Why not have.. less forums?

[WandererOfTheWastes]

The other forum I frequent regularly is Metal Archives (i'm going somewhere with this btw). It is a fair bit smaller- 1.1 million posts, perhaps 2000 odd users that post regularly (still rather busy though, and probably the biggest metal site on the net)- but it gets by on just 8 sub forums. It's fantastic, as it throws everyone together into the same sub forums, instead of seperating everyone into their own little cliques.

Having eleventeen million sub forums like this place does is intimidating for a noob like me, seperates all of us so that there's far less chance of good (and of course, potentialy fiery) discussion/debate about our differences, makes it really hard to navigate and makes the individual sub forums far less active and vibrant.

Of course I'm not suggesting you guys do a MA and go down to 8 sub forums, but you could definitely cut it down.. a lot. And really, shouldn't at least part of this forum be about us putting aside our theological disagreements and hanging around in the same space?

 

[jackdan]

I agree about having less forums here.

 

[RN4CHRIST]

The other forum I frequent regularly is Metal Archives (i'm going somewhere with this btw). It is a fair bit smaller- 1.1 million posts, perhaps 2000 odd users that post regularly (still rather busy though, and probably the biggest metal site on the net)- but it gets by on just 8 sub forums. It's fantastic, as it throws everyone together into the same sub forums, instead of seperating everyone into their own little cliques.

Having eleventeen million sub forums like this place does is intimidating for a noob like me, seperates all of us so that there's far less chance of good (and of course, potentialy fiery) discussion/debate about our differences, makes it really hard to navigate and makes the individual sub forums far less active and vibrant.

Of course I'm not suggesting you guys do a MA and go down to 8 sub forums, but you could definitely cut it down.. a lot. And really, shouldn't at least part of this forum be about us putting aside our theological disagreements and hanging around in the same space?

Very Good idea! Makes you wonder, why not?

 

[razeontherock]

RN, luv your avatar (LOL)

 

[WandererOfTheWastes]

so, any mods or higher-ups care to say something on this matter?

 

[pdudgeon]

most likely it has something to do with the comparitive rating (viability) of the site.
more forums make it look busy by providing more places to post, and thus they add to the greater possibility that someone will find something that interests them, and so the person will post rather than just lurk and read.

ironically, controversy also increases the posting rate of a forum. the tricky part is to have enough controversy to generate posts without at the same time offending the majority of posters so much that they do not want to visit the site.

 

[WandererOfTheWastes]

well, I'm not saying we should get rid of 90% of the forums or anything, but merging/deleting (I'm guessing the former)/purging the forum until it's half the size it is now would still make it look impressively big, without it being ridiculously so.

 

[Nilla]

I'm going to bump this to one of the Advisors since they have more answers then I have about this.

 

[Janet842]

Amazing. With all the different forums I still couldn't find one suitable to post a topic. I wanted to find a place to post something about "putting it all on the line."

I was looking for a forum where people are stepping off the cliff into the unknown to gain deeper relationships with God. Where people are risking all to see Him become "Mighty to Save" in their lives.

I found no such forum. Kind of sad when you consider how many are on here.

Janet

 

[Wren]

I agree. There seems to be alot of forums that are kind of unnecessary and get barely any traffic. And the number of forums/sub-forums was definitely overwhelming to me and almost stopped me from becoming a member of this site. I actually stayed away from it for a few months after first finding it because of that reason.

 

[FaithPrevails]

Amazing. With all the different forums I still couldn't find one suitable to post a topic. I wanted to find a place to post something about "putting it all on the line."

I was looking for a forum where people are stepping off the cliff into the unknown to gain deeper relationships with God. Where people are risking all to see Him become "Mighty to Save" in their lives.

I found no such forum. Kind of sad when you consider how many are on here.

Janet

How about Deeper Fellowship?

 

[WandererOfTheWastes]

That example basically proves the point. There is a subforum for it, but there's so many subforums around that it was impossible to find.

One obvious example: There is a substance abuse subforum, an alcohol abuse forum, a quit smoking forum, a pornographic addiction forum. One move and BAM, you have a "problems with addiction" forum that's got it all in one thing.

Another one: "Denomination Specific Theology". Completely redundant, considering if you want some denomination specific theology you can just post that in the denomination thread.

The entire edification forum could be cleaned and merged, as it's huge and a lot of it gets little traffic.

You certainly don't need a young adults forum AND a 17-23 sub sub forum. Seriously..

Faith groups has a lot of stuff that gets hardly any traffic. I'm not a denominational expert unfortunately, but you could definitely throw in pentecostal and charismatic together (that would be very interesting ) and there's no way that there needs to be seperate subforums for conservative christians and fundamentalists. Likewise liberals and moderates. I have a feeling there must be a much simpler way to do this whole thing- you could almost just do seperate forums based on when the denominations were formed, or certain big theological differences that groups of denominations have.

Get rid of the entire "forum features and support" thing. None of that gets much traffic. A simple MA version of "suggestions and complaints" would do fine. One forum where you can say you have a problem. That's all that's needed.

Basically, if a kook like me can see some obvious improvements here then they must be obvious to anyone. No one has yet spoken up and went "I disagree I love the confusing, impossible to navigate home page!!!", and that's because I imagine 99% of the users here completely agree with me.

 

[WandererOfTheWastes]

oh, and you know one SUPER OBVIOUS one? Merge the entire music forum into Secular Music/Christian Music. Two forums, both of which would be much busier and a lot better as a result. Easy as anything.

And another one! Gardening Forum/Outdoors and Nature/Sport. One forum, "Sports and Outdoors".

And another one.. Survivors of abuse/crime/sexual assault. Redundant and could easily be made into one forum.

It goes on and on..

 

[Janet842]

How about Deeper Fellowship?

I did find that one and looked at it - not even close. That one is supposed to be all about edification and it just doesn't come off as "deeper" to me.

Where's the forum for people who want to be radical for Christ? Maybe even stupid for Christ? Where's the forum for people who don't care what it will cost them to have God rule their lives? Where is the total surrender forum? Where are people talking about that?

I'm not interested in "oh, my fingernail broke and it really hurt and a friend prayed for me and it feels all better now." I'm not looking for a "touchy-feelie-warm-fuzzy" forum.

Where are the radical, wild-for-God believers on this website? Where are people talking about their adventures in faith and what came out of those experiences? And know that I'm not talking about the "Testimonies" forum where most are directed at how they came to Christ.

A "Total Surrender" forum might come close if it had the right descriptive statement: "A forum for Christians who are willingly paying any price God asks of them to have a closer relationship with Him."

Yeah! I think that's what I'm looking for and I don't even see where you might stick a forum like that on this site. It really doesn't fit in any existing category!

 

[FaithPrevails]

Well, IMHO, those kinds of posts could/should be able to be made anywhere. I mean, shouldn't we (the Christians on CF) all be sold out for Jesus and living out every aspect of our life that way? I would think it would serve believers and non-believers alike to see those kinds of posts all over CF.

 

[Janet842]

Well, IMHO, those kinds of posts could/should be able to be made anywhere. I mean, shouldn't we (the Christians on CF) all be sold out for Jesus and living out every aspect of our life that way? I would think it would serve believers and non-believers alike to see those kinds of posts all over CF.

I wish those kind of posts were all over. Unfortunately, I haven't seen even one that I can discern by the topic name. So I'm supposed to search every topic in every forum to find them? Wow. I just don't have that much time to put in on this site. One place to go makes more sense to me. Easy to find and everyone can go there to read the posts.

And yes, we all should be completely sold out to Jesus. Sadly, I know a lot of people who are afraid to surrender all so they hold back areas of their life from the Lord.

Janet

 

[razeontherock]

That one is supposed to be all about edification and it just doesn't come off as "deeper" to me.

Where's the forum for people who want to be radical for Christ? Maybe even stupid for Christ? Where's the forum for people who don't care what it will cost them to have God rule their lives? Where is the total surrender forum? Where are people talking about that? Where are the radical, wild-for-God believers on this website? Where are people talking about their adventures in faith and what came out of those experiences?

Hi Janet!

As with most things, it really comes down to developing personal relationships with individuals. The Deeper Fellowship forum has MUCH that you're looking for, and individuals VERY like what you describe. Your contributions would be very welcome there, and (normally) be much better received, w/o inane accusations that seem to plague other places as the norm. If you looked over the recent posts there lately, you wouldn't see this being reflected. Some conflict invaded there too a bit ago, and dampened activity quite a bit.
(Maybe like TH it's due to the heat?) Read through some threads there though, and you'll find GREAT stuff! (Insert shameless plug for the only thread I started there)

Another place might be the healing ministry forum, and certainly the dreams and visions. (I have a few there, w/ another yet to come) While I sadly need to use the ignore function, my friends list is MUCH longer ... CF can be a valuable addition to your walk!

Ray

 

[jimjg]

I also agree to the idea. A good form must not how many points. But it must have qualitative reflect. We must through the characteristic to attract people's heart

 

[Jerushabelle]

I agree with this idea as well. When I first came to Christian Forums I saw "Christian Communities" and then I saw "Faith Groups" and it appeared that some Christian communities had been "relegated" (to use what I feel is a very nasty word) to a lesser place; a place considered not quite as good as those in "Christian Communities". Sorry Mods but that's how I saw it. I'm sure that's not how it was meant. Isn't it time that somewhere some of us show the world that the Body of Christ does not have to be divided and divisive?

 

[Goodbook]

I couldn't find any gardening forum?!

Its so hard to find anything on here. There's zillion different places I don't want to post gardening threads all over the show.