From a VERY new member, so take it with a grain or two of salt, but ya'll got way too many categories......I find it makes the site harder to navigate when you have it SO broken down in detail. I'd personally find it a lot easier to read thru if it weren't so broken out. andy
good input. I've been thinking the same. What you you have combined into a more general category? We threw this place together in a weekend and have been looking for outside feedback ever since. (Just 5 months old) melbo
IMHO all the different categories for the riffles are cool, but overkill. Pretty much sub-categories make it look like alot. Is there any way to just hide them from the main menu? Or maybe consolidate them a bit? Other than that, you've done very well. Just my $.02
You can change how it shows up in your user controle pannel. It will still be in the sub catagories but when you look at the main index it can be set to just show the general catagories then you open it and get the sub catagories and so on. One thing I have wondered about is the reading room. Dont combine the resource and fiction just on my suggestion, see what some other folks thing first to, but the reading room in both sections is a slow moveing area so I kind of wonder if its worth haveing it broken into the 2 seperate sections or if it may be better to have some kind of lable or icon that can be put by the titles to distinguish the 2 types of material and just have them in the same section. Like I say, Im not saying do or dont at this point but I would like to hear some other thoughts on it.
Well, for a 5 month old site, you've done good ! My suggestion is you condense a bunch of the stuff down into just a few main categories. Example: Condense all the "Read This First" stuff into something like Site Announcements/Newbies checkin here....then make stickeys of the FAQ, Forum Rules, etc, under that......... Then I'd go: General Disscussion General Survival Reading Room Firearms/knives Hunting Swap and Trade or something along that line...... I realize you were trying to stimulate disscussion on various sub-topics ( Say, AR-15 rifles for example ) by giving it a category of it's own, AND not make it look like the orginal starter of the site was simply posting EVERYTHING.....but again, navigating down thru a WHOLE BUNCH of different subtopics makes it a pain, IMHO......and like a roadside billboard....you want to make the message obtainable in a few seconds to get the attention of the driver/surfer......the KISS principle.
Thanks. I condensed some last night. We may do some more pruning yet. You are correct. The specialized categories were for stimulation, etc. TLynn kept reminding me about KISS each time I added some more areas... I didn't listen Thanks again for the input.
Nah, I had my fun with the one good laugh melbo. That'll do me. Besides, I'm sure you'll find something you can get me back with soon enough!
User Interface Design I'd agree about condensing the categories. I've been creating web sites for about 5 years now (resisting blatant promo of my biz site), and from a user navigation standpoint, stats, studies, etc. show that users want things in 2 clicks or less (damn media shortening our attention spans!). Any new person not familiar with the site might get frustrated with the depth of the navigation and just go back to Google and look for another site. I'm sure though we want to enlighten as many minds as possible, so it'd be a shame to lose a person due to something as simple as that. However, on the plus side, there's a shitload of content here so as long as they find it through the pile of categories, they'll be glued after that.
BTW, I did kill and combine around 20 Forums and categories this past weekend. Feedback has been good so far and I think it makes for more activity in general. The original idea with having a Talk forum on every different weapon system was to inspire talk about them. Now its Long Guns and Handguns... Thanks for the suggestions melbo
New guy here. Lurked this place for a few weeks now and read up on a lot of what you have posted. Couple of thoughts for you to chew on. 1, I like the layout. Could chop a few things off but not really necessary as it seems that you get all kinds here, Survival and others 2, You need to find a way to get more "Survival" into the Survival Monkey. Alot of other good content but the survival section is a little slower than I'd expect from the name of the site. 3, I don't know your member structure. But, I have noticed that "free" sites are usually slow. You may want to offer a membership. It can be cheap. Actually, that would be even better. Call it $5 a year or something like that. Paying members seem to come back and post more often. Give them something--- a Clubhouse or other place to go and feel spesheel I've searched your threads here and have seen a whole lot of 6 post and then gone members. Just some thoughts. I'm a skin and wear it guy myself I'll be back
Yes Thanks for the suggestions Woodsman, we are currently working on the forums, have you noticed the reloading forum? Some good guys over at the Handloaderbench. We are looking at this and more. Thanks.
