1 forums or many forums

[steve8675537]

If you are a relatively small site 20-30 loyal posters....

Do you guys think if you have 1 forum (and what i mean is 1 catagory and 1 place to post) on your site its alot better because new people who join think there is more activity then if you have 6 or 7 forums (catagorys) where the conent is spread out but i guess more organized.

I'd really like to know your thoughts and experiences. I feel like i've had about 20-30 loyal posters for 8 months and we never seem to grow depsite getting a little traffic here and there.

[espicom]

Depends on the discussions. A single forum means there's no place to put "off-topic" stuff. An example would be a board for technical people... will they like it if the tech stuff is interspersed with social gathering messages, or political arguments? Separate forums within the board allow you to better pick and chose which parts you want to participate in.

I, for example, made the JOKES section of one board require that you join a group to see it. That way, no one who doesn't want to see the bad jokes doesn't have to even see the "new messages" flag, or have them appear in their "new since last visit" search. So far, no one has complained about its existence, or asked that it be made open for all to see...