Forum Organization

[snardo]

I'm wondering how much felxibility we have with regard to the organization of this forum. Based on experience with other forums like this on ohter topics, it seems like it would help make the forum more approachable to new folks if we had a few categories on the front page under which to look for specific topics. For example we might have sections for Software Questions, Masks, Therapy Progress, General Questions, etc... that might help it seem a bit less like a free-for-all when you first click into the site and might help reduce the incidence of redundant postings. Do we have any admins or moderators that could implement? Do we have that degree of flexibility?

[Hawthorne]

We have had this subject raised many times on the forum and the vast majority of people like it the way it is with no categories.

I am one who likes it this way as well. I am on another forum that has categories and people tend to ignore the categories anyway and, on that forum, you may miss a lot of helpful posts because you are looking under a particular category and there is often a very good post on that topic, miscategorized. I have to look at all categories anyway or I miss something helpful. Here, I read the topics that interest me or where I think I might be of help and ignore the rest.

That's just my experience and my opinion. Most here, however, share my opinion that we should not have categories.

[xenablue]

snardo, it's a nice dream to have everything organized neatly on a forum, but in reality it won't happen. I too, am on several forums and people post wherever they want and often sub-categories get completely lost once they are disorganized and everyone tends to gravitate towards a general one.

Yes, it often means you have to go digging for a topic or answer to questions, but unless there is a bunch of moderators who spend their whole days - every day - moving posts into the 'right' topics we have to live with it the way it is.

Cheers,
xena

[carbonman]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49809

[70sSanO]

I like many others are members of other unrelated forums, some have categories and a couple do not.

I like the the way this forum is currently set up in the "free-for-all" approach. I don't want to go to a bunch of subcategories, because at times things will just pop up that are interesitng and down the road may be beneficial.

Too often on other forums try to become more structured it ends up as a more structured-but-more-difficult-to-access-free-for-all as many posts just end up in an "Anything xPAP" forum.

Unfortuantely someone will post in the "Correct Subject" forum, but a lot of members will always go to the "Anything xPAP" forum first and the post will be ignored. So then the person posts in the "Anything xPAP" forum and all the responses come flowing in. The structure goes out the window. And someone will always post that infamous, "This should be posted in the ??? Forum."

The only change I could see would be a separate Classifieds section, but that may not be appropriate with our sponsor and I can understand that.

John

[Janknitz]

This forum is a bit like the wild west, but I like it that way. It allows for more creativity, and more support. In the long run it is "self-policing" and the important stuff gets taken care of.

There's another popular forum for sleep apnea that has categories and comes complete with CPAP police to enforce "The RULES". I prefer to hang out here (although you will occasionally see me there, too). If you crave organization, that's a good place to go, but you won't be able to get advice or help on tweaking your therapy if you are stuck with a lousy doctor and DME, you won't be able to get referrals to commercial websites for CPAP products--not even the major manufacturer's websites so you can learn more about your equipment. And you won't always be able to express your opinions (neither will anyone else). If that floats your boat, go for it.

[Lizistired]

I often wish there were folders where good threads could be dropped. Like Resmed Technical, Respironics Technical, Software, Mask Issues, ...
I almost impossible to sift through a forum search.

[Emilia]

@Liz... you can bookmark your favorites and find them in your User Control Panel.

[Lizistired]

I mean for ease of users looking for info on a particular topic. There is so much great info on here but it seem to get lost or buried in redundant topics.
I tend to try to find the info I'm looking for before I ask, as I am sure lots of new users do. Couldn't that be made easier?

[LoQ]

I mean for ease of users looking for info on a particular topic. There is so much great info on here but it seem to get lost or buried in redundant topics.
I tend to try to find the info I'm looking for before I ask, as I am sure lots of new users do. Couldn't that be made easier?

Seems that is the purpose of the wiki, but it is not maintained very well, and like many such ventures, it is full of mostly watered-down information, making it next to useless.

[no_more_headaches]

On other forums there is a "View New Posts" link where I see just the new stuff regardless of folders.
I don't see why we can't have both other than the fact that you need moderators to keep the file cabinets in order.

[idamtnboy]

The one other forum I've spent quite a bit of time on, Greenbuildingtalk.com, has categories that work good. But then Structural Insulated Panels ain't the same as Insulated Concrete Forms ain't the same as Geothermal Heat Pumps ain't the same as Radiant Heating ain't the same as Solar and Wind Power ain't the........... You get the idea. CPAP, APAP, VPAP, etc are all variants of the same basic machine, and apneas are all related, so the variants aren't great enough to justify categories, IMO. But it would be nice if there were some way to group messages after the fact to help in the search efforts.

[Lizistired]

The one other forum I've spent quite a bit of time on, Greenbuildingtalk.com, has categories that work good. But then Structural Insulated Panels ain't the same as Insulated Concrete Forms ain't the same as Geothermal Heat Pumps ain't the same as Radiant Heating ain't the same as Solar and Wind Power ain't the........... You get the idea. CPAP, APAP, VPAP, etc are all variants of the same basic machine, and apneas are all related, so the variants aren't great enough to justify categories, IMO. But it would be nice if there were some way to group messages after the fact to help in the search efforts.

Thanks, that sounds like an interesting link!
Your last line was my point. Like the resscan tutorial, threads on skew, issues w/different versions of windows, editing for tidal volume,...