Interim Forum Reorganization

[Ironduke]

Fellow Members of WAB,

Recently, Shek made a suggestion to me regarding the structure of the forum. Shek is both willing and able in this area, and his ideas are pretty good. The ordering of categories and some of the topical forums are his:

Current Structure:

• WAB Community
• International Defense and Geopolitics
• Military Discussion
• History of International Conflict
• General Discussion

Now, I applied an idea I came up to his ideas. When it comes to a forum, there is an issue with the following:

• Too General vs. Too Niche
• Many Forums (mainpage length) vs. Many Subforums (buried content)

Therefore, I have came up with what I thought was an innovative and new approach: dual-topic forums.

Dual topic forums

• topics are closely related
• the topics are specific and niche, and not lumped together into a more generally named forum in which the message is lost
• the dual topic approach broadly encompasses the entirety of what a more generally named category would
• positive sum in being together
• reduce the length of the forum mainpage
• content is not buried in subforums, escaping attention of members

For example:

• NATO Security Topics | The Russian Resurgence
• The Pacific Rim | The Rise of China

I would like to do this with other forums as well in the International Defense & Geopolitics category.

Any feedback or thoughts on this process would be greatly appreciated.

[tantalus]

The dual topic idea is good imo and I welcome the improvements to the site.

•Many Forums (mainpage length) vs. Many Subforums (buried content)

Buried content can be a problem, personally I dont think that the mainpage is too long and extra forums could be added to reduce buried content and help refine thread location and also encourage debate in areas that receive less coverage, that is if the there are suitable ideas for additional forum/s (or dual).

I think science and tech may be worthy of its own forum considering the influence these areas have on shaping our world, policies and potential - past, present and future, although I understand that some people may feel this would result in a loss of sight of the main focus, world affairs (political and military).

It does seem a difficult challenge incorporating all of the geography, and that some regions will end up in miscellanous seems unavoidable, such as India, Brazil or western Europe, important regions, but where do they go on the main forum page?

perhaps globalisation, UN etc is worthy of its own forum or sub forum or perhaps that is creating unnecessary overlap, just brainstorming...