The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

As mentioned in the ADMIN: Plans for Server Update and For Forum Changes post, it looks like we will have to change forum software (most likely back to SMF) to do server update we need to do this spring.

This thread is for any ideas/suggestions/etc. members may have with respect to the new forum -- for example, organization changes or the like. This thread is open to all ideas and suggestions, even those you believe staff or hosts will not like. However, the Co-Hosts have final say as to which suggestions are adopted.

All posts will be read and considered, although staff/hosts may not reply to all suggestions. However, there are two things with almost no chance of changing: TC's focus on discussion and debate and the requirement for quoting.

Would a single board (perhaps with topic prefixes for those who do want to categorize their messages) work better?

 
I think that the idea with prefixes is pretty neat.

One of the things the Hosts are considering for the new message board is to greatly simply the organization by reducing the number of boards. For example, having one "Social" board instead of lots of specific topic "social boards" like we do now -- perhaps with prefixes for those who want to categorize their message further.

The Cauldron has always shied away from having specific religion boards, preferring to have general Pagan discussion areas. However, our religious SIGs have grown over the years to the point where we do have specific religion boards that we just call SIGs and weirdly separate from the main religion discussions. Should we just bite the bullet and have the SIGs as sub-boards of a "Pagan Religions" board?

Do we really need all the Magic boards? I get the impression that most members interested in discussing magic don't really care about the various sub-categories of magic. Would a single board (perhaps with topic prefixes for those who do want to categorize their messages) work better?

 
I like the ability to put the Humor & Quizzes forum on ignore, but we do have a lot of Social subforums. Maybe we could condense down into fewer social boards- Entertainment for books, movies, video games; crafts and hobbies could be combined with art, poetry, and writing; pets could go in with family life, etc.

I think the magic boards could definitely get condensed and use topic prefixes. I'm wondering how much we're getting out of the beginner friendly boards. Even with the warning in the sidebar, it's not always enough of a reminder. I wonder if prefixes could be utilized here, too- get rid of the beginner specific forums and create something like a beginner/general prefix along with an advanced/specific prefix.

I have mixed feelings about the religion SIGs. They don't get much activity and they do present a somewhat odd separation from the rest of the board. I see plenty of posts in the rest of the board that could fit well in the SIGs, and I see people chime in on SIG threads without noticing that they're in a SIG, making the distinction kind of useless. I think we could probably get away with a subforum or two for the resource posts we typically sticky in the SIGs, and then just have optional religion-specific prefixes. The prefixes are also more noticeable than the folder location when you're scrolling through the New Posts link, which I think a lot of our members do.

I'm not sure if I have a popular, or even practical, request, but I would like to see perhaps some more wiki and article support. They just seem a bit...out of the way at the moment, though I have no idea how the information could be presented differently.

Oh, that's a good question - Randall, is the current wiki tied into the forum or did you just do a really good job of making it work with the forum software?

Oh, that's a good question - Randall, is the current wiki tied into the forum or did you just do a really good job of making it work with the forum software?

As I said above,m the wiki is a vb-specific mod (and a fairly expensive paid one at that).

Well, they just seem somewhat out of the way. I often forget that they are there. Looking back, there was only 2 last year, and few appear to have had comments on them. There also don't appear to be any article 'series' to build an interest. I just think that having a consistent cycle of articles would stimulate more conversation. Like having a regular column once a month which discusses social or religious issues. Or articles that interview people who went to 'pagan' events, to raise awareness and show how 'pagan' worship works in practice. I also think that such articles can give in-depth information about complex topics. I remember that, quite recently, there has been some complaints about both quantity of posts and the attitude towards beginners. I think that more articles, better articles, and more accessible articles could help with these problems.

Of course the downside is that someone has to write them. But isn't that always the case?

Anyway, good to hear we''ll still have them.

 
There was a newsletter for in-depth articles for quite some time, as I recall, but I think it went defunct as there were very few contributors.

It might be useful to have a thread where people could suggest topics that they would be interested in seeing articles about, and people with the time/inclination/information could work on them at their own pace and post them- I think it probably helps one complete something if they know there's an audience who is interested or would be helped by the information.

Accessibility is also an issue; with how much TC has grown and changed over the years, I have a very hard time finding anything on the website, so I rarely use any of the older articles anymore. I think Jack was linking old articles in the wiki at one point? Which is definitely helpful. But any accessibility projects for the older material is going to be time consuming, I imagine.

Accessibility is also an issue; with how much TC has grown and changed over the years, I have a very hard time finding anything on the website, so I rarely use any of the older articles anymore. I think Jack was linking old articles in the wiki at one point? Which is definitely helpful. But any accessibility projects for the older material is going to be time consuming, I imagine.

Part of the problem was that moving older articles to the wiki wasn't an option. If we're just going to have an article section and not a wiki, I think it will actually be easier to integrate old and new material.

Non-facetiously, I'll point out that I did a bunch of work on the wiki last year when people suggested the wiki should be updated/organized and the articles linked, and while several staff members were vocally appreciative, I didn't see any evidence that people actually used the wiki or accessed the articles more.

Sadly, I'm not sure they did. The Wiki never seems to have caught on (which should not surprise me as previous attempts to use separate from the board wikis 5-6 years ago did not either). The Wiki was some strong supporters among TC members -- who put a lot of work into what's there. Unfortunately, there's no evidence that many people use it.  The effort shouyld not go to waste, however, as the wiki articles should turn into messages on the archive version of this board. They can be captured from there and moved to articles on the new board (or on the website).