Too many sub-forums?

[Andeh13]

Was just wondering if i was alone in thinking that a few sub-forums Hexus has could be merged. Mainly the sub-forums that get a very limited number of new threads a week in, if that.

My main target is the 'small form factor and portables' sub forum linked below. With the uptake of HTPCs picking up pace more and more many of the build ideas and questions are put straight into hexus.hardware when in theory, they should(?) be put in the small form factor area. Im guessing this forum was implemented when small form factor PCs were still very limited, and therefore didnt require much attention.

With laptops being a secondary point, i feel they get a much smaller audience then they otherwise could have, iv been frequenting hexus for a while now, and tbh iv never really stumbled accross this sub forum, when laptops have always been an interest of mine. I just wonder if there are other people who may be in a similar boat.

What brought this up was a question i had about buying a Dell Inspiron vs Dell Studio laptop, two laptops which i think are quite common on this forum (from seeing it in peoples sigs, to comments in other threads). I am curious to see how many views and replies it willl get in the sub-forum over the next couple of days, compared to how many it would i think it would get in hexus.hardware.

This is just my opinion though, so id be curious to see what other people think!

edit; i did a search for the term 'laptop' in the thread title, and i found that a lot of people had just put laptop topics in the hexus.hardware section, this could be down to knowing they will get a great deal more views then in the small form factor section, or not realising laptops had their own sub-forum (even if it is shared) on hexus. Both of these i recon could be proof that the sub-forum is being rendered obsolete?

http://forums.hexus.net/search.php?searchid=2733074

[Fraz]

I hardly see the point to the separate forums at all. I just look at the new-posts bit all the time. I find the separate forums more a hindrance than a help. But horses for courses I guess.

[Funkstar]

I agree with Andehh. There are some sub forums that could either be merged together or merged with their parent.

[Grey M@a]

I hardly see the point to the separate forums at all. I just look at the new-posts bit all the time. I find the separate forums more a hindrance than a help. But horses for courses I guess.

I am exactly the same. Very rare that I will go look at a sub forum. I use the New Posts or Today's Posts option 99% of the time.

[Steve]

Highly active people tend to use "New posts", but less active people rely much more on subforums.

We'll be looking at forum activity and changing things as we feel necessary.

[Andeh13]

Surely its the active people that should be catered for more? . As a case study, is it possible to move my thread to hexus.hardware's main forum and see how many views/replies it gets there in a 24 hour period? I feel that im getting a much smaller response(none at all!) by using the correct forum, because the majority of people dont know of it/dont bother with it. Even now HTPC threads are being dropped straight into the hexus.hardware section, when i was always on the understanding that a HTPC is a small form factor PC (compact etc).

Alternatively, would you consider giving Laptops a main forum for themseleves? With the huge increase in netbook discussions (from modding to buying etc) i think they justify a forum for themseleves, especially when it was only a few months ago that hexus had a few news stories regarding the [predicted?] sales of Laptops exceeding the sales of desktop PCS.



Edit; it seems the search i posted up top hasnt been saved. If you go to the hexus.hardware main forum and just ''search this forum'' for 'laptop' or 'HTPC', you will see the majority of people (inc me on prior occasions) have just put threads relating to them straight into the hexus.hardware section. Personally, i did this as i didnt realise hexus had a dedicated forum for laptops, until i stumbled accross it via a search.

[Steve]

Not necessarily because the proportions involved are different.

Perhaps bump the thread so it shows up in "new posts"?

[Andeh13]

Asked & answered i spose! i still think less sub-forums would streamline hexus & bring good threads to a wider audience and i think a poll would agree, but at least i tried!

thanks anyway