Category For Irrigation And Weather

Ridgerunner

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I wonder, how important are categories to people on this forum? I never look art categories when looking at threads. When I start a thread I just look through and pick some category that might be appropriate. It probably does narrow down the time if you do a search, but I wonder how much? As much as we ramble and hijack would I miss something if I limited a search to a category?

If a new category were created will someone go back and redirect old threads? I don't think so.

We do talk about weather a lot, not just limited to how's the weather where you are, are you OK after the latest disaster. Not sure how much traffic there would be in either of these topics.

I don't think the question is as much how hard it is to do, I think the question is ore what are the unintended consequences. For my part I don't see the need.

I wonder if my post should be in Random Ramblings?
 

Ridgerunner

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The question is not why categories, it's why add categories. Does the quality of the forum improve enough to justify it? To me they are not that important. To others they might be. I'm just putting in my two cents.
 

Nifty

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We appreciate all ideas and suggestions, so thanks for starting this thread.

Basically we try to find the perfect balance between too many and too few categories. It's not a perfect science but we basically look to see if there area already a bunch of existing threads on a topic that might justify or necessitate a new category, and then we create it and move existing threads into it.

For example, if tractors and large farm equipment started to become SUPER popular in the Tools & Supplies section, with a bunch of new threads and posts, we might look at creating a category just for them, then moving any existing discussions out of tools and into that new section.
 

seedcorn

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@Ridgerunner is right that after about 1-2 pages, threads take on a new personality.
@Nyboy is right that it’s nice to see caragories to know IF I want to read them at all. Although I get sucked into reading by poster that started it sometimes.
Personally, I prefer fewer categories.
 

thistlebloom

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This may be a hijack...(already :oops:)
I sometimes wonder how people read threads, or at least how they manage the forum.
sCo_hmmthink.gif


When I come here for instance, I open the forum
(I am always logged in) and the first thing that opens is the New Posts page. Those are the ones I haven't read yet.
I only click on the Forums if I'm looking for a category to post a new thread in. If I want to see the POW I have to click on the banner/picture on the top of the page and it will take me to the home /start up page.
How do others see what they want to read, or get started?
 

Ridgerunner

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Pretty much the same. Look at Alerts if something is lit up. Then open New posts and read what I want. Then mark all posts read so when I come back I can see what is new.
 

flowerbug

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This may be a hijack...(already :oops:)
I sometimes wonder how people read threads, or at least how they manage the forum. View attachment 27627

When I come here for instance, I open the forum
(I am always logged in) and the first thing that opens is the New Posts page. Those are the ones I haven't read yet.
I only click on the Forums if I'm looking for a category to post a new thread in. If I want to see the POW I have to click on the banner/picture on the top of the page and it will take me to the home /start up page.
How do others see what they want to read, or get started?

similar here, i'll check alerts to see if anyone has followed up and quoted something that i might want to reply to.

otherwise i'll catch the recent posts and new posts tabs to see if anything in there to read/followup. depends upon how much time i have as to how much i read or write.

then i catch up all and move on.

if a certain topic catches my interest enough i'll bookmark that thread to follow it (beans for sure :) ).

sometimes i notice that people post things that i've missed so i may catch up on that later when i notice it.

and then there's the search function, which i wish everyone new would learn how to use since that way you can find things that have already been talked about and can learn a lot and see also the history of the site as some people have moved on.
 
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