Just a thought

[hop_goblin]

I was wondering if it would be beneficial to create a new forum for Japanese greens. I do understand that Japanese greens are of course green tea but in a way they are a different animal all together.

[Mary R]

The forum's getting to the point where it's hard to find related topics. If you're interested in Japanese greens or Darjeelings or what have you, you're in for a search.

I can see how it would be beneficial to have a separate forum for Japanese greens, but I worry that if we did that we'd have to create a separate forum for every sort of tea. I wish we could do subforums. It might be easier to pull that off.

Thoughts?

[scruffmcgruff]

Subforums would be nice, but too much specific categorization makes me feel like I'm posting stuff in the wrong place. Rooting around for the right place could get mighty frustrating to a new user, I would think.

[Mary R]

Seriously...people had a hard enough time figuring out the difference between "other stuff you think Adagio should know" and "other stuff." And now we've got 1299 messages to redistribute.

Grumble grumble.

[chamekke]

One difficulty with splitting things more finely is, where do you put threads that discuss both Japanese and Chinese greens? Or discussions on green teas in general? If I want to ask which Chinese greens have a similar vegetal taste to my favourite shincha, where should that go? In Green Teas, Japanese Green Teas, or Chinese Green Teas?

I am by nature more of a splitter than a lumper, but in this case, I think we should, er... lump our hearts out.

[Geekgirl]

I'm a lumper. My ideal divisions would look like this:

Welcome:
Intro
Teaday
ITD

Adagio:
Announcements/Feedback/Recommendations
Signature Blends/Store specials and Promotions

Tea and Teaware:
Teaware & Accessories
Black tea/Oolong
Green/Yellow/White
Puerh and other aged teas (<---- yes I realize that would grab some oolongs, but meh.)
Flavored/Herbal/Yerba/Rooibos
Decaf and other teas

Tea Community
Tea Experience: Tea Map, Start your own teahouse, Tea trends for the business
Tea Write: Blogs, Muse, Critics, Politics
Tea Cook
Tea Swap


The Lounge: Off topic and/or almost related to tea.

Voila, 30% fewer, still functional. But that's just me.




Actually, it's not quite just me, my unrealistically ideal divisions would look like:

Intro
TeaDay
ITD

Adagio: Everything you want and need to know about our hosts

All about Tea you Drink
All about Teaware
All about "teas" that are not made from Camellia Sinensis

Cooking with tea
Teahouses and Teashops

Other


Wouldn't THAT cause some confusion! MUAHAHAHA!!!

[hop_goblin]

Ooh, subforums would rock!

[chamekke]

I'm a lumper.

<snipperama>

Wouldn't THAT cause some confusion! MUAHAHAHA!!!

Not as much as the dread Heffalumper, who has only one category, to wit:

Stuff

[Chip]

Actually, this exact topic, even the exact teas, was in the general forum this Spring. I got all excited about subcategories, etc.

I am definitely a splitter by nature. However I came to realize this could be segregating and is not always best in forums as it can also restrict or reduce interaction that occurs in more general categories. This was pointed out to me by someone with vastly more forum experience. Painfully, I had to agree.

[Sydney]

If it were easy (and I certainly don't know a good way to do it, although I host forums built on the same code base) to label posts with subcategory labels without having to make posts in special subcategories, that might be nice.

I'm thinking along the lines of how I apply labels to some of my blog posts and gmail messages. This has some handy advantages, but would probably fit onto phpbb like OOP fits on perl.

[Mary R]

However I came to realize this could be segregating and is not always best in forums as it can also restrict or reduce interaction that occurs in more general categories.

Aw, you just don't want to move more threads! Don't we still have something like 1299 to go in Other Adagio?

[joelbct]

Not as much as the dread Heffalumper, who has only one category, to wit:

Stuff

lol, cute

I regularly posted on a couple electronic music/ nyc nightlife messageboard way back in 1998-99, and this was before subforums, and definitely before avatars! Some of the boards didnt even have registered logons/handles, you could say you were anyone...

I remember when they first started subforums, and i just thought it was annoying, and usually everyone just posted in the main board anyway

[Chip]

However I came to realize this could be segregating and is not always best in forums as it can also restrict or reduce interaction that occurs in more general categories.

Aw, you just don't want to move more threads! Don't we still have something like 1299 to go in Other Adagio?

Well, having MW as current last poster there has motivated me to not go there in the last few days. Fortunately, the general population is shielded from these horrors.

[hop_goblin]

However I came to realize this could be segregating and is not always best in forums as it can also restrict or reduce interaction that occurs in more general categories.

Aw, you just don't want to move more threads! Don't we still have something like 1299 to go in Other Adagio?

Muahahaha!

[Chip]

Muahahaha!

!ahahahauM