The Main Forum is where a lot of folk seem to begin and end their contact with PriusChat. Many posts that should go elsewhere end up there, and many of the other Forums get underused. So . . . . rather than an unpleasant, and futile invocation of Forum Gestapo I suggest: 1. Change the name of the Main Forum to Miscellaneous Forum. 2. Put it last in the Toyota Prius Forums. It would still show up of the first Web screen, I think. 3. No other changes necessary. Whaddya think?
Here's the description for the Main Forum "General posts specific to the Prius that can't be categorized in the Forums below." isn't that miscellaneous?
Yes it is, but most people appear to ignore that, and treat it as the default group -- Post Here unless you have some really good specialized reason for posting elsewhere. Case in point: the number of New Prius Owner threads.
i know i dont even look at individual forums I just hit view new posts, im sure tons of other people do too so i dont think any changes are needed
Personal experience tells me that you are less likely to get an answer at a newbie forum, which seems mostly to be directing one to just introduce oneself. Are we looking for a problem here that doesn't exist?
If the newbie forum were located near the top, it would get more traffic. It does bug some people. Me not so much. But the solution occurred to me, so I posted it for discussion.
As others noted above, most NON-newbies, at least, head for the "view new posts" option and mostly bypass the formal lists. People hit the stuff that seems to interest them, based on titles, and ignore the rest. Changing the names won't change the behaviour, it'll just piss people off and give Danny more headaches!
I'd agree with that. I agree with Doc that it will get more traffic up there and keep newbies from posting in the Main forum. Is there a 2nd?
Second, just for formality sake. EDIT: I say give it a chance, maybe a couple months. If it doesn't seem to help, Danny can change it back. As rufaro said, most of us probably use the "View New Posts" option.
I also second - with the suggestion that you place it in the "PriusChat Announcement" section and also migrate the entire PriusChat Website Questions forum - not just the Newbie sub-forum. Newbies shouldn't have to hunt down the "How to use PriusChat.com" section. It should be the first thing they see, then the "Newbie hello" sub-forum for them to dip their toes in to test the waters. The recent problems with misplaced posts into the Main Prius Forum isn't just with newbies . . . some who have been around long enough to know better. And one even went as far as to state that they don't care if their post into the Main Prius Forum are misplaced . . . 'because it will get a better response.' [sound like anarchy to me.] Some people come to PriusChat to see ONLY items related specifically to the Prius. The "Toyota Prius Forums" should be kept free of non-Prius stuff for EVERYONES enjoyment and ease of use.