Forum Advice / Feedback

[blacknight]

We've had a forum attached to our main site for ages. Lately it has been getting more use, which is a good thing, but I suspect there are too many forum categories:

Website Hosting - VPS Hosting - Domain Registration Ireland :: Blacknight

Should I cull some of them?

[louie]

They don't do any harm do they?
You have the categories broken as per groups and don't see why you should.

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by louie

They don't do any harm do they?

More categories can cause confusion

Originally Posted by louie

You have the categories broken as per groups and don't see why you should.

I don't follow. Could you please explain

[louie]

Originally Posted by blacknight

More categories can cause confusion

The only confusion there is the green background - probably a bit darker might work better

Originally Posted by blacknight

I don't follow. Could you please explain

the forum has 7 main groups (Domains, Resellers, etc) and 18 sub groups.
That doesn't sound like too much to me.
You might want to rename some of them.
e.g. General
You have that in 3 times and I know they all mean totally different things, but if you rename them to:

Pre-Sale General Queries
Resellers General Issues
Customers General

might help knowing whats behind that before clicking on the link.

[louie]

BTW - this image seems to be missing on the server:

http://forum.blacknight.com/images/s...d_new_lock.gif

[Forbairt]

domains ? 3 rooms ? ... 1 would do wouldn't it ? I wouldn't really make the distinction for .ie ... and others and international ..

News ... ? really necessary ... isn't that what the blog is for ? with comments in there as well ...

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by Forbairt

domains ? 3 rooms ? ... 1 would do wouldn't it ? I wouldn't really make the distinction for .ie ... and others and international ..

A very valid point - exactly what I was looking for

Originally Posted by Forbairt

News ... ? really necessary ... isn't that what the blog is for ? with comments in there as well ...

The forum predates the blogs, but those could be removed or simply replaced / supplemented with the blog feeds

Excellent feedback so far - keep it coming

[Forbairt]

apart from that I think your welcome message takes up too much room ... (though that said if I logged in it'd probably disappear)

Are the stats really necessary ... ? ... as a customer I don't really care how many people are online or how many posts have been made ? I'm there to get Blacknight support .. not be a part of a community ? (or do I have the wrong idea about what it should be ... I know I posted in there before saying it'd be nice to have an introduce yourself section for the VPS area)

The links to other useful areas are a bit big I think ... its the kinda thing that should take up the same amount of space as the forums ( Though I understand its easier to include the links like this)

[Dotwebs]

Originally Posted by Forbairt

News ... ? really necessary ..

I would call this 'Announcements and Special Offers' and only put relevant stuff there for customers. Keep your other Company News for the main website or blog.

I have to agree with louie about the green - all those horizontal bright green bars are a bit much. I would suggest using a dark grey on the categories - but paler than the main title bar (forum, last post etc.) then you still have your corporate green colour on the main navigation.

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by Forbairt

apart from that I think your welcome message takes up too much room ... (though that said if I logged in it'd probably disappear)

I'll have to look it when logged out to see

Originally Posted by Forbairt

Are the stats really necessary ... ? ... as a customer I don't really care how many people are online or how many posts have been made ? I'm there to get Blacknight support .. not be a part of a community ? (or do I have the wrong idea about what it should be ... I know I posted in there before saying it'd be nice to have an introduce yourself section for the VPS area)

They're all part of a standard vbulletin install. We could remove them, but someone might accuse us of trying to hide the site's stats ...

Originally Posted by Forbairt

The links to other useful areas are a bit big I think ... its the kinda thing that should take up the same amount of space as the forums ( Though I understand its easier to include the links like this)

That might be a template / css issue - I'm not 100% sure