Request For New Board

Then let's set one up at the level Faye recommended.

@Yvonne Smith , I have a couple of general questions this has raised:

-Can an entire thread me moved to a different category/subcategory without having to move one comment at a time? In other words, could I have that Tractor thread moved to the Rural subcategory as one action without causing a lot of work?

-Can you educate us on the proper terms for these things we are grappling to discuss?
In this example:


I would refer to "Notices & Announcements" and "Help Requests" as SubCategories within the Category "Forum Administration & Notices." Is that correct? So in that regard, Faye is asking to have the SubCategory "Rural Living" created under the Category "Getting It Done."

 

Since I just got home, I don't have time to think about it right now but I'm thinking a category like Rural Lifestyles could probably house the gardening forum. I know that people in cities might garden too, but it would be silly to have one category for city gardening and another for rural gardening. Keep the comments coming, with suggestions for sub-forums.

Yes. It doesn't even involve changing the URL for the thread (as long as I don't change the name) that's moved so it doesn't cause a problem with SEO either.

 

Moving threads from one category to another is easy, and we do it all of the time. When people start a thread in the “don’t know where it goes” section, then we try to find a section where it does fit and move it there.
The other day we had a new thread about Social Security and it was started in the health section and not the finance section, so it was moved to the better place for this thread.
I can do searches and find some of the older threads and move them to the rural living section once we have that.

I only suggested a sub-forum under gardening because it is easier for Ken to add a sub-forum somewhere than to change the whole structure of the forum to make a new section; because he has to keep everything even. (If he adds to one side of the page, he has to put something in the other side so there is not a blank space)

 

I'm still getting confused on the terms "category," "forum," "group," "sub-whatever," etc. We're not using them consistently so it's hard to tell what people mean. Then we have areas one level deeper than you see on the main page (like Viruses and Diets & dieting under Health & Wellness.)

On the other hand: I'm retired! What am I doing worrying about it? Meeting adjourned! (Are they gonna bring in lunch?)

 

"GETTING IT DONE" is the category.
"Crops & Gardens" is a forum.

Renaming "Crops & Gardens" would break the URL and potentially have a negative effect on our SEO.

I could create a forum called "Rural Living" (or whatever), and move "Crops & Gardens" beneath it, as a sub-forum; and that would not break the SEO because I wouldn't be renaming it.

The forum, "Rural Living," could also include other sub-forums.

 

That's understandable because it differs according to the forum software. In Xenforo, for example...

OURSELVES & OTHERS is a category.
Health & Wellness is a forum.
Viruses and Diets & Dieting are sub-forums.

What makes it confusing is that the whole thing is also called a forum. It might help if you think of the SENIORSonly Club to be a FORUM, and the forums within the FORUM to be Forums.

 

Moving forums, sub-forums, and threads are not a problem for SEO as long as they are not renamed in the process. I hesitate to rename anything that has been around to have gained SEO, but renaming threads are less of a problem than renaming forums, and renaming forums are less of a problem than renaming categories, but I try not to rename forums or categories unless there's a good reason to.

 

Thank you.

I believe in vBulletin we had "groups." But now that you mention it, the header here has a "Forums" link that takes me to the Forum(s) plural. I never really thought about it. In vBulletin-speak, I believe that SOC would be the forum.

And I forgot about those subforums as available tools for this thing we're discussing. I imagine that makes it a lot easier.

 

If Ken makes Rural Living take the place of Crops and gardens, then nothing will change space wise, @Faye Fox ; so that should work great ! Then the gardening will be a sub-forum under the rural living, instead of vice-versa (which is what i originally had suggested), and I like this even better.
We have lots of room for topics like fairs, homesteading, and farm livestock or equipment, and just about anything else that goes with rural lifestyle.

 

I think I can even do sub-sub-forums, but I'd rather not do that.

 

That sounds like a thread topic.