Forum Organization Ideas & Feedback Needed

[Nifty]

Over the past year and a half I've been meaning to evaluate the current categories and forum (sections) of the Nifty-Stuff Printer forum. A lot of time has been spend getting things ready and rolling out all the recent forum upgrades . Now that we can check off most of that task, I thought it would be a good time to look into forum organization.

The other day I was thinking about how impressed I was at the quality of members we have on this site and I thought, "Sheesh, nobody would have a better idea on how to update the organization of the forum better than the members!"

So, here are a few of my thoughts. Please reply with your comments, thoughts, and suggestions!

1) I believe the current categories and sections could use a bit of tweaking. Some should probably be split and clarified while others should maybe be merged or gotten rid of completely.

2) While InkJet printers are at the heart of this forum, we've grown into so much more! I'd like to take this opportunity to rebrand the forum from the "Inkjet Printer Forum" to something more encompassing... like "Printer Discussion Forum" or "Printer Community" etc.

3) Related to both of the items above: As we clean up the inkjet printer sections of the forum, I think we should build out the laser printer sections of the forum.

So, what are your thoughts and ideas on how to make our great community even better?

I look forward to your replies!

 

[websnail]

Ok... First things first.. Avoid the temptation to create new forums just because people say they would like one, rather do it because there's an obvious need... I say this because I've lost count of the number of community sites that I've run/moderated/(annoyed?) where someone has said "We need a forum on topic X" and then nobody (including the suggestee) has posted so much as a bean in it.. Tumbleweed town... Plan != good.

In short, do what I should have done, but never did..


One thing that does concern me is that there's a natural Canon slant on the forum but very little on other brands such as Epson, Brother, etc... I have a horrible feeling that if you break out brand specific forums you could end up with the lesser supported being a little too obvious and make people beat feet. Of course, it's possible that the opposite could happen and a bit more specialisation could make it easier for folks to jump in.

Perhaps it's worth bearing in mind that the reason the nifty-stuff forums appear to be so Canon centric (apart from everyone being obsessed, natch' ) is that there's a lot more in terms of challenges involved. Refilling a Canon cartridge is still a matter for opinion with different approaches, attempts to thwart, counters to unthwart, etc... Whereas Epson and HP are very much a done deal... or simply catered for reasonably easily... Exception is the HP Photosmart line which are just Canon printers in bloatware clothing...

One area that's barely touched on, but I think has real potential is Brother. Nobody really plays with their printers and yet I keep hearing sneaky nuggets from the fringes that seem to indicate they're worth a peek. Going against my earlier advice, if we could get a bit more activity on that front it could be another nifty-stuff win... but as with all things, "organic growth" (Yes, it's buzzword bingo folks!) is the key rather than trying to force it...

But, I appear to be going completely off on a tangent...

Forum suggestions...

Refilling Inkjets -> Split into:
- Canon/HP
- Epson
- Other

Rename "InkJet Continuous Flow Systems" to "Continuous Ink Supply Systems".... The old CFS tag (used from the days when inksupply.com were the only game in town) is now very much old-school


Regarding point #2 and rebranding... Honestly? Don't do it! There are so many "printer discussion" forums out there that it's become a mess... Nifty-stuff has a brand in its own name and it's easy to remember. Becoming "another" printer forum would, IMHO be a mistake. Let the content do the talking, rather than some overly generic keyword.

About the only remaining point is that there are numerous posts that have incredible value and IMHO should have been turned into more formal articles a long time ago... It would be great to have a means/mechanism for doing that (with the posters permissions obviously).


But forget all of that... Most important thing... more smilies...

 

[Redbrickman]

It's a great forum already and doesn't need too much changing

I agree with Websnail about important posts having their own place.

Sticky threads for important stuff would be helpful, and perhaps the mods could decide what goes in there, and allow only the threads and not posts.

I know there is a search facility but many new members ask about refilling methods etc. and a dedicated forum with important stuff in it would be helpful to everyone.

As I'm old and forgetful, I have bookmark a few of the important pages as references, but having them all in one forum would make it easy for everyone.

I can't thank you guys enough for the have received via this forum

 

[emerald]

The first consideration for any change is " Is this REALLY necessary?" Unless the need is obvious, avoid the temptation. There will always be the temptation to reorganize into categories that fit the current world but as time goes by, the old categories do not fit neatly within the new ones. That's why the "Miscellaneous" file is always larger than all the others.

The natural growth of the forum is messy and contributes to difficulty doing a search, but no matter what changes are made, there will always be that element to cope with. That's the purpose of book marks.

I concur with Websnail that changing the Forum name from Inkjet Printers Forum to something more inclusive is a bad idea. It's a lot like changing the name of the "Personnel Department" to "Human Resources." Why? Because laser jet printers are left out? Don't worry about it. A name remembered is more valuable than trying to learn a new one. Kleenex. Chevrolet. John Wayne. Power Point. Los Vegas. Caterpillar. Canon. Kraft. 747, etc.

I agree that important posts should occupy a special place and be referred to in the main menu. There's enough history now from which to choose. Most contributers will concur what is REALLY important, perhaps a limit of 25-50 should be imposed. It would be up to YOU to decide which ones should be designated as important. If the contributors disagree, they'll let you know. I would also urge you to consider posting PDFs in a special area and that size limits of both text and graphics be imposed.

Be very careful in suggesting edits or limits. Even though some questions and comments by new contributors might seem "dumb," it's better to let them stand rather than criticize. I find it remarkable that some of the better contributors artfully suggest search techniques and provide links to those who appear lost. Or lazy? A little internal criticism by contributors tends to impose a sense of discipline.

There are far too many NEW subjects/topics started. Each contributor thinks his/her topic is the most important. It's a pain to cope with but I would hesitate to change anything.

The program that controls this forum is excellent. The recent changes made are very good. I commend you for your skillful efforts in keeping this forum going forward.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Over the past year and a half I've been meaning to evaluate the current categories and forum (sections) of the Nifty-Stuff Printer forum. A lot of time has been spend getting things ready and rolling out all the recent forum upgrades . Now that we can check off most of that task, I thought it would be a good time to look into forum organization.

Now that you have your programmer's attention, can you get him to fix that annoying extra space that gets inserted whenever we use the Word-Link feature. You can see it in the quote above.

I think it would be a big mistake to reorganize and especially rename the subforums. What's that going to do to all the search engines out there? I do think it would be a good idea to clarify the explanations for the subforums that appear under their names so that newbies will have a better idea of where to put their new topics.

Also, I think there should be a link on every page to start a new topic. It is very confusing to a newbie to try to figure out how to do this and we end up with a lot of new topics appended to old threads that may not even be related. For example, we see on every page "Post reply" at the top and the bottom of every page. Why can't we leave the bottom one alone where it makes sense to be and change the top one to say "Start new topic" or "Post new thread"?

 

[mikling]

I think the brand breakout is certainly warranted. The reason is that the fundamental method of how the printer works is so different between a Canon and Epson. This will minimize the confusion and get users on the right track immediately.

The next thing I would consider is to perhaps separate out the Printer generations or at least integrated head cartridges and separate ink tanks. This is easier to do with Canon, With the Epsons, the style or shape of the cartridges can be the difference as this aspect ushered in the most changes. That though blurs in certain aspects.

HP I think also needs its own category or area or could be included in a catchall "Others".

What might be good is an area where users could post their own review of various models. That might aid buyers of printers whether new or used to get a better idea of what they could expect from a certain model. Reviews by magazines, I would suspect would pale in comparison to what frequent contributors on this forum could put together. The level of experience and understanding of printers and refilling on this forum overwhelms what some magazines put out and could prove very useful to a lot of readers.

 

[websnail]

What might be good is an area where users could post their own review of various models. That might aid buyers of printers whether new or used to get a better idea of what they could expect from a certain model. Reviews by magazines, I would suspect would pale in comparison to what frequent contributors on this forum could put together. The level of experience and understanding of printers and refilling on this forum overwhelms what some magazines put out and could prove very useful to a lot of readers.

Hadn't thought of this and would definitely add a thumbs up to this one...

 

[Nifty]

Wow guys, lots of fantastic comments and suggestions, thanks!!



A few big reasons why I think we're well overdue for some changes:

1) I've learned a LOT more about forum optimization and organization over the past 4 years than I had when I started this forum... like infinitely more!
2) There have been lots of times that I've wanted to post a topic and have been unsure in which section it should go... and I'm the one that created the sections!

In general, it is good idea to have a forum organized in a way where:

1) It is easy for everyone to find grouped information quickly and easily. People should be able to know where their questions should be posted. Sections should be very clearly demarcated (i.e., so people aren't confused about where to post or to look for a topic).

2) There is relatively even distribution of topics and posts between sections. This is a way to confirm that you're organizing things well. If one forum or category has a TON of posts and activity and another has very little, then maybe one should be split and the other merged with a complimentary category. The goal is relatively equal distribution. If you have one forum that is way larger than all the others, the best case would be to split it up into new sections that should get about equal number of topics.

I personally like fewer / more busy sections vs. tons of little / unused sections. With that said, I still feel pretty sure that we need to make a few tweaks

Here are a few comments on some of the comments above:

Yes, I've definitely developed the ability to say, "no, we won't be adding a new section for people to discuss their favorite TV shows!" See my points above regarding the too many and too few sections.

Regarding the "natural Canon slant": I've wondered about that too. I wonder if it is because most of the articles on the main site are Canon related and because most of my (and others') initial posts and discussions were around Canon. This would drive more search engine traffic related to Canon searches here and continue the cycle.

Brand specific sections: I honestly didn't even consider this, and that might be a great way to clean up and better organize the forum!

Brother printers: Did you mean Brother lasers, or other? I've been VERY happy with my Brother laser and how easy it has been to refill.

CFS vs. CIS: Sounds like a great suggestion to me to change it to CIS

Rebranding: To be clear, I'd like to keep the community still branded to "Nifty-Stuff". I agree with many of the comments regarding the brand we've developed so far. My concern is that people looking for help and information about laser printers may think we are ONLY an inkejet printer forum, and I we don't want that to be the case.

Site information & articles: You are preaching to the choir on this one!!! This is a nut I really REALLY want to find a way to crack! There are so many great threads on this forum that have been buried over the years. I'd like to find a way to either clean them up and convert them into blog posts on the Nifty-Stuff site, or index them somehow in the forum, or both. I'm VERY open to suggestions and ideas on how to bubble-up the greatest hits of the forum and organize them!!!!

Note: Any changes to the categories and sections of the forum won't impact search engine results, but my thoughts and goals related to the changes:

1) Making the forum an "equal opportunity" site for all printers, specifically inkjet and laser, will help our search engine rankings, but even better, be more inviting to people that may only be looking for laser printer info.

2) Create an organization where it is super easy to know where to go for answers to questions and to post questions.


Keep in mind the hierarchy of the "discussion board" is laid out like this:

Discussion Board

Category 1
--Forum 1
--Forum 2
--Forum 3

Category 2
--Forum 1
--Forum 2
--Forum 3

Here is a draft of what I'm thinking for the organization:

Forum -WELCOME-
-- Frequently Asked Questions (questions and links to articles and/or forum threads discussing these items)
-- Nifty-Stuff Printer Forum Announcements & Feedback

InkJet Printers
-- Refilling Canon InkJet Printers
-- Refilling Epson InkJet Printers
-- Refilling HP InkJet Printers
-- Refilling Other Brands InkJet Printers (Lexmark, Dell, etc.)
-- Troubleshooting Inkjet Printer Problems
-- Ink & Cartridge Suppliers - Questions & Feedback
-- InkJet Continuous Ink Supply Systems
-- Everything Else InkJet Printer Related

Laser Printers & Copiers
-- Refilling Laser Printers & Copiers
-- Troubleshooting Laser Printer & Copier Problems
-- Toner & Cartridge Suppliers - Questions & Feedback
-- Everything Else Laser Printer & Copier Related

Miscellaneous
-- Printing Photos and Photo Software
-- Paper & Other Media
-- Everything Else Printer Relate
-- Random Ramblings (place to discuss non-printer related topics)



So, what do you think? To some degree we need to apply "if you build it, they will come" and on the other hand we'll need to watch to see which sections need to be merged and which others need to be broken out even more.

 

[The Hat]

Thank you for this little opportunity to participate in the soon to be new forum.

Dont change the name of the forum its to special, leave it as Inkjet Printer Forum,
yes laser people may not frequent the site because of its name
but lasers are not as interesting as inkjets (boring they just dont go wrong enough).

You could have a dedicated page for Sticky all-in but dont categorise them and please include a lot more of them
as there are quite a few very good one that need to be added.

I would to see it mandatory to provide a location or region for newbies joining simply
because it would be easier to identify their needs to where they live also friendlier. (Even if its Mars)

I would like to be able to see somewhere highlighted the words START A NEW THREAD or ASK A NEW QUESTION,
Newbies are like kids in a candy store they only see the brightest things first.

Canon are the most common here but all other printers still get a fair shake and
putting them in to separate categorises with only limit peoples knowledge to that one particular printer.

Why not leave it like it is, I have seen newbies with only two or three threads to their name
help someone else simply because they read that thread and could relate to that problem,
but if they were directed into another category they might well not have seen it and helped.

I would like to see the return of the Amount each Thread visited that also helps us
to know which are the most popular troubles and Topics.

The one thing that Nifty Stuff has to its credit is a huge following of elderly guys much more than most sites,
dont go the way of the crazy (I phone with all its Apps) keep it simple.

This happens to be the best Inkjet printer Forum on the web and it got that way because of YOU.
The original ideas you had you made them happen, also you made it very easy to read and use
but not complicated, it works brilliantly.

If it isnt broke then why at all fix it, it may only need a good kick and tune-up..

 

[panos]

The purple color of some usernames (moderators?) is difficult to see with the dark colored theme I am using. I am not sure if my partial color blindness is to blame, but the usernames are almost part of the background.