What this forum needs !

As a passerby looking for a 'forum home', I have looked this forum over and feel it would be more beneficial to all if certain changes were made. This is not intended to upset anyone but have seen you on other forums asking members there to come here, and here are my suggestions:
At present there are too many categories fragmented, combine all of the following into a " Computer Help Forum":

Tech News and Reviews
General Board
Certification/Training  
Hardware
Hot Deals
Networking  
Security & Hacking  
Software - Applications
Windows.

Since all of the above are basic computer topics and deal with everyday computer problems, there is no reason to seperate them. When most visitors go to a computer help forum, they like to scan all the postings related to computer topics while there. More than one posting will probally interest them and there is no need to jump all over several fragmented forums to get info, post a question or look for answers. I ,myself , do not have the time to do all that.
This is just my observations and suggestions , whether or not the Administrators/Moderators/Whatever etc take them serious or not.
Others should post their opinions.
Thanks for listening,
passerby

I'm not here to criticize negatively, so take it as constructive criticism.

It's a common practice for a person/group to get their hands on a bbs and go absolutely wild with it. The problem is, they take a bit more cultivation to make them an efficient communication tool.

For example, the fragmented boards issue. The best way to may boards is to start with one or two, and as discussions emerge, generate a new board for them. Think of the best BBS' you have seen and I'll guarantee you this is how they started.

Another issue is not enforcing moderation. Going off topic in everyboard on almost every discussion bores people. There is nothing worse than trying to find information and opinions only to have to wade thru a mess of non-relevant posts... it gets boring and starts to waste time.

And never blatantly ban someone. At the same time, don't allow trolls free reign. Heh. It's a tough balance, especially as your user base begins to grow to what seems like unmanagable numbers...

There are exceptions, but those are generally applied to bbs' that were created as a need after the site was running for a while rather than as a feature.

[wizbones]

I must agree with both opinions above.

I have been reading through the boards here for the last week and enjoy the content here but do find I am roaming around a bit more than I'd like to, to read what I'm looking for.

Over all I think you have an awesome potential board here! Just some rearanging and a little house cleaning will greatly improve the board.

Keep at it guys you're doing a great job and remember the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

I am always looking for another computer forum to read and post in.  I read the questions and the answers to learn more and I don't have time to visit all of the different forums at this site, it is mind boggling.