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Christopher: I'm sure you read the VBulletin forums. I'm not sure if it would be compatible with whatever version Harris Publishing left you to work with, but on that forum, they make extensive use of title prefixes. Each OEM forum could have a pile of these. If the forum search is used, it's dead easy to search by prefix too. The thread owner and moderators could change it. If VB was REALLY nice, they'd have a way to filter out all the ones a person didn't care about, but that's another can of worms.
Everyone else that isn't a nerd: The way it works is when you create a thread in say "Arctic Cat", at the top where you write you're title, to the left of it is a little drop down box where you could choose from, let's say
M-Series
1M
Powder Special
Turbo
Your thread is now created, and to the left of your title on the main page (if you chose to use one) in colored is a prefix that people can see what you're thread is about.
Example:
You can see that the first guy has a new post asking about M-Series machines, so if you ride an older machine, you can tell that you can skip over it and check out the second thread. Who knows what the third guy above is asking about, but a moderator could fix that:
This solves a number of problems with sub-forums: More eyeballs will see topics as people casually browse, it's easy to use and when a moderator changes the prefix, the actual thread isn't moved on the creator (which can confuse anyone that doesn't spend a lot of time on forums, even if they get a message telling them it was moved.) Rather than moving data around, you're organizing it.
Performance Modified could have tags: Turbo, Pipes, Control Box, Rear Suspension, Front Suspension, Tracks, etc.
Swap meet could have: For Sale, Wanted, etc. (This is a section that I think should still have subforums just to keep things on topic.)
General Snowmobiling could have: Important Issue, Spy Reports (for the annual OMG I SAW A BLURRY PICTURE OF A NEW POLARIS WITH A-ARMS! type posts) or whatever. (I reckon this is a forum where less might be more actually, as far as tags go.)
Maybe vendors that support snowest could have access to special colored tags (ie, NEW RELEASE!, SPECIAL SALE! etc)
Fouled Plug: Political, ATV, Truck, SPAM (for easy deletion (ha!)), JOTD, whatever
The only drawback is that if there are a bazillion new threads a day (like mid season) the really popular/redundant topics will need to be moved around to their appropriate sub-forums or have new ones created. But that's a bridge that can be crossed as it needs to be (an aforementioned filter that can be easily applied on and is persistent on a section so, for example if someone hates 1M's, he can filter out all the 1M stuff).
This is similar to a tagging system, except that there is only one tag for a thread, and it's right out in front where it can be easily seen. (The current, or former tagging system that snowest had was practically hidden, useful for search, but wayyyyyyy underutilized because it was so hidden.) This tagging system could be brought back as well, and the moderators could be encouraged to use it as much as possible (good for threads that could be best described in more than one way.)
Everyone else that isn't a nerd: The way it works is when you create a thread in say "Arctic Cat", at the top where you write you're title, to the left of it is a little drop down box where you could choose from, let's say
M-Series
1M
Powder Special
Turbo
Your thread is now created, and to the left of your title on the main page (if you chose to use one) in colored is a prefix that people can see what you're thread is about.
Example:
[M-Series] What can works best?
canlessinohio[1M] Post pictures of your King Cats!
ilikeboatsHelp me fix my problem!
supernewb
You can see that the first guy has a new post asking about M-Series machines, so if you ride an older machine, you can tell that you can skip over it and check out the second thread. Who knows what the third guy above is asking about, but a moderator could fix that:
[Powder Specials] Help me fix my problem!
supernewb
This solves a number of problems with sub-forums: More eyeballs will see topics as people casually browse, it's easy to use and when a moderator changes the prefix, the actual thread isn't moved on the creator (which can confuse anyone that doesn't spend a lot of time on forums, even if they get a message telling them it was moved.) Rather than moving data around, you're organizing it.
Performance Modified could have tags: Turbo, Pipes, Control Box, Rear Suspension, Front Suspension, Tracks, etc.
Swap meet could have: For Sale, Wanted, etc. (This is a section that I think should still have subforums just to keep things on topic.)
General Snowmobiling could have: Important Issue, Spy Reports (for the annual OMG I SAW A BLURRY PICTURE OF A NEW POLARIS WITH A-ARMS! type posts) or whatever. (I reckon this is a forum where less might be more actually, as far as tags go.)
Maybe vendors that support snowest could have access to special colored tags (ie, NEW RELEASE!, SPECIAL SALE! etc)
Fouled Plug: Political, ATV, Truck, SPAM (for easy deletion (ha!)), JOTD, whatever
The only drawback is that if there are a bazillion new threads a day (like mid season) the really popular/redundant topics will need to be moved around to their appropriate sub-forums or have new ones created. But that's a bridge that can be crossed as it needs to be (an aforementioned filter that can be easily applied on and is persistent on a section so, for example if someone hates 1M's, he can filter out all the 1M stuff).
This is similar to a tagging system, except that there is only one tag for a thread, and it's right out in front where it can be easily seen. (The current, or former tagging system that snowest had was practically hidden, useful for search, but wayyyyyyy underutilized because it was so hidden.) This tagging system could be brought back as well, and the moderators could be encouraged to use it as much as possible (good for threads that could be best described in more than one way.)
