Sythe Redesign and Organization

[symphony888]

In my opinion, the "Quick Market" makes the site a bit messy and also unorganized. I would rather have it as dropdowns or something else.

To be honest, the current layout/theme is fine.
But a suggestion like this has no harm

 

[Grave]

Why not just remove the inactive sub forums then?

I felt like that would be a more drastic suggestion to make, as there's always going to be a few people vehemently opposed to removing sections, but that would actually be optimal in my opinion.

However, removing sub-sections wouldn't be the main part of this suggestion, or required.

In my opinion, the "Quick Market" makes the site a bit messy and also unorganized. I would rather have it as dropdowns or something else.

To be honest, the current layout/theme is fine.
But a suggestion like this has no harm

I didn't design it very well so it looks messy. The goal was to be something like Craigslist, which I guess does suppose a little "messy" but the Quick Market is meant to be for new visitors anyway.

If you visit the site and you see this on your first visit, it's pretty confusing. Then if you scroll down you see a huge mess of sections for the market, with a wall of text, in an old forum format and you think "jesus fuck am I ever going to be able to learn how to use this" or "how the fuck do I just sell my gold." You'd think it'd be pretty easy to figure out since you did, but today people are used to markets like eBay, Amazon, and craigslist where they quickly make a post. Not navigate through a message board.

 

What do we accomplish by removing sub sections? There is only one slightly inactive sub forum which is Free Graphics.

What do we gain from continuously making the site smaller and smaller?

The problem with merging forums together is a lot of topics don't get noticed since there is only one forum. This is counterproductive when trying to garner activity.

In my perspective, if I was to browse and come by this site to see it at the state you're trying to describe it, I would move on. The eye is bigger than the mind.

 

[WonderWoman]

I believe Xenforo (software) would fix this you can easily create headers and look more professional.

 

[Grave]

What do we accomplish by removing sub sections? There is only one slightly inactive sub forum which is Free Graphics.

We accomplish more uniformity for sections that are not large enough to have sub-sections. Sub-sections are there to organize things. When there's not enough disorganization and content, there's no need for one. But again, my suggestion is not to remove sub-sections.

What do we gain from continuously making the site smaller and smaller?

It's not "smaller" but more compact. And we gain better navigability, as well as a higher chance for new users to enter the community. When I go to a message board and I see them have SO MANY sections on the front page in a weird, non-organized way to where I don't even know what all the forum is about, I get put off.

For example, let's say you want to look for a community where you can get help installing an FTP server from your VPS.

Would you prefer something like this? http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
Or something like this? https://vpsboard.com/

On the latter, you can easily see the "Tutorials and Guides" section and then you see an FTP guide in that section quickly. The user, me, has identified it quickly. However, on the more messy WebHostingTalk (granted, it is a larger message board) I have to read through all these sections. I just want to install an FTP server. So I scroll down, scroll down, keep reading. I finally see the tutorials section but it has over 10 sub-categories. So now I'm reading through the sub-categories, I finally see VPS Tutorials.

The problem with merging forums together is a lot of topics don't get noticed since there is only one forum. This is counterproductive when trying to garner activity.

A lot of topics don't get noticed? What do you mean? When more people view ONE section instead of multiple sections, ALL the threads get noticed. Sub-sections aren't there for something to get noticed. They're there for organization.

In my perspective, if I was to browse and come by this site to see it at the state you're trying to describe it, I would move on. The eye is bigger than the mind.

Please give me a scenario where a visitor would "move on" viewing my mock-up of Sythe versus the current message board.

 

> My first point was aimed at SuF. Sub forums are there because they can't hold their own forum. Whether it's active or not, it should be left alone for the chance of topics being made or moved there. Those sub forums aren't hurting or affecting anyone.

> Compact = Smaller / The site is perfectly fine in terms of navigation. I would even argue that with a more tighter structure, it's harder to find threads.

> Merging forums makes it harder for threads to get noticed. Threads that are visible on the front page get more recognition than those that aren't. They also grab the attention of users. There aren't many people who venture through the forum to find past threads, same with guests.

What do I mean by front page? http://puu.sh/9ZsQ5/dfcc2d527a.png

> I like forums that are spaced out (content wise). With content being spread out amongst the site, it makes things easier in terms of navigation. If you compact everything unnecessarily, it makes the site look small.

The eye is bigger than the mind.

 

[Grave]

> My first point was aimed at SuF. Sub forums are there because they can't hold their own forum. Whether it's active or not, it should be left alone for the chance of topics being made or moved there. Those sub forums aren't hurting or affecting anyone.

With that logic, let's create more sub forums. It won't hurt anyone. Let's split up the gold exchange. We can make it to where they're split by pricing levels.

> Compact = Smaller / The site is perfectly fine in terms of navigation. I would even argue that with a more tighter structure, it's harder to find threads.

Argue it then. Instead of just saying it. Please tell me how it's harder to find threads.

> Merging forums makes it harder for threads to get noticed. Threads that are visible on the front page get more recognition than those that aren't. They also grab the attention of users. There aren't many people who venture through the forum to find past threads, same with guests.

What does this have to do with anything? How will the threads not get noticed? You do realize if they're on a front page of a forum with more viewers, they'll still get more visitors in the shorter duration of time they're on the front page, right? And there's this thing called bumping.

> I like forums that are spaced out (content wise). With content being spread out amongst the site, it makes things easier in terms of navigation. If you compact everything unnecessarily, it makes the site look small.

The eye is bigger than the mind.

You're just saying shit, without backing it up. I asked you to show me even one scenario. I'm not even going to bother addressing your future posts if it's just the sample circlejerk of you stating opinions with no backup whatsoever.

 

I like the quick navigation, but I'm not sure if reducing the visible forums would lead to more traffic. It makes it look like a smaller site.

 

[SuF]

I like the quick navigation, but I'm not sure if reducing the visible forums would lead to more traffic. It makes it look like a smaller site.

I do like the quick navigation.

 

Although I like the effort to make it more organized, I don't believe this would be a good update. The reason being is, I think most people would find it useless and more of a disturbance.

 

[SuF]

Grave: Why don't you break this up into the individual changes? That might help get some of the things done.

 

[Biofighter]

I'm not that keen of the changes, I enjoy how we're looking with the current sections. Little messy in places too but I appreciate the attempt.

 

[Grave]

I'm not that keen of the changes, I enjoy how we're looking with the current sections. Little messy in places too but I appreciate the attempt.

Thank you for your appreciation.

 

[Myleus]

I support the quick navigation, but I think that the look should be redone. Nice effort.

 

[Wiggle]

It will look more organized and easier to find an exact thread and will save people time and that's why i'll support this idea.

 

[Pursumew]

Great fucking suggestion.. A year later and still no legit response. What a joke.. Support!

 

[Dil]

This kind of format would definitely be more market friendly but I don't know so much about the community part though. That being the least of the issues, I don't think many of the current members would approve.

 

This kind of format would definitely be more market friendly. I don't know so much about the community though. That being the least of the issues, I don't think many of the current members would approve.

I think more of the market tools on the far right would be more helpful, so that people immediately see the options for middlemans, report a scammer, known impostors, etc.

 

Personally I think the quick layout is a bit too cluttered and it makes the site look too shallow/small. The current layout with a bit of tweaking would be a better change in my opinion.

 

[El Days]

Could use a tweak