I'm going to start transferring stuff to phpBB as soon as possible, and I thought it would be wise to evaluate the current style of the forums.
Anyone who feels important enough can answer =)
Also, comments and suggestions are very welcome.
[NOTE: I reserve all rights to make decisions waaay above all of your tiny little heads, meaning: don't cry if I do the opposite to what you want =) ]
1 - Distribution of forums
a) Should we have more forums or less forums?
b) Some forums today are heavily used to multi-purposes, should these be split into smaller (more managable) forums?
c) Some forums are hardly ever used (Feedback), should these be merged into larger forums?
d) Overall, is there any way to balance the load of the forums? Suggestions for new forum layouts are welcome.
2 - Message board design
a) How should the board's design be? Rate on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 = sweet-looking design (longer load times) and 1 = super-simple design (a bit faster).
Note that it's possible to make sweet-looking designs *and* keep them fast, but it's very tricky. Usually, it's the little things (like mouseovers) that take of a lot of space. Also note that it's the same little things that usually create a good "feel" to the board...
b) Rate the current board's design on the same scale.
3 - Formatting rules
a) Should we allow HTML in posts? (current: no, due to risk of abuse/mistakes)
b) Should we allow BBCode (similar to UBBCode) in posts? (current: yes)
c) Should we allow signatures in posts? (current: no, due to increased load times)
d) Should we use avatars (portraits identifying a user)? (current: no, the board looks cleaner without such)
4 - The little things
a) Should we use user rankings, i.e. different ranks depending on how many posts you've made? (current: yes)
b) Should we use personal messages, a feature to send private messages to users on the board? (current: n/a)
5 - Personal requests
- Please bring them to my attention, in this early stage of board design, a lot is possible =)
