[Grall]

There's a bunch of em, some of which see very little activity.

3D Hardware, Software & Output Devices
Video Technology, Displays, & HTPC
Hardware & Software Talk
Processor & Chipset Technology
Purchase Decisions Help

Most (or even all) of these should be merged since they basically deal with the same thing, IMO. Basically, if the activity is registred as posts/week, or even month, then the forum probably lacks reason to exist in the first place. Instead make hardware discussion go into one forum, software into another.

Also, having too many subforums can easily do more harm than good, since most people don't check all sub-forums for new posts. Interesting threads posted to obscure sub-forums therefore languish unnoticed by the majority of forum-goers and the poster becomes discouraged from participating again.

There's a couple others that seem a bit too niche to really be neccessary:
3D & Semiconductor Industry
Politics & Ethics of Technology
Folding For Beyond3D Team #32377
...for example.

This is just a suggestion of course... Feel free to ignore at your own discretion.

[homerdog]

I second this. No need for so many underused and vaguely differentiated forums.

[Squilliam]

I third this. I think most of those could be merged into the one forum.

[BRiT]

I say merge em all into 2 forums: 3D and then Beyond 3D.

[AlStrong]

i say we nuke the entire site from orbit...

... it's the only way to be sure.

[Grall]

/thread!

[BRiT]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

i say we nuke the entire site from orbit...

... it's the only way to be sure.

Only after we flood the main cities, right?

[Grall]

Pop culture references FTW!

...Well, seriously now. Can we get word from one of the big-wigs perhaps on why exactly there are so many forums with similar, or even seemingly identical range of topics, and what might be done about it?

I firmly believe it would benefit the site as a whole to trim off some of the fat, so to speak.

[AlexV]

They're there because at some point a long time ago it seemed like a good idea, and a certain growth rate was expected. Given that didn't exactly happen, you dudes are probably right and a trim is probably useful. So, err, since you chaps seem to have a nice brainstorming session going on, how about you give us a hand and tell us what sub-forums should be kept around? Outside of the PhysX sub-forum that we're making for willardjuice

[homerdog]

Processor & Chipset Technology and Purchase Decisions Help could easily be done away with. Hardware & Software Talk should cover all of that.

Beyond3D News doesn't seem very necessary either

[Grall]

Originally Posted by AlexV

So, err, since you chaps seem to have a nice brainstorming session going on, how about you give us a hand and tell us what sub-forums should be kept around?

Hehe...or in other words, "please do all the work for us, so we don't have to."

Not that it's a very great burden.

Create two new forums:

PC Hardware
PC Software

Fold all the relevant current hardware and software-related forums into either of these two. IE;
3D Hardware, Software & Output Devices
Video Technology, Displays, & HTPC
Hardware & Software Talk
Processor & Chipset Technology
Purchase Decisions Help
...Anything else?

Valid sub-forum; Mac/Linux Software, if you peeps think there's enough interest to warrant it? Mac hardware's pretty much PC hardware these days, don't really need an entirely different forum for that do we?

Then for the core forums, keep 3D Architectures & Chips, as it's one of the backbone forums of the site.

Create a new GPGPU Software & Programming forum.

Then fold:
3D Technology & Algorithms
3D & Semiconductor Industry
GPGPU Technology & Programming
3D Programming & Tools
3D Beginner's Questions
...into either of the two remaining forums, whichever seems most suited to receive the posts in question. Or...don't. Just lock the fora, and stick 'em in the site archive for reference?

That's my suggestion anyway. It might be crap, I dunno, but this is pretty much what I'd do if I had any say in how to run this place.

[Malo]

Fold Console Forums, Console Technology and Console Games into a single forum called "Losers who dream of PC Gaming Goodness"

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by Malo

Fold Console Forums, Console Technology and Console Games into a single forum called "Losers who dream of PC Gaming Goodness"

[green.pixel]

And console gamers would want to rename PC Games to "Gang of pirates and all they want to do is talk and spend money on booze, whores and high-end GPUs".

[BRiT]

Delete the PC Gaming forum entirely. Everyone knows PC owners never ever game. They merely complain either about not having any games, the games being console ports, the games they do have costs too much, the draconian DRM the games utilize, or spend all their time running benchmarks or updating their OS, anti-virus, anti-malware, drivers, and hardware for larger ePeen numbers.

[Arwin]

In general I agree that 3D Software, 3D Hardware are probably good main topics. Perhaps something like this:

3D Software
3D Hardware
3D Programming
3D Games

(Where 3D is almost superfluous )

I think a distinction between PC and Console gaming is actually completely unnecessary at this point.

What I personally would like to improve the 'knowledge management' part of this forum, would be the ability to rate and tag topics. It would be great for instance if you could rate a topic four stars, and when you create a topic or a post you could optionally tag a few (sub)categories that the topic/post applies to (e.g. GPGPU would be a nice tag, or OpenGL, etc.). You can then search for topics that are tagged GPGPU and maybe order them by ranking or number of posts, or search for high-ranked posts.

I have no idea if there is any module that supports this though, and not really very important for forum restructuring.

[homerdog]

Originally Posted by Arwin

I think a distinction between PC and Console gaming is actually completely unnecessary at this point.

Oh please please please keep them separate. Enough flame wars as it is.

[BRiT]

I believe the ability to tag topics already exists. Perhaps it's not well known. For instance: http://forum.beyond3d.com/tags.php?tag=reorganization and http://forum.beyond3d.com/tags.php

I highly suggest keeping the Console and PC gaming forums separate.

[Grall]

SO... Regarding cleaning up the veritable forest of all-too-same:y sub-forums: HOW 'BOUT IT EH!

[AlStrong]

We shall see..

[Malo]

You guys are like my wife, absolutely MUST re-arrange the bedroom and living room a few times a year.

[Silent_Buddha]

Bah just noticed this thread. I like it how it is. If I'm looking for purchasing help, it's nice to have a distinct place for it without having to dig through looking for stuff in a completely unrelated forum filled with posts completely unrelated to the topic.

Low posts per time period isn't necessarily a sign of a redundant forum.

Regards,
SB

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Bah just noticed this thread. I like it how it is. If I'm looking for purchasing help, it's nice to have a distinct place for it without having to dig through looking for stuff in a completely unrelated forum filled with posts completely unrelated to the topic.

Low posts per time period isn't necessarily a sign of a redundant forum.

Regards,
SB

I agree. I've been watching this thread, and, well, the forum is fine the way it is.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Malo

Fold Console Forums, Console Technology and Console Games into a single forum called "Losers who dream of PC Gaming Goodness"

quoted for great justice
just a reminder

[Simon F]

Cue Python...

Originally Posted by The Dead Collector

I dunno, must be a king.