Forum Consolidation and Changes

[arn]

Hi,

I made some forum changes tonight that people might notice. I've felt like we have expanded to perhaps too many subforums... so trying to refocus some of the conversation in a smaller number, we took the first step in consolidating some lesser used and redundant forums.

Changes

iOS 13 -> iOS 13 and iPadOS. It isn't a real change but clarity since Apple rebranded iOS 13 for iPad.
iOS Jailbreaks -> now under the iOS category
iPad Tips and Help -> merged into iPad. This seemed redundant.
iPod and iPod touch have been merged
Apple Watch Apps merged into Apple Watch - Apple Watch Apps was very inactive
Apple TV Apps merged into Apple TV - Apple TV Apps was very inactive
Current Events merged into Community Discussion - Current events was very inactive and could easily fall under Community

New

Apple TV+ - Somewhere to talk about the new shows.

There's a lot of other forums I'd like to see about removing redundancies in, but these were the easiest to do without disrupting too much.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Hi,

I made some forum changes tonight that people might notice. I've felt like we have expanded to perhaps too many subforums... so trying to refocus some of the conversation in a smaller number, we took the first step in consolidating some lesser used and redundant forums.

Changes

iOS 13 -> iOS 13 and iPadOS. It isn't a real change but clarity since Apple rebranded iOS 13 for iPad.
iOS Jailbreaks -> now under the iOS category
iPad Tips and Help -> merged into iPad. This seemed redundant.
iPod and iPod touch have been merged
Apple Watch Apps merged into Apple Watch - Apple Watch Apps was very inactive
Apple TV Apps merged into Apple TV - Apple TV Apps was very inactive
Current Events merged into Community Discussion - Current events was very inactive and could easily fall under Community

New

Apple TV+ - Somewhere to talk about the new shows.

There's a lot of other forums I'd like to see about removing redundancies in, but these were the easiest to do without disrupting too much.

Most of these seem to make a lot of sense, and thank you for undertaking them.

Re "current events", while the section of the forum wasn't terribly active, it always seemed to me to be the sort of place where some aspects of "current events" could be discussed, or addressed, or touched upon, in a kind of neutral, objective, pleasant - and, above all, factual manner, without inviting the sort of snark and deeply unpleasant tone that accompanies much discussion in PRSI, which is where that sub-forum normally could have been expected to be found.

 

[arn]

Yeah, hopefully that isn’t lost in community discussion.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yeah, hopefully that isn’t lost in community discussion.

So, in essence, you have "dissolved" the "current events" section (and merged it with Community Discussion), but - in the dissolving - the individual threads that used to be found in "Current Events" are now sprinkled around Community Discussion depending on the date on which - or when - they were started.

 

[cambookpro]

I think all these changes make a lot of sense. One small thing, is there a reason that Apple Watch and Watch Accessories are two distinct forums, whereas e.g. iPhone and iPad accessories are subforums under a broader iPad and iPhone category? Hope that makes sense.

 

[arn]

We made some more changes that I didn't document here.

UI Customization got retired
Programming forums got merged
There's a single MacRumors news discussion forum now
Planning on retiring Distributed Computing

 

[Apple_Robert]

@arn The changes you made to the forum topics and their placement is much better. It is much easier to traverse the new streamlined forums. Thank you.

 

[TheIntruder]

I assume that the retired forums (like Buying Tips) will eventually be excised from the Recent Posts sidebar of the front page as well?

 

[Plutonius]

Nice changes to the forum.

Is it possible to place the "member since" field below the avatar without have to select the down arrow ?

It was nice to see at a glance without having to click below each poster's avatar.