While I'm in a rock-the-boat mood.....why in the world do we have SO MANY sub-categories? I'm on another forum with 7 main categories (including members only sections for silliness and complaints) and 10 sub-categories all servicing over 5000 very divers members. Here we have 7 main categories and TWENTY-FIVE sub-categories! Whatever for? Some of them are so similar as to almost be redundant. It's confusing to have so many different subjects to try to figure out what to post where and it bugs a perfectionist like me with all the "clutter". Anyway, just my thoughts.

I've thought the same thing sometimes...I always have preferred forums with very few categories. Like on E&L, we had 3 for a long time, and then 4. This makes it far easier to check for posts and keep up on things, in my opinion. It creates greater organization this way, one might say, but it makes it "bulkier"...and I am a fan of slick, simple things, myself.

*checks calendar* Teaching, family, writing, volleyball, youth group, Sunday school, service projects...

I am all open for suggestions, but there is no way I have time to sit down and remodel this thing all on my own brain power.

i agree... to many. maybe you could give someone with lots of time the power.. like a mod... maybe they dont have time either though.

but i have patience to:)

I think the Admin is the only one with the "power" to change the setup, but it's not fair to leave it all up to her (especially as her schedule is full!)

How about we put suggestions here as to what categories people want merged/created?

I'm not particularly bothered either way, but I would say to me the obvious ones to be merged would be: Fun & Games and Pictures (as to be honest, Pictures generally just leads to chatting anyway), and Dig Deeper and Edification (I'm never quite sure of the point of Edification/how it differs from Dig Deeper, so I don't tend to post there....).

Pictures is a "members only" section, so that'll need to stay separate so that non-members can't see the photos...

I see what you mean about the Edification and Dig Deeper section... DD was added as a new section after everything else, as a place for serious conversations that weren't quite debates. Edification is more about spiritual topics that don't have to be serious... but I think they could merge.

I think that "help" and "general discussion" can probably merge, especially as the "help" section is hardly used.

I guess one thing to remember is that there are the "Meet Your Mod" sections, which can't really be merged into anything else, but there's rarely new posts to check in them. Unless people wanted all the topics (one per mod) to be in one "Meet Your Mod" section, perhaps in the "Admin's Desk" part??

Oh, I didn't realise that! That's a good idea to keep it members only.

Otherwise, the changes you suggest sound good. Help practically does merge into general discussion, and all the 'meet your mods' bits seem to have done their duty seeing as we know who the mods are. I like the idea of having a more light-hearted 'general discussion' and a more serious 'dig deeper', rather than four separate sections covering all that.

In the Admin's Desk, you could just merge the Anouncements, RE the Forum, and FAQs since there aren't that many posts in those, generally speaking. Maybe the Admin's Desk could look something like:

Admin's Desk
1. Announcements, Suggestions, and FAQs
2. Meet the Administration and Moderators
a. One topic per administrator and moderator that notes who they are and what they do

I'm still thinking about other possibilities, but haven't figured anything out yet...

Yeah, we were trying to keep you guys from being stalked. Safety online is mildly important (said tongue-in-cheek)

I agree about the mod sections. I have a plan for condensing and moving those. I just want to do everything together, because people tend to have heart attacks when we change stuff.

I can put "help" in the General Discussion. I can't remember why we made 'help' anyway.

The rest of them, I just don't know what to do.

I think Love Stories needs to stay seperate.

Obviously the girls only and guys only need to stay seperate.

Hello & Goodbye should probably stay seperate.

Dig Deeper, Edification, Debate, Prayer Requests and Devotionals should all stay seperate. We tried combining Edification and Devotionals once and it was confusing. We combined Debate and Dig Deeper once and that was even more confusing.

so yeah... continue suggesting, and then we will come up with a new format and do it all at once.

i really like musicgirls idea, and i think the birthday thing could maybe be combined with pictures and fun n games.

and i still dont really like the fact that topics dissappear after like a month. but whatever.

I think that Dig Deeper and Edification should be combined. Having them two sections is kind of confusing because I don't really understand the difference. I mean, digging deeper is edifying, right?

I like how the pictures, fun & games, and birthday sections are now; even if the privacy thing wasn't an issue.

I agree with LAT... I think Dig Deeper and Edification should be combined... it doesn't make sense the way it is (at least not to me ).