Should cpaptalk Be Divided Into Categories or Subsections?

Yes / no - it is tech feasible to have it both ways depending on the user.
Create several subcategories. and allow each user to set up his own personal format. either all / or divided into sub. seems this way every body wins.
God BLess

I feel that the forum should stay just the way it. I read and don't post too often any more, but that is for my own reasons. I like to lurk? I think the forums should not be separated into to sub categories.

Yes vote from me, BUT only for the 'off-topic' stuff; Im on quite a few other online forums involving diverse interests and all those have an OT section.
Everything else can go along as is, getting all mashed together.
As others have said, you never know where some of these threads will end up, they take on a life of thier own.

There's a tool that looks to be missing at the moment (or I'm too tired to find it): the "Report Post" button. If you could click that and type in a bit of text to describe why you're reporting it, it would be trivial enough to report a post "needs to be moved to section xxxxxxx" and that would probably satisfy the "lost in the wrong section" crowd.

There've been quite a few more recent discussions about "categories" since this particular thread started back in 2005:

Oct 2010 - topic started by DHC
Forum-Specific Suggestions ?
viewtopic.php?p=524967#p524967

Mar 2010 - topic started by pokerjah
Forum Suggestion - Topic Sections
viewtopic.php?p=456847#p456847

Dec 2009 - topic started by GerryK
suggestions to Johnny for the board
viewtopic.php?p=429353#p429353

Aug 2009 - topic started by SleepNazzi
OT - Forum Suggestion
viewtopic.php?p=394780#p394780

Any value in Creating New Forum Subjects?
Feb 2009 - topic started by Mtnviewer
viewtopic/t39122/viewtopic.php?p=342140#p342140

Board suggestions
Feb 2009 - topic started by 40 Winks
viewtopic.php?p=340618#p340618

Please Rethink The Big Pot Design
Sept 2008 - topic started by OldLincoln
viewtopic.php?p=296770#p296770

Do you think adding some forums to separate content would make this site more user friendly?
May 2007 - topic started by SleepFitness
viewtopic.php?p=169484#p169484

Any chance of sub-forums being added?
May 2006 - topic started by tom2112
viewtopic.php?p=80429#p80429

Topic started by forumadmin -- Should cpaptalk Be Divided Into Categories or Subsections?
Aug 2005
viewtopic/t4149/viewtopic.php?p=33395#p33395


This next thing isn't about categories, but might help some new readers:

A suggestion about doing searches (thanks to blarg) -- if the Advanced Search button at top of the forum's main page doesn't find what a person is looking for, or comes up with a mish mash of things that aren't useful, another way to search this board is to do a Google search.

In the Google search box, type what you want to look for, written as in the examples below. Be sure to include the words that are run together (and the colon) in the emphasized phrase:

oral mask site:cpaptalk.com

Cflex A-flex EPR difference site:cpaptalk.com

DME definition site:cpaptalk.com

Ever since blarg mentioned (a page or two back in this thread) googling that way, I've used that method a lot.

Hi All

Now that I have been admonished by Julie for finding more problems -

viewtopic/t58391/CPAP-NEWS--Christmas-G ... preme.html

I have decided not to ask how come a Poll that currently has 12,326 views has only 111 votes given.

This will save someone from pointing out to me what is glaringly obvious to everyone else, and so I will avoid another embarrassment, and, no doubt, more admonishment's.

This is called learning from past mistakes.

May you all have an admonishment free Christmas, and a mistake free New Year, just like me

cheers

Mars

What about a poll on whether or not it is OK to admonish others here? After all, without that kind of oversight (by Johnny?) who would be responsible for what we think? Not something we dare do alone! All in favor of thought police click button A, otherwise go to your rooms and repent. Life is too long to pile up these slights! Or is that too an admonishment? Help!!

I think some categories would be helpful. i am new to all this and some of the info is beyond me at this point but I am so happy it's there for when I get there.
I'd like to see the subject heading in posts really reflect the subject and I'd like to see a "newbies" section as I suspect a lot of us newbies repeatedly ask the same questions. If there were sections, you could still visit any of them!
apart from that I think this forum is a lifesaver and I am so grateful to have found it. It's always there when I have time to visit and there is a wealth of help, support, and knowledge that doesnt seem to be coming from DME clinicians.

I love the variety of having everything together. I also know how to search. I think if everything was compartmentalized and organized I would be less entertained and probably less informed because I would tend to look only things for which I had a question. A lot of my learning is by chance when reading posts that look interesting but don't seem to have relevance.

I am going to vote NO, because I am on other forums and have found that hardly anyone goes to sub-categories, and often newbies' posts are lost due to them going to the Newly Diagnosed section, which no one visits.

xena

I voted "YES"...

It is not unlike having a book and no reference at the front as to what is inside, going to your TV guide and finding a mish mash of all of the programs with no channel listings....you get the idea! Organization is part of how we find things that we are interested in without having to waste time and energy scrolling or reading through material that may or may not be interesting. In the early stages of a forum the format that is used now is acceptable but as it grows and matures it necessitates developing a structure.

Doing a search on this forum is OK but it is a tedious waste of time because the key word that you placed in search will bring up many irrelevant topics.

Most days I log in and then read up on the first 20 or so posts to see if there is something interesting and many times the members do bring up helpful hints and experiences that they offer. Then there are the posts which end up with many, many pages and I don't want to wade through these many pages and end up reading the first through postings and then go to the end.

There is a "community" here and that is important. Many people come here because it is a social meeting place, others come here strictly for information and some for both.

In any event, this forum has certainly helped me and I have learned a lot of tips to aid in my first year of CPAP treatment.

The majority of forums that I have been involved with have a structure with topics and sub Topics and that is where you start your post by targetting a specific area of interest BUT they also allow you to see the daily, weekly active topics in another section which combines all of the activities (just as we have now)....and for future reference and for trying to find out about masks, specific masks, machines, hoses, etc..... any member in the future can go to the topics section and read & learn and as well resurrect the thread which will appear under the daily, weekly activity page.

That is how most forums operate......
HOW TO SET UP A FORUM

http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/Gulliver/re ... -forum.htm
themes and topics to be discussed on the forum should be defined as precisely as possible. If there are several sub-themes, it is better to create subsections for each one of them than to include them all in one discussion. During the GULLIVER project, it became clear very soon that it was not possible to have all 15 questions on a single bulletin board. If they hadn’t been split into separate sub-forums some time after the beginning of the project, it would have become very difficult to search for specific contributions, for example to a certain topic.

PS: BY THE WAY, I JUST NOTICED THAT THIS THREAD WAS STARTED AUGUST 2005.....talk about beating an old horse to death

Is it just me ....or is there a hidden message here.

....I mean....this thread is 5+yrs old and
here is the forum, still cruising along,
uber chaos , helter skelter , pandemonium reigns supreme
...yet,

folks still getting help,
folks still exchanging ideas,
folks still learning,
folks still having fun.

The CPAP Wiki should be a categorized place that would be helpful for newbies. Unfortunately, it is not, and many apparently agree with me because newbies are rarely referred to it. Back when I still had enthusiasm for helping this forum, I looked into making some much needed updates in the Wiki. I tried to add a few MAJOR definitions to the definitions page. When I clicked "Edit", this is the first thing on the page that I saw:

Before editing this page, discuss it on the talk page and make sure there is a consensus about the changes you intend to make

So the authoritarians on the board need to step up to the plate, and make the Wiki into something that is truly useful. Then you could have both: the categories and leave the forum as it is. Everyone should be happy that way.

xenablue wrote:I am going to vote NO, because I am on other forums and have found that hardly anyone goes to sub-categories, and often newbies' posts are lost due to them going to the Newly Diagnosed section, which no one visits.

xena

I voted "yes" but with the caveat that I be the one to choose the categories. The reason categories don't work most of the time is that the vast majority of people have not even the remotest idea of how to properly divide up information.