Reorganizing forums - aggressive archive
Notes
- There are 33 Original Forum categories, all 33 are accounted for here.
- At least initially, there will be no sub-forums (both because they are not currently needed, and also due to the performance overhead they currently cause).
- Simplifying the list of forums is a key aspect: no more forum categories than absolutely needed, and nothing (besides Water Cooler) that veers far off topic of the site's primary purpose. There are, of course, more appropriate forums out there to discuss those other things.
- There will be no private forums (may add later as Premium feature). Staff discussion will be on a separate/private multi-site sub-domain. Staff will have the ability to log in to the archive if they wish to read the archived Private forums.
- The archive site will be set up for anonymous users, and will have Page cache on so it should be very fast.
- Before/after approximate counts for threads and posts are included (helped me gauge the appropriate % to archive, and ascertain an approximate performance level for the size of the tables).
- Some forums (e.g. "Neverside Suggestions & Feedback" and "Water Cooler") are being completely archived since their content is no longer relevant (or with Water Cooler, just too large), but they will be replaced with new empty forums to serve the same purpose.
Discarded and completely archived forum categories
Forums to discard (including content) entirely:
- Trash Pile (1696 / 8096)
- Archive > Shameless Plugs (1048 / 2262)
- Photoshop > AbsoluteCross.com Photoshop Tutorial Discussion (99 / 82)
- Image Showoff > Signature Showoff (1509 / 8055)
- Archives > Marketplace > Template Sales (178 / 327)
- Contests > Hosting-as-Prize Contests (48 / 791)
* Total threads/replies: 4578 / 19613
Forums to be completely archived (unless noted, will be removed from new site):
- Water Cooler (14375 / 200595) [[ new empty forum in its place ]]
- Tech Corner (3495 / 22649)
- Debate Court (787 / 22819)
- Gamer LAN (763 / 7412)
- Archives (2206 / 14159)
- Archives > Marketplace (3745 / 18150)
- Water Cooler > Beginner's Corner (3708 / 17759)
- Neverside Suggestions & Feedback (155 / 1240) [[ new empty forum in its place ]]
- Graphic Design Battles (469 / 7470)
- Contests (789 / 24620)
- Contests > Unpaid / Misc Contests (172 / 1067)
- Server Side > Script Requests (687 / 2624)
- Compiled Languages (864 / 3722) [[ may replace in the future with Application Development, if there is any demand ]]
- Private (1288 / 11912) [[ access controlled ]]
- Neverside (248 / 2180) [[ access controlled ]]
- Neversidian (78 / 618) [[ access controlled ]]
* Total threads/replies: 33829 / 358996
** Combined total deleted and/or completely archived: 38407 / 378609
Partially archived forum categories
Forums to be "heavily" archived (leaves 10%):
- Image Showoff (10698 / 80476) --> (1069 / 8047)
- Adobe Photoshop Help & Tutorials (11752 / 58327) --> (1175 / 5832)
- Server Side - PHP/MySQL/etc. (11435 / 68808) --> (1143 / 6880)
* Total remaining threads/replies: 3387 / 20759
Forums to be "moderately" archived (leaves 20%):
- Site Reviews (6816 / 57949) --> (1363 / 11589)
- Client Side - HTML/Javascript/etc. (7401 / 35684) --> (1480 / 7136)
- Flash / Multimedia Help & Tutorials (3732 / 12437) --> (746 / 2487)
* Total remaining threads/replies: 3589 / 21212
Forums to be "lightly" archived (leaves 40%, some may be merged or moved, see below):
- Vector Art & Illustration (817 / 2367) --> (326 / 946)
- 3D Modeling Help (2163 / 8084) --> (865 / 3233)
- Paint Shop Pro Help & Tutorials (581 / 3007) --> (232 / 1202)
- Creative Arts & Literature (525 / 2789) --> (210 / 1115)
- Image Showoff > Photography (586 / 2514) --> (234 / 1005)
* Total threads/replies: 1867 / 7501
Approximate number of unarchived threads / posts for the new site: 8843 / 49472
Outline of container/forum category merges and moves
Containers to keep current name
Containers to be renamed
- Graphics Software --> Art & Graphic Design
- Showrooms --> Works in Progress
- Web Development --> Web Design & Development
Containers to add
Containers to remove (and all content within removed)
- Design Battlefield & Other Contests
- Miscellaneous
Forums to remain the same
Forums to add
- Community > Introduce Yourself
- Multimedia > Music / Audio Production
- Multimedia > Video Production
Forums to rename and/or relocate into new containers
- Community > Neverside Suggestions & Feedback --> Community > Suggestions and Feedback
- Graphics Software > Adobe Photoshop Help & Tutorials --> Art & Graphic Design > Photoshop
- Graphics Software > Flash --> Multimedia > Flash / Web Animation
- Graphics Software > Vector Art & Illustration --> Art & Graphic Design > Vector Art & Illustration
- Showrooms > Creative Arts & Literature --> Works in Progress > Multimedia
- Showrooms > Site Reviews --> Works in Progress > Web Design
- Showrooms > Image Showoff --> Works in Progress > Images / Art
- Showrooms > Image Showoff > Photography --> Art & Graphic Design > Photography
- Web Development > Server Side - PHP/MySQL/etc. --> Web Design & Development > Server-side Programming
- Web Development > Client Side - HTML/Javascript/etc. --> Web Design & Development > Client-side Programming
Forums to merge, and where to merge them
- Graphics Software > 3D Modeling Help --> Art & Graphic Design > Other Graphics Applications
- Graphics Software > Paint Shop Pro Help & Tutorials --> Art & Graphic Design > Other Graphics Applications