More sub forums and better TLK integration

[FlipMode]

) Make it easier for people to find threads that they can post in.
What I mean specifically by that is this:
If you are one of the older members of the board (20+?) you probably already realized this but if not here is what it is; if you are say a graphics designer, or RPer, by the time you have updated those things, done any requests etc and assuming you have a job and other responsibilities, you don't really have the time to join in on the TLK threads.

You probably took one look at some of them and saw pages of in depth character analysis, got scared and left the thread. But you would have time to post a few lines in a general chit chat thread about the film or something.
So how do you make it so these people can find threads more relevant to them? Well you add more sub forums into the TLK sections.

At the moment, you have a place to discuss TLK and ALL the threads go into that. Which has resulted in it becoming difficult to find threads you want to post in and stuff. Here's what I think you could have:

The Lion King
Behind The Scenes (thing revealed in making of and other documentaries, anything that went on during production basically)
Music
Characters
Theories and in depth discussion (this keeps the big scary posts in specific places, see?)
Movie Mistakes
TLK Videogames

The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride
Rinse and repeat

Feel free to add more to this, those are just a few examples to get a general idea of what I'm on about.
This makes those areas of the board more organized without having to archive all the threads. Makes it easier for people to post new threads in the correct places, helps people find threads more suited to them or to their available free time etc... You could even integrate TLK with other parts of the board by having, say, graphics threads IN the actual TLK sections rather than on their separate part of the forum. Just make it a sub forum within the TLK section instead.

And the thing is you could take this to any extent you want:
Why not give the fan fiction forum a kick up the butt by having specific places to post; action, romance, comedy etc... People can choose to read what they are in the mood for rather than lucky dipping.

It also gives the sections that need more activity more of a presence on the index and stuff.
Just saying, how do you get certain sections of the board to be more active? You expand them and integrate them with the rest of the board. This is just my idea on how I would go about doing that.

[DGFone]

I am really liking this idea. But there should still be a general kinda main "miscellaneous" topic for each movie. Because there is a problem with sub-forums, and that they tend to segregate topics. If you want to simply discuss various things about the movies, but don't have anything really in mind, you can just click on the The Lion King topic, and you see a whole bunch of topics that were discussed recently. If every topic was in a specific sub forum, it will make casual talks about the movies less likely because you will have to go out of your way to search for other topics. It's no longer click on just the first movie and see what's new, but now there are several subsections in that, and several topics in those.

So I guess what I am saying is that I think it's a great idea, but the list you gave is simply too specific, and the number of subtopic too large. I think it will be better to have only a few sections. For example:

"The Lion King Canon and Sub-Canon" - character, plot discussion, etc. Stuff relating to the movies as though they actually happened

"Behind the Scenes" - music, creators, production, mistakes and stuff. Where members can discuss the movies as movies.

"Everything Else" - whatever doesn't ft in these

Obviously, I didn't take too much time thinking of names for the subsections.

It could be just me, but because I like the long multi-page idea posts, I don't see anything wrong with having them be in the same place as less formal discussion.

[FlipMode]

[quote="DGFone"]

It could be just me, but because I like the long multi-page idea posts, I don't see anything wrong with having them be in the same place as less formal discussion.[/quote]

There's not a lot "wrong" with it, other than that it makes it harder to find said less formal topics among all the more open discussions.

EDIT - I should point out, this idea came to me after meeting with Shadowfax and Si the other day, we were talking about the forum at one point over a cup of tea (it was all very British) and this is based somewhat on what was said then. ^^ so I think I actually have an idea of WHY certain people don't post in the TLK sections which is probably the first step in doing something to help it...

[DGFone]

^ Well, then we can have a subsection for the "serious" discussion. But what do you think of only having a few broad subsections versus many specific ones? For example, you listed "mistakes" as its own section, but I don't think that kind of subsection will get too much attention, and won't it be better to place it inside of another section?

[FlipMode]

Not sure man, I mean, think of it like a filing cabinet . How much easier is to get to what you want when it is clearly labelled?
The Den has a lot of sub forums for games, books, movies, TV, Personal Issues, Q/A etc... And how much more active is it?

[DGFone]

Yeah, but how specific should that filing cabinet be? We don't need a cabinet for math homework here, and English homework there, Physics notes in this one. Why not have a "homework" cabinet, and a "notes" cabinet, if you know what I mean?

Because as much as I agree that it will be nice to organize the sections, it will be all too easy to make it too bogged down and actually harder to navigate as you have to go through one subsection after another just to get to the topic you want. And then comes the question of what happens if you just want to read what others have said and post replies? How many drawers are you going to open before you decide that it's not worth the effort to go and find other topics?

[FlipMode]

Lol I guess but then it's...
I suppose again, it just shows how different we all are on here. Some would prefer it neat and tidy in the way you suggested, others might prefer a big list of specific sub forums on the main page.
I guess it's just a preference on the part. But I think we can agree on one thing; the TLK sections do need some degree of restructuring beyond just archiving old threads and then re starting them.

[DGFone]

^ Yup.

Now we just need to somehow compromise and agree on what subtopic to have and which not to have.