Forum list needs to be revamped

[Spartan]

Let me just mention that I still have concerns about the forum list here. I legitimately want this site to improve, and be the best place it can for today's pressing issues in OKC. Basically we have one catch-all forum for the issues facing OKC today and then every imaginable topic that has nothing to do with OKC has its own forum. And I realize that eliminating those forums isn't a good idea because there are people that use the Family Matters, Pets, Faith, and other random forums. And that's great, but let's just streamline it!

And I'll also throw in that there isn't a forum for urbanism, and that would be cool to have for those of us (a lot of us on this site that discuss OKC-pertinent issues) that are into that sort of thing and would like to discuss what's going on in other cities that aren't Lawton or Tulsa (and there comes a point, with Cleveland, Buffalo, Phoenix, Atlanta, London, Moscow, etc..that you can't make a forum for every city).

Politics, Poll Vault, Current Events
Since there is some OKC-related discussion, these threads should really be moved up to the top of the forum list right under the "OKC Metro Area Talk" forum. Because a lot of the issues facing OKC are political or related to a current event, such as a hailstorm, why can't the mission of the "OKC Metro Area Talk" forum be merged with forums such as Politics (which could handle debates about the police unions, tax issues, Brian Walters complaints, etc), Current Events (which could handle threads about weather events, events coming to OKC, festivals, and other "current" or time-sensitive events), and so on.

OKC Suburbs (sub boards for Guthrie, Moore, Norman, Edmond, Mid-Del, Lawton, Yukon-Mustang)
The only forums that are particularly active here are Moore, Norman, Edmond, and Mid-Del. Is Lawton really an OKC suburb, or perhaps should that change to a statewide forum (another thing missing is a forum for Oklahoma statewide issues). I really think we could streamline this..we can just divide it into areas..Cleveland County, Eastern OK County, the north metro (Quail Springs, Deer Creek, Edmond, Guthrie), and the west metro/Canadian County (Bethany, Yukon, El Reno, Mustang, Airport). I think these boards would be more active, and they would better differentiate betwen what discussions belong in "OKC Suburbs" and what belongs in the catch-all "Metro Area Talk" board.

OKC Metro Area Talk
This is the catch-all forum where everything seems to go. A thread will quickly sink to page 5 within a week if it doesn't suddenly spring to 10 pages, which can make viewing threads very difficult when you've been gone for a few days. I think we can break this down into "urban issues" and "City Hall issues" which by definition could merge with the Politics forum. Events, urban issues, suburban issues, political issues, would all be covered. Then there should be a catch-all forum for General OKC topics that don't fit anywhere else. This could include, "I'm moving to OKC, where should I live?" and "I'm going to be in OKC for a convention, what all should I hit up?" and etc.

Sports (sub forums for the Thunder, College/high schools, and pros)
I think obviously all three of these forums can merge into one. There's not a whole lot of discussion here anyway, and one forum would be convenient any time some of us want to talk about..LeBron, an OU/Big 12 hot topic, or during Thunder season. Maybe the Thunder justify their own topic, but it's not at all uncommon for city forums to just have one forum for the entire sports scenes.

Here are numerous examples of other successful city forums, for research purposes to back up my suggestions. Simplicity is better, but you do need to break down city-specific discussion.

KCRag.com (Kansas City)
http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php

You see regions broken up as follows: Downtown, P+L, Urban Core, North of River, MO burbs, KS burbs, out of town, Development Q&A.
You see discussion genres broken up as follows: General, Urban Living, Sports, Photos, Scene, Transit, Rumors, New Stadiums.

AbsoluteDSM.com (Des Moines)
http://absolutedsm.com/forum/

You see only 5 forums. One for Downtown Development, Development Outside Downtown, Iowa Cities & Development (sub boards for various Iowa cities), General Discussion, and one board for Sports, Entertainment, and Events.

They have an AWESOME website, btw.

eOmahaforums.com (Omaha)
http://eomahaforums.com/phpBB/index.php

You see development boards broken down as follows: Urban Omaha, Suburban Omaha, Transit, and Council Bluffs (big Iowa burb).
You see genre discussion topics broken down as follows: News and Events, Welcome to Omaha, Dining/Culture/Entertainment, Sports, Business, Statistics.
Other forums are as follows: Lincoln, Nebraska and Region, Elsewhere, Photos, General Discussion, Projects Never Built, Rumors.

Houston Architecture Info forum (HAIF)
--wow, these guys just got hit by the same virus we had last week.

Dallas Metropolis
http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/

Genre topics are broken down as follows: City Issues + News, Suburban/Exurban/Regional City News, Urban Development, Suburban/Exurban/Regional Development, Skylinegruve-Urban Photos.
Transportation forums are broken down as follows: Rail + Guided Transit, The Bus/Roads/Highways/Bridges, Airports, Parks/Trails/Misc Infrastructure.
There is a board just for Art, Architecture, Urban + Green Design. And other gratuitous topics at the bottom of the list..

[Pete]

Thanks for your feedback and research.

We will soon be reorganizing the boards along the lines of the other sites you mentioned.

Also, I've working on a comprehensive database of all development projects, past, present and future. Want to make it searchable with all relevant data and information, including latest news.

Now that the conversion is behind us, I hope to make some progress on all this in the next month or two.