Expanded Forums

As most of you can already tell, we are making a major change to the structure of Sportz Insomnia. I have been a huge advocate of expanding the forums b/c I believe this is needed in order to expand our community. Throughout my time spent away from the site I've been able to get out and about, see what other places are doing...and what we have now is pretty much the standard.

I don't expect everyone to like this. Matter of fact, I expect many of the SI veterans to gripe. I ask that everyone keep an open mind, be flexible, this isn't the end of the world. The staff has debated this change a couple of times before and we could never come to a consensus. Ultimately, we did/do always agree that whatever it takes to generate more activity and a bigger community, just do it.

Yes, this makes scrolling through the main index a pain in the ass, I realize that. I also realize that some a pair of the oldest & most successful sports talk forums have the same problem...and it doesn't hurt their activity. Take a look at PSD, for example, they have every single team forum listed on their index, it's longer than sh.t but it works for them.

My major points behind this move:

- An expanded index means we're listing way more content, up front, and harder to miss. This means it will take longer to go through the index...hence people are spending more time logged onto the site.

- As I've already said, this style of index is the standard. Of the few major sites I've been to, (none of which I will name specifically), this is what they do...and it works. If we are to ever draw people away from these sites, we need to have what they're used to.

- Our 'Gaming Forum' has always been this expanded and much to my surprise...it's always worked out. Anybody care to argue that the NFL or NBA sections can't pull off what the Gaming section has?

- Better organization. The time it takes to scroll down our main index alleviates the time it used to take, scrolling through a single forum that has a ton of mixed/random threads.

- This WILL generate more threads, more posts, more activity. Our Staff and senior members are now going to make sure that none of these division forums are left untouched for too long. This requires better consistency in posting new threads, bringing over news, and keeping the discussion going.

I think this a great thing for SI and I think this brings us up to date with what is now the standard in hosting a busy sports forum. It will take some getting used to but this isn't the first time we've made major changes that not everyone was happy with. Some will commend, some will complain, but in the end...activity will dictate whether or not this is successful. If this change turns out to be a major fail...then we go back to the way sh.t was, it's that simple.

Just remember..."For the good of the site". I appreciate everyone's patience throughout this transition. -AE

thus far, i do like it.

I like it too. Imo the gfx should be expanded too. Like make sigs their own section along with walls then do an other gfx part with covers and other misc s***

sarge said:

I like it too. Imo the gfx should be expanded too. Like make sigs their own section along with walls then do an other gfx part with covers and other misc s***

Click to expand...

Well sigs forum used to be broken down by individual sport...however most artists didn't use them, hence why I got rid of them. I did spend time earlier in the week tweaking our GFX section & will expand it as it continues to grow. Our GFX section is currently bigger than it has ever been tho. Custom covers, SOTW, COTW, all have their own forum.

i like the way you set that up too, looks 10x better.

I still have to finish the some NCAA logos and then that section will match the rest of what we got. Not sure if we should break leave NCAA as 1 forum on the index or break up the display to: Football, Basketball, Other.

as long as we dont go by team im down. the big logos clean up the index.

oh and question

can you add a link directly from the index to submit a cut?

i have never liked going to the render gallery first.

ROCKSTAR said:

oh and question

can you add a link directly from the index to submit a cut?

i have never liked going to the render gallery first.

Click to expand...

Done

thanks.

I like it so far. Good stuff. I honestly think the logos could be a bit bigger...showing more of the logo.

I like it a lot. Have always supported the idea

What's with the old school logos though

MapleLeaf said:

I like it a lot. Have always supported the idea

What's with the old school logos though

Click to expand...

He siad he wanted to do that to give it a unique look, cause all other sites use the current logos usually.

I dig it. Good stuff AE.

.ae said:

Just remember..."For the good of the site". I appreciate everyone's patience throughout this transition. -AE

Click to expand...

IMO you should delete the section under resources called render gallery cause it isnt updated ever.

sarge said:

IMO you should delete the section under resources called render gallery cause it isnt updated ever.

Click to expand...

It stopped being updated after we had our official Cut Gallery installed. Look about 2 tabs to the right of where it says "Forums".

i know, but it should be deleted because there is a cut gallery. no point in having a non-updated section that has an updated counterpart

sarge said:

i know, but it should be deleted because there is a cut gallery. no point in having a non-updated section that has an updated counterpart

Click to expand...

The decision to keep for archival purposes was made over a year ago. It's really not hurting anything.

Seems to me that activity in the GFX sections has gone way down since the change.