Ideas for changes to homebrewandbeer.com forum

[Oliver]

Hi guys,

As some of you may have read here, I'm doing a major upgrade to the forum software on Thursday or Friday.

While I'm at it, I was wondering whether there were any new sub-forums that you think would be good to add, which would make the homebrewandbeer.com forum easier to navigate and a better and more informative place to visit.

Some of the ideas that spring to mind are to have a separate store for retailers to post messages in (instead of being with the private members' trading area), a member introduction area (although this will probably divide opinion), or a separate area for discussion about homebrewing gear

Perhaps you think that some of the forums are too general and should be split into two, such as one forum for all-grain recipes and another for extract, kit-based and partial mash.

Or maybe you like things just as they are

I'm happy to field any suggestions and look forward to a robust discussion among members about any changes proposed!

Thanks in advance for your input.

Cheers,

Oliver

EDIT: And perhaps you think that the forums aren't arranged logically (I can think of a couple of ideas to make it better). If so, let me know.

[Bum]

In all things there is usually room for improvement but I've always felt the arrangement here is pretty good. Some boards split everything up into the smallest compartments they can think of and I've noticed two things generally occur: either people follow the segmentation of ideas rather strictly and this limits the ability to have any sort of broad discussion or they are looked at loosely and are thus rendered almost useless as almost all categories end up being in the "wrong" forum (you only need to look at AHB for the best example of this - though I do like the board a lot, of course).

I think this forum's biggest strength is that there are only 2 sections that deal directly with the nuts and bolts of making beer. This makes it more likely that a new brewer will read about more advanced techniques which may inspire them to make the beers they wish they were making and it also makes it more likely that the more advanced brewers will see and answer the questions of we newer brewers.

[warra48]

I'm happy with the way the forum is arranged. It makes no difference to me whether the board is split into segments as it currently is, or any other way. I read the forum by clicking on "view new posts", so I tend to look every new post, regardless of the section it is posted in.

I do understand your ideas about seperating recipes or other sections into AG or K&K or K&B etc, but my feeling is that will potentially breed some degree of class distinction. I think it is better to keep them all together. A lot of recipes can be converted from one to the other with a little bit of effort, and I have no doubt some of the K&K or K&B recipes can be as good as or better than a lot of the AG recipes. For example, I drank a kit IPA yesterday, brewed by waggastew, and to me it tasted as good as or better than a lot of my AG recipes. Similarly with gear, much of it is useful in any style of brewing.

By keeping the board simpler, I think you will encourage a more inclusive attitude amongst the posters, which is something that can be sadly lacking on some other forums.

[rotten]

I agree that the layout is great as it helped me branch out so to speak from K&K, because you have to read, in order to get the info you seek, which means you learn more along the way. However I will differ my opinion in regards to recipes. It would be great and easier for noobs and experienced guys to maybe have sub forums for recipes, maybe not for discussion as such, just tried and tested recipes. Those threads can get long winded once you discuss kit versions, partial versions, ag versions etc.

Just my 2c.
Fantastic forum Oliver, if you didn't change a thing I would still come back again, and again, and again............

[hirns]

I'm very happy with the layout in general. I'm hoping the upgrade will assist in upload times as it is easy to double post atm with the slow speed.

An issue that did come up recently was that the forum's rules, terms and agreement are not available(or in some obscure spot). I'm sure I must have seen these when registering, but not since.

Cheers

Hirns

[Tipsy]

I like it simple too.

Whatever you do, please don't change the colour scheme. It's one of the easiest forums to read.

[lethaldog]

As the old saying goes, "if it aint broke then dont fix it" i think everything here is fine except some obvious technical issues but as far as the layout is concerned, i love it!!

[Planner]

As the old saying goes, "if it aint broke then dont fix it"

I'm with lethaldog.

I like the layout and the simple breakdown of sub-forums. HB&B is also the easist forum to manage of the ones I visit, the unread post icons seem to work better than most (some boards mark all posts as read each time you logon.)

Overall very happy with the site and forum Oliver.

[drsmurto]

Another 'don't change anything' here.

One of the simplest forums to read and navigate.

[Bum]

What a bunch of Luddites!

[earle]

I'm with the others in that I'm happy with the categories. The only thing I miss when I'm here is a 'view new posts button' thats at the top no matter what page or post your viewing, like the one on AHB. Don't know whether its possible to add or am I just doing it wrong.

[rotten]

I think I have been outvoted, lucky it was just an idea.

P.S. Can we have a drool icon though?? PLEASE
Cheers

[Oliver]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. It looks like most are happy with the status quo.

However, I want to run past you what I'd suggested to Geoff and explain my rationale for proposing a few changes.

I think that splitting "The store" into three sections makes a lot of sense, as does adding a "Forum news and update section".

Have a read of what's below and let me know your thoughts. At this stage I think the upgrade is going to be on Thursday, so speak now or forever hold your peace!

Cheers,

Oliver

These are the changes I'd thought about:

A new "Brewing equipment" section
I think this has been voted down, unless someone feels strongly enough to have a go at convincing everyone else

A new "Beer and homebrew in the news" section
I thought this would be good so that we can post articles from the web about beer and homebrew. But I'm fairly ambivalent about this; it can keep going into "Genera discussion".

Split the current "The store" into three sections:
* Members' trading room (for members to buy, sell, give away and swap stuff).
* Retailers' trading room (for retailers and beer and homebrew companies to advertise their wares, advise of promotions, give us stuff etc)
* Bargain corner (tip-offs about cheap beer, and homebrew equipment and supplies). The reason for separating this is so that old posts can be easily deleted. After all, there's no reason that we'd need to know that Coopers tins were selling for $8.99 at Coles in 2008!

A "Forum news and updates" section
This would be to inform of updates to the site, notifications of downtime, etc, and would be in addition to the existing "support and suggestions" section.

[hirns]

Holy crap!!! How fast is this now for everyone else! To me it's like going from 56k dialup to 1200bpm broadband!!!