Need ideas for the splitting of Hardware Forum

[Trotter]

Yes, the splitting of the Hardware Forum is a definate, but right now the powers that be (they know who they are) want suggestions and feedback as to how it should be split up, and why it should be split up that way.

I'm going to paste up some of the suggestions put forth in two or three threads. Read 'em, and give the Admins your honest take and suggestions.

I think that we should find a way to split up the Hardware Zone into 2 or more separate areas so that more questions get answered.

Edit: I thought about it some more. Maybe there could be a section for hardware problems, one for advice on buying new hardware, and a general section on new and upcoming hardware.

Actually, it should be split into "Video Cards" and "CPUs" and "Other Hardware." There should definately be a video card section, since thats what half of the hardware section threads are about.

Maybe 3 sections:
1)CPUs and Motherboards
2)Video Cards and Monitors/Displays
3)All other components (PSU, RAM, Cases...)

Subject is better. ("buying/building", "Troubleshooting", "New Tech/Neat-Stuff")

i think that cpu and cpu related should be one, hard disk related another, and perhaps video cards another then miscelanious.

Keep a general forum for the oddball questions, as well as for those who are too lazy/intellectually callenged to actually look for/realize that there are sub-forums.

Split off a couple of sub-forums, like Video (includes graphic cards, video problems, monitors, etc.), CPU/Cooling, maybe Hard Drive/Memory/Motherboard (or not).

The main thing would be to cull the straight questions from the "What's wrong with my computer, I'm a noob" type posts.

Okay...how about...



Video (Graphics cards, video problems monitoirs, etc)

CPU/Cooling/Power (CPUs, cooling, PSUs, etc)

Other components (Memory, motherboards, hard drives, etc)

Building/Buying (Advice on putting together computers, choosing components, purchasing computers, etc)

What's wrong with my computer? (For computer problems you can't place anywhere else...keep virus/spyware/software issues in their appropriate forums, not here)

Other (General discussion, or strange queries)

Archive (A read-only place where we'll stick all the hardware threads past three or so pages in our current hardware place, we could sort the more recent threads into the new subcatagores...)

I'd prefer breking the catergories into company based forums, spefically AMD/Intel and nVidia/ATI. People get so worked up over who is "better" that I feel it'd be a good idea to seperate them to keep the "fanboys" apart more effectively. Apart from that you could simply have a general hardware forum which can have everything else shoved into.

I always wouldn't mind having some non-forum oriented content written up since it grows repetetive answering the same questions. I can write some should you be in favour of this idea.

For the Archive, how about setting if for anything that has been inactive for 60 or 90 days?

I wouldn't mind having a seperate hardware "news" forum for posting topics of that kind. I know we have a general news forum but I've always just posted hardware news in the hardware forum since I feel it's more appropriate and will spark more interest, and others have as well.

Lumping together mobos, sound, drives, and RAM does souns like a solid idea, though.

CPUs, Motherboards and RAM - These three parts are basically dependent on one another and interlinking and I think they'd go well together.

Video - I think video cards warrant their own forum simply because they seem to be discussed the most, and so many threads get hijacked with the neverending company argument we can at least keep most of the flames limited to one forum. It'd make easier policing as well.

Periphirals - You can shove anything else that isn't covered above in here, once you get past the above four topics nothing else really gets much coverage and breaking it up would probably lead to a lot of inactive forums. I also don't want to split up everything too much since it can get a bit ridiculous.

As for PC building, we do have an overclocking, PC building and case modding forum already, but all of those topics are so different that I wouldn't mind splitting them up as well.

I also support the idea of a "content" forum where people can post articles and news or anything else than isn't a question per say.

Please notice that I did not acknowledge who made what contribution, or where it came from. This was done on purpose. This site is owned by an individual, but we all make it our own each and every day. This is to be a group effort, not someone dictating to the masses.

Take ownership and give your input!

 

[TheMajor]

Great ideas!

 

[Elbatrop1]

Wow! My hardware section splitting suggestion came this far!

Anyways, I was thinking about how to split it up:

1)Problems

Because some problems that have similar symptoms might be caused by different pieces of hardware. If we have a forum that is for motherboard problems, we might get posts about RAM problems, etc.
Also, this will be easy to find for our single-posting members who are just looking for advice about one problem.

2)Buying new hardware

Basically a place for someone to come in and say, "I have blah blah computer, and I want a new vid card. Which one should I get?" Just a place to ask for suggestions on getting new hardware for a computer.

3)Hardware News/New Hardware

Well, this is pretty self explanitory. If we could get an RSS feed, that would be great. I am not sure if VB supports RSS feeds, though.

 

[TheMajor]

I'm sure there's an RSS mod somewhere.

 

[Apokalipse]

I think we should have a seperate "hardware problems" section, but to have "news" and "buying new stuff" in one forum, since the people buying new stuff would make more use of knowing what new technologies are out or coming out

 

[Him]

We should have it similar to XS, their layout is pretty good. Go into the hardware forum, and than have sub forums in that for Video CArds, Motherboards, Memory, PSU's, etc.... That would be the best way IMO.

 

[SHAWN]

I would love to mod one of the new forums

 

[Him]

I would love to mod one of the new forums

Wouldnt we all...

 

[pc_boy]

i like this one, it'll be the most efficient :

Subject is better. ("buying/building", "Troubleshooting", "New Tech/Neat-Stuff")

 

[Trotter]

After a bit of reflection, I would like to propose the following:

Troubleshooting/"What's wrong with my computer?"- This one should be the first option, as most who come here post their problem in the Hardware forum anyway. This should be a place where people come to get help for their computer woes (but the mods will have to shuttle software ills to the appropriate forums).

Video/Graphics- This dual topic seems to carry a lot of baggage. Many have vid card woes, and others have displey problems. Having it second would give it a bit of visiblity, and hopefully people will see it and figure out what it is for.

Building/Buying Advice- I thought about including this one, but there is already a forum that covers building a rig. And buying questions should be placed in the subforum that covers the topic.

CPU/Motherboards/RAM- These three form the technological trinity of computing, and thus should be highlighted all on their own. Buying advice, as well as comparisons and comments would be posted here, as well as questions that relate to them.

Odds & Ends- A catch-all for anything that does not fit in the other topics. This could be used to post new hardware that is coming out (yes, we have a forum for that, but it seems to be mainly about Gmail invites).

Anyway, that's what I see right now.