This message was edited by Eric Tetz at 2004-6-25 10:1:59

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I used to visit this site regularly to help out other programmers. I recently returned to find the site pretty much ruined by board overload, the community is spread out too thin.

For instance, there are now 34 boards in the "C/C++" category! Imagine a beginning C++ programmer wanting to ask a question, and finding (just to name a few):

C/C++
C/C++ programming
C++ Questions
Basic C/C++
Beginners
Beginner C/C++
Beginning C++ Programmers
C and C++ beginners
C and C++ beginners board
Begining C++ and Begining Flash

Where should he post his question? Pick one at random? Post to all of them?

And imagine someone like myself, eager to answer questions, and finding all these boards? Do I check all of them? No thanks. Too much work.

Pace is very important to a message board. If it's too slow, people lose interest, wander off, and the board dies. If it's too fast, conversations get washed away in the tide and only people with short attention spans stick around. The way to manage pace is to make sure there are the right number of boards for the population.

Here, users are allowed to create old board they want. Traffic is spread out among them, and they all wither. If you want a tree to bear healthy fruit, you must prune it.

I suggest the following plan of action:

1. Existing boards that get little or no traffic are removed, especially if they are in any way redundant (most of the C and C++ boards can go)

2. A "New Board Proposal" board is created. Users can propose the creation of a new board by creating a thread here, and other users must "sign it" (by posting). A new board proposal that get N votes (100?) will be created by an administrator.

3. New boards must be subject to a probation period. For instance, if after 1 month, the board's daily post average is less than N, the board will be removed.

: This message was edited by Eric Tetz at 2004-6-25 10:1:59

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: I used to visit this site regularly to help out other programmers. I recently returned to find the site pretty much ruined by board overload, the community is spread out too thin.
:
: For instance, there are now 34 boards in the "C/C++" category! Imagine a beginning C++ programmer wanting to ask a question, and finding (just to name a few):
:
: C/C++
: C/C++ programming
: C++ Questions
: Basic C/C++
: Beginners
: Beginner C/C++
: Beginning C++ Programmers
: C and C++ beginners
: C and C++ beginners board
: Begining C++ and Begining Flash
:
: Where should he post his question? Pick one at random? Post to all of them?
:
: And imagine someone like myself, eager to answer questions, and finding all these boards? Do I check all of them? No thanks. Too much work.
:
: Pace is very important to a message board. If it's too slow, people lose interest, wander off, and the board dies. If it's too fast, conversations get washed away in the tide and only people with short attention spans stick around. The way to manage pace is to make sure there are the right number of boards for the population.
:
: Here, users are allowed to create old board they want. Traffic is spread out among them, and they all wither. If you want a tree to bear healthy fruit, you must prune it.
:
: I suggest the following plan of action:
:
: 1. Existing boards that get little or no traffic are removed, especially if they are in any way redundant (most of the C and C++ boards can go)
:
: 2. A "New Board Proposal" board is created. Users can propose the creation of a new board by creating a thread here, and other users must "sign it" (by posting). A new board proposal that get N votes (100?) will be created by an administrator.
:
: 3. New boards must be subject to a probation period. For instance, if after 1 month, the board's daily post average is less than N, the board will be removed.
:
:
i like that idea alot mate y cant they do suming like that it would make things a lot clearer for ppl like us to answer questions or even get questions answered

Hello

Good points, I am currently collecting requirements for the next upgrade of the board and I will take these things into consideration and try to improve this.

Currently I delete all user created boards that have no activity for 3 months and also non programming related boards are also deleted
right away.

Perhaps a solution would be to put all user created boards in a separate directory and keeping the official boards for them self?
(Improve the separation between official and user boards).


As I wrote above, I am preparing for the next version of the board and
please send me a email or post here if you got any suggestions of improvements.


/WEBMASTER

: Perhaps a solution would be to put all user
: created boards in a separate directory and
: keeping the official boards for them self?

Why bother? Making it harder to get to unused boards, or dealing with boards overwhelmed with 0 reply posts (http://www.programmersheaven.com/c/MsgBoard/read.asp?Board=28&MsgID=265952), is just treating the symptom rather than the disease. The disease is all the unused boards.

The real question is: why let users create their own boards in the first place? The only reason to create a new board is if an existing board is overburdened with a subtopic that has enough interest to support a new board.

Right now, users create boards for which no interest whatsoever exists. It's justs a waste of space on this site, and it weakens the community. You literally have boards e named after the guy who created them, like the Khaliq Ur Rehman board, which gets 1 post a month: http://www.programmersheaven.com/c/MsgBoard/wwwboard.asp?Board=352&src=13&Setting=A9999F0101

I've been on a lot of message boards, and the best way I've seen to handle this is to create a board for "Board Proposals". If enough users really want a new board, they can create a thread there, explain what the new board is for, and get users to "sign" the thread. If enough users sign it, you create the board for them. This ensures that new boards make sense, that they are needed, and that they have will have enough users to support them.

I think your points sounds good and I have just turned off the ability for users to create new messageboards. I think that's a good start.

One option is to move all personal boards to the personal page of the creator of respective messageboard.

Let me do some thinking about how to clean up the mess.









/WEBMASTER