legacyme3 suggested that I Merge Forums Together since we currently have too many forums and not enough activity to justify it. Do you agree? And if so, which forums should be merged?

In order to keep the forum index page balanced and the same number of forums per a category, I was thinking we could get rid of 6 forums which would reduce it down to 5 forums per a category. So with 6 categories and 5 forums each, we'd go from having 36 forums to 30 forums.

Here's what we have at the moment

Town Square
-General Chat:
-Newbie Forum:
-Vizzed Games and Servers: Possibly moved back to the Rented Forums
-Help / Questions / Suggestions:
-Information:
-News and Updates:

Vizzed Ville North
-Café Corner / Girls N Guyz:
-Your Forum - Post about Yourself:
-Health / Fitness / Science:
-News and Current Events:
-Debate / Logic / News Discussion:
-School:

Gamers Circle
-Video Games:
-Video Game Franchises:
-Video Game Craziness:
-Pokemon:
-Game Design / Rom Hacking:
-Contests, Tournaments & Netplay:

Entertainment Avenue
-Movies:
-Television:
-Music:
-Sports:
-Books and Literature:
-Cartoons / Anime / Comics / Manga:

Vizzed.com (these can be moved by not removed or merged)
-Retro Game Room:
-Game Reviews:
-Game Discussion:
-Game Articles:
-Game Characters:
-Game Guides:

Vizzed Ville South
-Crazy House:
-Vizzed Market:
-Polls and Questions:
-Computer / Coding / Technology:
-Web Splurge:
-Stories / Simulation / Art:

legacyme3 : Summoning you since this was your idea.

I'd get ride of the following:

Town Square - Information
Vizzed Ville North - News and Current Events
Gamers Circle - Pokemon
Entertainment Avenue - Books and Literature
Vizzed.com - Retro Game Room
Vizzed Ville South - Vizzed Market

Some of the forums seem out of wack to me. Like Vizzed Market... what is that doing in Vizzed Ville South it seems out of place and should be under Vizzed.com forum.

You really only need 6 forums, the rest can be split into subforums.

- Vizzed.com
(News & Updates, Monthly Competitions, Help Me, Trash Can, Treasure Can)

- Vizzed Board
(Newbie Forum, Post About Yourself, Crazy House, Debate & Logic)

- Vizzed Market
(Key Items, Digital Items, Virtual Items, Physical Items)

- Retro Game Room
- Video Game Room
- Music Game Room

I don't know what to put in the last three but it can be figured out.

Kind of a tough call, really. I could see going back to 30 forums like we used to, but the rearrangement can be quite hard to make. While Town Square and Vizzed Ville North have rather easy choices, others aren't that easy, if there's a choice at all.

Vizzed.com is the most troublesome one, I don't really see where can we move any of its forums. I know we must keep some balance in the page, but keeping those six forums there would be justified due to what purpose do those forums serve: three of them need threads to be created elsewhere, and a fourth one almost does the same. This essentially means we have two "real" forums there, which are Retro Game Room and Game Articles, and only the latter could actually be moved elsewhere, though I don't know where.

Gamers Circle also has a couple choices. Game Design / Rom Hacking could go away, or maybe combine Contests, Tournaments and Netplay in a rented forum together with Vizzed Games and Servers. I think the second would be the best choice, though due to overall activity and what not maybe we should go with the first one.

Vizzed Ville South is also complicated. Merging forums together seems not possible there due to the differing topics covered, and it's not like they'd fit anywhere else either. Due to being on the lowest end of the page, maybe leaving this category with 6 forums together with its "neighbor" Vizzed.com could be a choice.

Entertainment Avenue is kind of a joker. A few forums share some things in common that could allow a merging, but there's also the choice of moving Sports away into a rented forum so it can be expanded with E-Sports as well. Not sure if activity would justify this move, but we did talk about it in the past when auctioning a rented forum and I wanted to bring it up here as well for public discussion.

I wouldn't mind leaving the site as it is if we have no clear consensus. Save one exception, I don't really see forums overlapping each other. Still, I agree that with lesser forums it would be easier to navigate the site, and that can give us an edge to attract new users.

Personally speaking, I'd even go farther than 30/36.

Here's my thought:

Town Square
-General Chat: Stays
-Newbie Forum: Stays
-Vizzed Games and Servers: Merge into RGR
-Help / Questions / Suggestions: Stays
-Information: Stays
-News and Updates: Merges with Information, or vice versa. Name it Information, and Updates (News is in another forum, so to make it less confusing, eliminate the word "news" from this one)

Vizzed Ville North
-Café Corner / Girls N Guyz: Merge with Your Forum.
-Your Forum - Post about Yourself: Stays
-Health / Fitness / Science: Stays
-News and Current Events: Stays
-Debate / Logic / News Discussion: Stays
-School: Merge with Your Forum

Gamers Circle
-Video Games: Move to Entertainment Avenue
-Video Game Franchises: Merge with Video Games
-Video Game Craziness: Merge with Video Games
-Pokemon: Merge with Video Games
-Game Design / Rom Hacking: Stays
-Contests, Tournaments & Netplay: Stays

Entertainment Avenue
-Movies: Merge with Television, name it "Television and Movies"
-Television: Stays
-Music: Stays
-Sports: Stays
-Books and Literature: Stays
-Cartoons / Anime / Comics / Manga: This one is tricky for me. Personally, I merge Cartoons and Anime into "Television", and Comics and Manga into "Books and Literature".

Vizzed.com (these can be moved by not removed or merged)
-Retro Game Room: Stays
-Game Reviews: Stays
-Game Discussion: Stays
-Game Articles: Stays
-Game Characters: Stays
-Game Guides: Stays

Vizzed Ville South
-Crazy House: Honestly, I'd get rid of it entirely, but make it the single spam forum.
-Vizzed Market: Move it to Vizzed.com, since it's primarily used for vizzed purposes only.
-Polls and Questions: Merge with Crazy House
-Computer / Coding / Technology: Stays
-Web Splurge: Stays
-Stories / Simulation / Art: Stays

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Here's what your forum lists would look like once I move things around:

Town Square
General Chat
Newbie Forum
Help/Questions/Suggestions
Information and Updates

Vizzed Ville North
Your Forum
Health/Fitness/Science
News and Current Events
Debate/Logic/Serious Discussion

Vizzed Ville South
Crazy House
Computer/Tech/Coding
Web Splurge
Stories/Simulation/Art
Game Design / Rom Hacking

Entertainment Avenue
Television and Movies
Music
Sports
Books and Literature
Video Games

Vizzed.com
Retro Game Room
Contests, Tournaments & Netplay
Game Reviews
Game Discussion
Game Articles
Game Characters
Game Guides
Vizzed Market


Under this format, you keep 2 categories with 4 forums, 2 with 5, and 1 with 8 (which is the tricky one, since you can't merge any of them, I'd argue they shouldn't even be part of the forum "proper", but it is what it is).

You can also move things like the contests one to a rented forum, that you upkeep, if you are worried about chunkiness. The Vizzed.com category is going to be the largest, regardless, even if you move everything that should be moved, because that's what you've invested the most time into.

Personally, what I'd do is have the four main categories be where the current six main categories are, the spacing works just fine. But have them be the focus. After those four, but before the rented forums, put the vizzed.com forum (same width as the Rented forums).

I'd honestly not put the rented forums on the main page anymore. I feel like you should have rented forums accessible at the top, next to where it says Donate All Threads New Posts Your Threads. This gets the eye sores (because the colors all clash) off the main page, but keeps those forums accessible. People aren't really using them besides. They are active, but it's the same contingent of members each time.

By pushing the rented forums off the main page, it leads to the overall page being smaller in look, which is good.

Finally, my last contribution to this idea is the following:



Move everything in the red box into the widget at the top right. You already have one on the left, that cycles through Posts, Trending, birthdays, etc, so putting one on the right would not only match, symmetrically, but also shorten the page further, making it easier to get to the things you want the userbase to see. All of these changes could mean actually seeing general chat the moment you open the "Vizzed Board" page, which should be the goal.

Anyway, just my two cents. Mine's a more radical suggestion, but I'd only suggest it, if I thought there was no better way.

Here's what I would do

Town Square: Merge Information and News/Updates
Vizzed Ville North: Merge News and Debate
Gamers Circle: Get rid of Contests/Netplay. That could just go in RGR section.
Entertainment Avenue: Books and Literature could take on Stories/Art forum from Vizzed South. Also merge TV and Movies.

I figure you're probably not looking for quite so much of a radical change in the look of the site but I honestly don't think I can add anything that I think would be better than leggy's design. It'd be focused, organized, less overwhelming to newbies and look a lot less like a ghost town. I second his suggestion.

I mostly agree with leggy's idea, however I'd keep "Cartoons / Anime / Comics / Manga" as it's own forum.

These are my thoughts of which forums I like to see merged....


Town Square:
Information (merge with Help/Question/Suggestion forum)


Gamers Circle:
Video Game Craziness (merge with Crazy House)


Vizzed.com:
Game Characters (merge with Game Discussion)


Vizzed Ville North:
News and Current Events (merged with Debate/Logic/News Discussion)


Entertainment Avenue:
Cartoon / Anime / Comics / Manga (Split the forum in half and merge Cartoon / Anime with Television and Comics / Manga with Books and Literature)


Vizzed Ville South:
Polls and Questions (Merge with Crazy House)
This one was a tough one, it took me quite a long time to see what Vizzed Ville South forum should go and the only one I seen that would be over the rest is Polls & Question, and personally, I seen that going t