New forums structure

[Admin]

I'm sure it's confusing. Also, it's different from how it was for looooong time, so it just has to irritate. But I decided to restructure anyway.
We have like 10 new threads monthly and about 50 subforums for them. I'd rather have 50 threads and 10 subforums.
I moved this year's threads into the new Main category. I'm in the process of moving last year's threads.

Fishing Reports
Instead of having subforums with many report threads (with just 3-5 replies), now we have 1 thread for each water body, and all reports go to the corresponding one.

Show OFF
Have a successful fishing trip report, but don't want to reveal location? Post in the corresponding thread in this forum.

Questions & Answers are for questions & answers, Discussions are for discussions.

 

[Artwo]

Sorry, don't want to be a downer, but I don't like the new layout. Very hard to find content.......

Also, when in a specific forum why isn't the most recent dates at the top down......nevermind this, I figured this part out.

 

[Admin]

Also, when in a specific forum why isn't the most recent dates at the top down......nevermind this, I figured this part out.

played with the filter?

Very hard to find content.......

would you give an example, please?
all the subforums are still there, they are just wrapped in the 'Archives' category.

 

[my2labs]

“so it just has to irritate. But I decided to restructure anyway.”

This is definitely how members are retained. Good stuff Admin!

 

[Artwo]

played with the filter?

would you give an example, please?
all the subforums are still there, they are just wrapped in the 'Archives' category.

No, I didn't use the filter, was just looking at the wrong location in the thread list for the most recent response.....

In the old format I could got look at the Willamette region and look up anything steelhead or salmon. Where can I do that now?

With like any change, it will take some time to learn where everything is now and how to navigate to it......

 

[Admin]

In the old format I could got look at the Willamette region and look up anything steelhead or salmon. Where can I do that now?

Let's set 3 groups of threads: Old (2006-2018), New (2019-2020), and Upcoming (not posted yet).

New threads (about 2k) are already moved into new categories and corresponding subforums. 'Discussions', 'Q & A', and 'Reports' all have subforums, and all of them have less than 100 threads. With the current "speed" of the forum, those numbers will double only in a year. So extra segmentation will not help with finding content, but quite opposite. But as soon as the number of Upcoming threads within any forum gets unbearable, I will split them into extra subforums.

Old threads (about 14k) are still there, in the same old structure, just wrapped into the 'Archives' category. That would be cool to fetch the most valuable stuff from there, but it would require a lot of work to check 14k of threads manually.

With like any change, it will take some time to learn where everything is now and how to navigate to it......

That's for sure.

 

[Admin]

Old (206-2018)

those would be really old threads )))

 

[Admin]

Well, I ended by mounting 'Reports' and 'Q&A' on the top of the existing structure.

 

[fromthelogo]

Really Admin? I may not have all of my forum terminology correct, but you couldn't leave these two reports as separate reports to each receive comments and instead have to be considered comments to the 12 page long Willamette River post? If I hadn't seen them when @bass originally posted them, I wouldn't have found them. On my phone, they are not even showing up as "New Posts". Way to bury good new content.

 

[Admin]

you couldn't leave these two reports as separate reports to each receive comments and instead have to be considered comments to the 12 page long Willamette River post?

You are right, I couldn't.

 

[bass]

I would prefer separate reports so I could link to them externally. Unfortunately, now that traffic will go to a different forum. I can't send links to a general post.

I will continue to post here because I want to help, but this ties my hands for helping as much as I could. I do hope that overall that this is a good move for the forum.

 

[Admin]

I do hope that overall that this is a good move for the forum.

Me too.

 

[pdxflyguy]

Im going to be honest this new site structure is hard to use.​

Its not about being new. we are past that. Its that the organization is unclear. Thread names and types overlap from a topic perspective. It takes more taps/clicks to navigate where you want to go. the information architecture is confusing.

Im newer to this site so you can decide if that gives this critique more or less credibility, but I can say its become harder to use. I work at a SaaS software company where we spend a lot of time on our UI & CX so I simultaneously have a ton of sympathy for admin (these things are hard) and also know what im talking about. What drove this change , and what was the end goal? It seems there may have been a vision initially , but where we ended up its hard to see how this has made things better. Previously the structure was perhaps over-engineered but at least it made sense.

One other nitpick: The mobile UI is super busy.

sorry Admin im not trying to pile on & you clearly want whats best for the site. I just am not sure this change has been a good one.

 

[Admin]

Thank you for feedback, pdxflyguy. May I ask you to be more specific, please?
"The new truck is harder to drive" doesn't explain much. It would be much informative if you describe exact your problems, ie a new window is too small, or a new stick is too stiff, etc.

Im going to be honest this new site structure is hard to use.​

Its not about being new. we are past that. Its that the organization is unclear. Thread names and types overlap from a topic perspective. It takes more taps/clicks to navigate where you want to go. the information architecture is confusing.

We have 3 categories - Reports, Q&A, and discussions. They are divided into subforums. What is confusing about that?
Can you give me an example, what path requires more taps/clicks? Frankly, I don't understand.

One other nitpick: The mobile UI is super busy.

What do you mean? Are you talking about the home page? Are you talking about thread view pages? Are you talking about forum view pages (with thread lists)?

sorry Admin im not trying to pile on & you clearly want whats best for the site. I just am not sure this change has been a good one.

What do you suggest?

 

[pdxflyguy]

Happy to be more specific. I dont have a lot of time to dedicate to this so here are a few quick top of mind thoughts.

-If i want to discuss fishing in the tualatin river - perhaps a note about something i tried for targeting bass along with a question - should i go to "rivers and creeks" tualatin river, "location related" for the T, the bass "species" section, or the "willamette zone" tualtin river section?
- three categories is not how the site is presented. when i log in, that's not what i see. Screenshot 1 below shows 5 and that's not even all of them.
-I'm still not sure about: what drove this change, and what was the end goal?
-Regarding the mobile UI: check it out on your own phone. the ads are much more pervasive on my iphone and its hard to tell if they end a thread or are just an ad break, its not clear if i should keep scrolling or whatever.

Bottom line is, it's just not clear where to go to find information. Take it or leave it - just sharing what i observe. Hope it helps. i'm sure running this is a thankless job.

SS1:

 

[Admin]

So what do you suggest?

 

[pdxflyguy]

So what do you suggest?

I suggest you solve the problems ive laid out for you.

 

[Admin]

I suggest you solve the problems ive laid out for you.

I see. Would you layout another one for me? Why would one visit McDonald's, to tell them, that they're not good, instead of going to his favorite joint to enjoy his meal?

 

[Hooked Up]

I see. Would you layout another one for me? Why would one visit McDonald's, to tell them, that they're not good, instead of going to his favorite joint to enjoy his meal?

It's this kind of attitude that has resulted from numerous friends either leaving the site or being banned. You've had several comments from members stating displeasure with the changes and your response appears to be get over it.
I personally found the old layout much easier to find the content I was looking for. I've chosen to look elsewhere for information. Your old avatar of Capt Sparrow was fitting, your ships sinking.

 

[Admin]

I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.

(Fritz Perls, "Gestalt Therapy Verbatim", 1969)