like to hear what you don’t like, or what can improve.
We’d like to remind everyone to take a quick flip through the welcome thread for the very loose rules. In general, just be mindful, respectful, and remember that this is a public forum. We’d also like to depend on you guys to self police a bit, and just always ask yourself whether your comment is truly adding to the conversation.
Any other feedback is appreciated. As mentioned, we’re really pumped about the potential of this thing.
I think the best way to organize would be to have different thread categories. Even if you had 20, it would be very easy to browse those to see what your topic was most related to. For example you could have, Course Architecture, 2017-2018 PGA Tour Season, Golf Trips, Random Thoughts, Golf History, etc.
But the Refuge is so far so good. Really happy to see some many discussions being had
While I generally agree that more organization will help, I think too many categories may discourage views on certain topics.
For example, I may not come to the Refuge searching for discussion on golf history, so I’m not as likely to venture into that category. However, if it’s on the general board, I might see a topic that catches my eye. I’ve found myself diving into some topics posted here the last couple days that I never would have gotten to if I had to click around in different categories.
Certainly on board with separate “Roll Call” forum. I’m sure there is a happy medium between the typical message board and the current structure. Overall, this is awesome.
Would it be possible to leave the landing page a full list of all threads, but have tags for threads? So say I click on a topic about the PGA Tour, once in that discussion I could click to see other PGA Tour threads? Just a thought.
Agree we need some kind of categories. As far as adding to the conversation, I think as long as you aren’t being super negative and/or saying basically nothing I think you should be free to comment as you like. Don’t want people to be hesitant, but also feel free to just like the comment.
Overall though, the vibe is good and the conversations have been solid. I like the unread and tracking stuff so far. Much easier to follow than other message boards. Thanks!
I’m a big fan of the forum. I’m sure there are many like me who don’t tweet things but much prefer a message board. Many of us were probably on GolfWRX, Bombsquad, etc…
I agree that you need categories to keep things better organized but I wouldn’t get too specific. As @mhornecker said above, you want people to stumble onto threads that they may not have otherwise looked for, and keeping the categories of posts more general should allow that. I wouldn’t shy away from an “Off-Topic” category either (with the understanding that the prohibition on religion and politics still applies).
First, big fan of the board. I definitely agree with the approval of new topics.
As others have mentioned, make the categories broad if possible. I too enjoy reading/responding to a wide variety of topics but may rarely delve into a category like “JB Holmes’ Sports Tape”. Too specific.
I’m not sure how much time the NLU crew has to moderate/approve everything, but you could always move posts from the “General” section on a case by case basis. Or categorize them as you approve them.
@RJDtraj I agree on an “off topic” category. It’s always fun to see what other interests you share with others when you know you have at least something in common - such as being committed to the NLU #cause
Themed sub-boards is a very primitive, unnecessarily hierarchical way to categorize discussions. That approach fragments forum content in ways that are neither useful nor necessary. Unless you like long, unresolvable arguments about what the categories should be, and which threads should be in which categories.
This is why Twitter and Facebook don’t have subcategories - there’s no “Roll Call Twitter” and “Off Topic Facebook,” and so on.
If your software allows it, tagging individual threads, or even individual posts, would be a far superior way to organize/index threads by topic. The tagging approach would also allow threads to be tagged with more than one tag.
Nothing wrong with just having a “Misc” forum for general posts of a non specific nature also. I support what others have said about avoiding over-categorization. Reddit is the ruling King of forums is not? Can also have a front page type feature that surfaces all of the most popular posts regardless of engagement as well as have methods of categorization like tagging and sub forums.