Arrangement of threads/posts

[female]

Hi,

I believe this is not the 1st time its been voiced out. Sorting in alphabetical order makes the forum very very messy. not only is it difficult to follow a thread, it also throws up a lot of outdated threads & info. pls do something about it. this forum is such an amazingly good thing. a lot of ladies here will agree with me. lets maximise its potential by organising it better.

 

[chinleng]

Hi Female,

Thank you for your feedback. For the active threads, you can try clicking on New Messages for "Last 12 hours", "Last 24 hours" and "Last 3 Days".

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[feedback]

Also can you limit the size of images that can be uploaded to the thread. Sometimes people upload photos that causes the thread to take a long time to load.

 

[chinleng]

Hi Feedback,

The size of individual image has been limited to a maximum of 50 kb. However, as there may be a few images per postings or per thread, this will also affect the loading time of each threads.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[chip]

Sorting the threads by date is better as i gotta scroll all the way down to go to the topic i want.

What is the rationale behind sorting the threads by name?

 

[2cents]

i think 50kb is still consider a very big file because not all people can afford broadband..and are still using dialup. Photos of brides are ok bec this is a bridal forum, but there some threads with alot of animated graphics and it really slows things down. A little is ok (eg emoticons) but not too much.

 

[chinleng]

Hi Chip,

It is easier for couples to look for specific topics on their wedding service providers when the they are arranged by name.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[no hope]

I think we are wasting our time telling this Chin Leng to improve this forum or using better software or method, it seem like he likes his existing format and reluctant to change and accept new ideas.

 

[yole]

Hi Chin Leng,

sorry, but I have to agree with No Hope. Although you have been doing a good job to support the forum users of their problems, but seldom do we see any improvement to the format of the forum.

I've been frequenting this forum since year before last, even until now, when my wedding is over. I find the info here very useful, however, navigation is a big headache. In fact I always feel very tired after browsing through the latest articles. The view is cluttered, especially so when the thread is super-active.

I've also given a few suggestions but you will always have your own reasoning and turn them all down. But as an IT personnel, I think it's important to listen to users' views and see from the user's point of view, otherwise, it's a matter of time that more people will move to other forums.

I do hope that more improvements can be made to this forum so that visiting this forum can always be an enjoyable experience, even though this is a free forum.

You may not want to publish this article, but I do hope that my comments are valued.

 

[chinleng]

Hi 2cents,

I know that some threads have more animated graphics than others. If you are a participant in a thread where too many graphics are used, you can try posting a message in the thread requesting them to reduce the number of graphics included.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[chinleng]

Hi No Hope and Yole,

Thank you for your postings. I apologise that you feel your views and comments are not valued. Acutally, all views and comments are received and evaluated. We have to balance the needs of all users in the forum and in reality, we can't implement all the feedback received as they may not be the views of others. We'll review the suggestion and evaluate if it'll be implemented. If the decision is different from your suggestion, it does not mean that your views are not valued.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[2cents]

I do not participate in that particular thread that has alot of animated graphics, thus i do not want to offend the gals there to stop them or ask them to reduce the numbers of animated graphics.

I just happen to pop in to see if that thread is of any relevant to my bridal shopping.

As the site moderator, i think chin leng you should be the one to ask them to reduce rather than ask someone who feedback to you to do the job.

This is a typical "tai-ji" (pushing responsibility) in a typical singapore environment.

 

[chinleng]

Hi 2cents,

I'm sorry if you've misunderstood me. It was never my intention to shy away if it was my responsibility.

As you've pointed out succintly, it may be more appropariate for the participants to feedback within their own group if they feel that there were excessive graphics.

From a moderator's perspective, we would refrain from interferring as long as the participants in the thread are comfortable with the current level of graphics in the thread. However, we'll continue to monitor these threads and will remind the users when the graphics are excessive and start affecting the overall performance of the forum.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[feedback]

Hi Chin Leng,
Perhaps you can improve the program by limiting the number of images the same user can upload to a thread. If in the same thread and User A has exceeded the max number of images he/she can upload, prevent the message from being posted.

 

[chocs]

Hi,

I think it's very unfair to criticise Chin Leng in such a manner. I am in the IT profession also, I understand that there are limits as to what can be done and wat cannot be done. Also, Chin Leng cannot modify the entire website meant for so many users just for the sake a couple who find it more convenient to use another method. I'm sure that Chin Leng has done his/her job up to his best ability. I'll rather be more constructive by making alternative suggestions.

1. Sorting threads by name has its advantages which we cannot deny. For example, if one's searching for comments on a bridal shop/photography/banquet venues based on names, simply search for the relevant forum topic and scroll down the list which is in alphabetical order to find the appropriate thread. True enough to someone who always go to a certain active thread, this is redundant, but to a newcomer this is very user-friendly. On the other hand, if we sort threads (even if it's last 12 hours) by the last active posting, the threads will look disorderly cos they are not grouped into topics. Furthermore, I can imagine that unless a thread belongs to the top ten active threads, it could be difficult to search for a thread within a list of 150+ active threads in each day. I'm surprised that yole as an IT professional has overlooked this point.

2. What I suggest is that within each thread, the postings be displayed in a reverse order. Display the latest posting at the top of the screen instead of having to scroll down to view the last posting. Sometimes, the page could be very long and one has to wait for the entire page to load before scrolling down to the last posting. I think this will be a great improvement and is easier to achieve.

3. Since there are user accounts already available, I suggest that a small amount of space to be allocated to each user for the following purposes.

a) keep record of the last 10 threads that the user has posted messages. That way users like yole and chip can keep track of their active threads. I dun expect this to take more than a few kilobytes of space and will be very easy to achieve.

b) for users to keep their 50kB images. So users are responsible for maintaining their own usage of memory space and will not unnecessarily load the server with outdated pictures. Those who are interested in seeing the pictures can click on the user's profile. Hence there will be no more pictures in threads, just words and a few small animated graphics which are the 'emoticons'. More emoticons can be added in the list already available or some emoticons changed so that there's more animation, more variety and less boring (there has to be a limit somewhere). For those who like to share their own 'emoticons' or animated gifs, they can place them in their profile space. If their space is full, they have to remove old images before uploading new ones.


Hope the above is useful.
Chocs

 

[yole]

Hi,

Like what I said, I dun mean to critise Chin Leng. I just hope to give some feedback on this forum. Being in the IT profession, you must always be open to feedback and hope to strive for better services. This is especially so for websites, which have typical lifespan of 3 years.
That's why we often see websites undergoing changes in services or designs every now and then.

Yes, there are always limitations in the any software or website that is created. However, the webmaster must always ensure that the content are easily accessible by "surfers".

There is a point that sorting by alpha order is useful for newcomers, but if u take a closer look, some posters put "" (the punc marks), and then it will appear on the top most thread. How useful can this be ? In addition, There are so many threads of the same content, same bridal shop/banquet venue, so to a newcomer, she will need to keep looking for other threads.
If I'm a newcomer, I would simple use the search function.

The Last 12 Hours feature is good for "surfers" who frequent the website. Being "surfers" who frequent the website, there maybe people who are only interested in particular topics, such as Matters of the Heart, or Songs...etc. But they would have to scroll all the way down to look for the topic. (Or use the Search function again)

Being a bridal forum, in which bridal shopping information is discussed, information gets outdated every year, such as banquet prices and services, home reno prices etc. Therefore, it is also critical to housekeep the articles frequently. This will not only keep the forum neat, the articles will also be up-to-date.

juz my 2 cents

 

[chocs]

Hi,

Based on yole's posting, I have some new suggestions.

1. Remove any punctuation marks used in new subject headings. When creating a new thread, do simple checking. Subject headings cannot start with punctuation, numbers, "a" or "A" as single lettered words. This will prevent any inconsiderate use.


2. When performing last 12 hours search, allow the following functions:

a) Keep all forum topics collapsed. When user click on topic, expand into threads. User click on thread then expand into the excerpts of last 12hours. I think this is pretty common.

b) Allow options, order by date of last posting or order by alphabetical.

I still feel that mandatory ordering by last date of posting is very un-user-friendly. I have experience in websites like these, and found difficulty in finding the appropriate thread. Because the forum page has simply too much traffic and so many postings made, any new postings was quickly pushed to the bottom and lost. Of course, a search can be performed, but it will further tax the server. If there are restrictions in the server speed, maintaining such a website will be very tedious, server will become slower and will decrease the accessibility of the forum on the whole. So more 'user-friendliness' for slower uploading speeds.


3. Postings related to bridal shopping info in at least 2 years should be kept. It helps for comparison of service and pricing over the years. Records of postings of other nature can be reduced to one year or even half year.


Regards,
Chocs

 

[justmytots]

I think everyone should understand that when they come into this forum, it is to search for information. So I personally think they should be prepared to do some "searching". There are so many different groups of people using this forum. It is impossible for anyone to come up with a website that is suitable for all. To make it convenient for one group would definitely make it difficult for another. How to please everyone? There are so many people here who gave suggestions as to how to improve this forum but how come none of them think of coming out with a website that provides similar services? Maybe then they will realise how difficult it is to manage a website like this. I am not saying that suggestions are not needed but please give constructive and realistic ones. Everyone wants Chin Leng to make the forum more user-friendly to them, who is he suppose to listen to?

 

[septembre]

Chin Leng can't please everyone lar. I for one is happy with this forum.

 

[desire]

I totally agree with gingerale, 'Chin Leng can't please everyone', I too am happy with this forum and it's format, I am using dial-up too and I ain't complaining.

SUCH TYPICAL SINGAPOREANS, ONLY KNOW HOW TO COMPLAINT, COMPLAINT and COMPLAINT.

Chin Leng, you are doing a good job, keep it up!

 

[linda]

I for one, prefer the sorting by names. Makes life easier if I wanna search for topics. Sorting by date = popular threads always ahead. So some others will also complain that why their threads always in the end...very tiring to scroll...

I prefer the current listing of the most recent message being the last... cos you read the whole story rather than reading the last posted one and then having to scroll down to read the older ones to understand what the latest one means...

Different strokes for diff folks. Cannot please everybody.

Dialups not fast enuff? Change to boardband lah...always work on oneself before asking pple to improve... I have no prob waiting cos i know my dialup is slow... what to do?? Cannot expect ALL the websites to do this and that for me right?

I dun intent to change to broadband so I just have to bear with it.

I think it is good to give improvement ideas. Sometimes just be a bit more accomodating lor.... to indicate tt what No Hope had said is so terrible. What a mean person. Chin leng doesn't deserve what he/she had posted.

 

[bieffe]

Girls let's face it the administrator is not open to suggestions for changes to this forum.
I have given up.....this is the messiest forum I have even seen.
Only the contents are ok thats provided u can find them.
I prefer arrangement by latest posting.
Don't let technology be in the way please learn how to change the forum format if you dunno. Instead of giving excuses to push things about.
ONCE OTHER forum is found we gals should just move.

 

[yawn]

Hi bieffe,
You can move BUT I am staying

seen US forum sites tt are worst then this. Not user-friendly at all.
In the first place, OTHER forums' are boring if u went in to look see look see and lagi SLOWER. One even dead liao....
For a place which provides you FREE info, FREE advise, FREE chances to win items, FREE aunt webby svcs...I think SB is doing great!

I am sorry but if I didn't like this forum, I will just stop coming in. I dun pass sacarstic remarks...

 

[disgusted]

Bieffe,

"Once other forum is found we gals should just move." ----> Speak for yourself only then.

"Don't let technology be in the way please learn how to change the forum format if you dunno. Instead of giving excuses to push things about." ----> Such accusations are really not necessary! It's not as if you paid the moderators here monthly subscription fees to run this website!

Just cool down before you go rattling off again in such an unbecoming manner.

 

[septembre]

Bieffe,

What is your defination of "open" to new ideas?
That he sees your suggestion and must act upon it? So if he doesn't change the forum according to what you like it to be, he is labeled as not open? Wah like that he change or don't change, also will offend people.

 

[folic]

Hi all,

I think it is important to differentiate the nature of this forum vs some of the other forums which you might participate in.

For instance, in forums such as icered, the topics discussed are varied and time sensitive. This means that some of these discussions will become irrelevant after some time. In such cases, it makes more sense to have a broad categorisation and then followed by latest posting first. This is because the most relevant posting is likely to be the latest ones.

In this forum, most of the topics discussed can be broadly categorised eg wedding banquets, bridal studios etc. Most of these postings are still relevant after a long period of time as experiences could still be relevant after 1-2 years. In such instances, I think it would make more sense to categorise based on topics, and I think it has pretty much been well categorised. For instance, if you want to hold a wedding banquet in a particular hotel, chances are you will be able to spot discussions under the hotel's name, which is eaily found alphabetically.

As a forum user, we should also help to make the forum a more user friendly one by observing some netiquette. If we do not start new threads unecessarily, then confusion of where to look for information will be less.

As Chin Leng has pointed out previously, it is still possible to look for the latest posting by searching for discussions in the last 12,24 hours or 3 days. Some of you pointed out that this is useful for frequent users but not new comers. Isn't this a contracdictory argument for arranging forum in chronological order? If this forum is arranged entirely by latest posting, it would make it even more difficult to find a discussion that you would be interested in, as some of these might be discussed about 6 months ago, for instance. This will encourage more people to start new strings and the discussions will be more dispersed.

I think there is one more important point to remember. This is a free forum. It is provided as a channel for exchange of ideas. I think we should not impose too much on Chin Leng or the forum owners, requesting for upgrades of software/servers etc.

I have been with this forum for about 1 year. I find it easier to use and the discussion more spontaneous than other local bridal forums that I have been to. I would rather spend some time searching than to be bombarded with advert pop up etc each time I login to a forum.

Thanks Chin Leng, for a job well done!

 

[most agreed]

folic, you couldn't have said it better!
*standing ovation for folic*

 

[jerovette]

Completely agree with Folic!!!!
Instead of making mindless complains maybe everyone should just learn some proper nettiquette. We should all be responsible users. I agree that this is the best setting for a long term user, all new users just have to find their way around it and once u become a long term user you'll find how friendly this format is. No point having so many fancy thing on the forum. I rather everything be simple and straight to the point like Singaporebrides.

Good work Chinleng!!!!

 

[chip]

Just like to share with you people here a forum format which i find is the best so far. Lots of forums uses the same format. The most active forum in SG. Just look at the number of topics and threads in it. Its purpose is similiar to this forum. To let users share information (IT over there and bridal over here).

Hardwarezone Forum

Its sorted by dates. This encourages people to be active in the forum. Very impt to have ppl actively posting in a forum, else there wouldn't be any information for people to search and share.

You talk abt letting people find the topic they want easily if its sorted by name. However, i disagree. For example, if i'm searching for a recommendations of good florist, jumping straight to threads that start with 'F' isn't good enough. Cos some people may start the recommendation by the florist shop. Example: "Zion florist provides good service". So in this case, i gotta scroll through the whole topic to finally see that thread abt zion florist.

A better way is to let people do a search on the forum on the word "florist". So ALL threads regarding florist will appear in their search result, sorted according to dates, cos afterall, a 2 yrs ago recommendation on a florist isn't very useful to me now.

Just play around with the forum I posted before. Let's say you got a problem with your monitor which you need advice there. Do a search on the word monitor and see whats the results returned. Compare the navigation there with this forum and see if its really more 'user-friendly' to have threads sorted by date.

I'm not saying this forum sux, but there are definitely rooms for improvements to the navigation here.

 

[female]

Having gone to other forums, I actually now agree that arranging in topics may be better.

My major gripe is that its hard to FOLLOW a thread, either of your own posting, or what you contributed to others. As a frequent visitor, i do go in here via the search "12 hrs" method. But then i basically have to scroll down all topics in order to HOPE to find mine. coz sometimes, you dont rem. what your title is. or people dont reply. Like Chip said, people ask abt florist in different ways. and what happens when you dont log in 3 days? you wade thru gazillion lot of things - that are all over the place coz its arranged in alphabetical order, not latest. "Marketplace" is an excellent eg. i lost track of which are the latest items selling coz of the alpha arrangement.

what i wld like is to be notified whenever there's a new posting/reply to whatever thread i am on.

as a last word, i still maintain this forum is indeed helpful. its a little hassle to use, but i still come back everyday

 

[feedback]

Personally I love this forum alot! First of all its free, fast and does not have any irritating advertisement pop-ups. I'm not very concern abt whether its sorted by date, name, etc, so long the forum does not have very frequent down-times. Also we don't have to register in order to post messages in the forum. It really provides alot of freedom and ease of use.

 

[droopy eyes]

I think Chip has an excellent suggestion, hopefully Chin Leng can take that into consideration. Having said that, I really like this forum. I tried to register in another forum so that I can post messages, but I failed. After several attempts I gave up. Besides, I find loading quite cumbersome with each user having a pic icon in that forum. For me, I m more interested in the contents. This place has certainly helped me alot in my wedding preps n now, my furniture shopping.

 

[lin]

To me this forum is one of the most useful local bridal forum I can find. However, having used it for many months the problem that plagued me since my initial use still bothers me now. It is none other than the problems faced by Female, Chip and many others.

The problem of locating a thread or the most current threads is too obvious to anyone who've been to several other forums so why does SB has to remain in such a form? Is it enuf to be a helpful site? Shouldn't user-friendly be one criteria of being helpful?

Do not say that it's typical of Singaporeans to complain. No one should remain silent if they can see some problems with a certain way of doing things. That is the only way society can improve. In fact those who bothered and suggested ways to improve it are likely the ones who really value the forum.

 

[teng-yan]

Hi

Lately I find that the searching by last check date/time by my username does not work anymore. When the search starts, it never returns me anything. When I re-submit the form, results are returned, but this is based on the last check date/time which has just been updated to the first submission date/time.

Please look into this problem. Thanks.

 

[ob-rider]

i agree with everyone here that forum will be more friendly to people who come in more than 3 days later, if it is sorted by date... i think Chin Leng has a misconception that what we want is something like this:

when click on last 12 hours eg, u see
6:51 a posting on topic A
6:50 a posting on topic C
6:48 a posting on topic A
6:45 a posting on topic B
6:44 a posting on topic C
....

no, that's not what we want... what we want, or at least me, is something like this

assuming the same sequence of postings as in last eg,
6:51 a posting on topic A
6:50 a posting on topic C
6:48 a posting on topic A
6:45 a posting on topic B
6:44 a posting on topic C

then, when click on last 12 hours eg, u see
6:51 topic A
6:50 topic C
6:45 topic B

users can then click on topic A, B or C to read postings.optional to show summary of each posting in each thread till user click on the topic... this saves on loading time too.

older topics, less popular topics will just disappear from the end of the list as days go by.... maybe can show up to 1 week or 5 days' post, cos 3 days very short la,...

am i making sense? anyway just a suggestion, din really think vrey thoroughly,.. feel free to bombard (the suggestion, not me

)

 

[mel c]

most of forums use vBulletin which allows alot of customization for the admin to suit the way hw the forum shld run. it's more user friendly and the date arrangement allow to generate more flows to the topic. u may wanna see the eg. from hardwarezone forum section. alot of great topics & pro advise.

 

[chandon]

allow postings to be sorted by date instead of by alphabetical order would make reading easier

 

[chinleng]

Hi Don,

The threads are both arranged in alphabetical and chronological order. For threads result to be sorted by date, please click on Last 12, 24, 72 Hours link provided on the navigation bar of the forum. Thank you.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[not_so_easy]

chin leng

when we are in the sub-headers for example Anything under the sun, when we click on Last 12,24,72 Hours, can just this topic alone be shown instead of all topics and archieve be shown instead. (hope you've got what I mean)

 

[chinleng]

Hi Wan,

For more specific search results, you may like to use the Search page available on the navigation bar of the forum and specify your requirements. In the search page, you can indicate the category and how recent the messages you are looking for.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[not_so_easy]

thanks chin leng

 

[organizedforum]

I am sure a lot of similar suggestions have been submitted on this.

Can we have the latest posts bump up the thread to the top of the listings? What is the point of having the threads organized in alphabetically order? Thread titles are not the anchor
for searches because they vary too much.

I know about the 12, 24 hourly searches but users should not need to do that if the latest posts keep the thread up on first page.
The hour searches shows threads from the entire forum and is very messy, at least to me. There should be more subcategories too.

If this post I made doesn't start with the title "Another..." but "What.." it probably be at the bottom of the list where no one will read?

Old threads can be stored in an archive section if the thread has no new posts for 2 weeks.
They should still be available for searching and posting though.

here's an example of an excellent forum from USA
http://forums.vwvortex.com
it's powered by Zeroforums
(I am in no way promoting another forum here)

a) Very well organized and clean.
b) They have icons on the thread titles if the thread contains pics.
c) Many subcategories so you always know where to click.
d) Excellent archive and search functions
e) More GUI instead of Word Links. The subcategory trees in sgbrides search gave me
a headache. seriously.

Just my suggestion. Been a forum junkie for years and found your site because my wife was surfing for wedding stuff. IMO, if sgbrides can adopt the layout of vwvortex, it can be the leading forum (or already is?) in Singapore.

But then again, i know that changing everything to a different format is a PITA, so it all depends on how much time we have, isn't it?

 

[habba]

I think this is what wan and don meant:

http://www.singaporebrides.com/forumboard/messages/2/167683.html?1096927029

 

[chinleng]

Hi there,

Thanks for visiting SingaporeBrides. Hope you would find the information available in the portal helpful to your wedding preparations. Will you be holding your wedding in Singapore?

We would also like to thank you for your feedback. SingaporeBrides forum topics are arranged in alphabetical order as many topics actually requires them to be arranged in that order to aid forum users in looking for specific information.

For example, if you would like to find a discussion group of a particular boutique or wedding venue in Singapore, you can always rely on the alphabetical arrangement of the topics to locate the topic of your interest. If the topics were arranged in chronological order, the topic's position would vary from time to time and thus make locating the topic more difficult.

As the topics are arranged in alphabetical order, there are also less repetitive creation of topics that are related to boutiques, wedding venues and photographers.

We have also chosen to arrange the topics in alphabetical order as it would cater to users who are looking for specific topics and the last "12", "24" and "72" hours search results would cater to users who prefer chronological order and would like to participate in the lastest discussions. This way, the forum would serve the preference of both groups of users, neither neglecting the needs of one nor the other.

In your message, you've suggested more subcategories. Would appreciate if you can provide the subcategories we should further create and we'll definitely implement them when required.

I know our solution may not be the perfect arrangement but we hope that we've chosen the best way to best serve our users.

We would also continuously change and improve SingaporeBrides, no matter how much time is required.

Regards,
Chin Leng.

 

[chinleng]

Hi Habba,

You are actually the user with nick "Organizeforum", right? Please use the same nick when you are putting the same message across. Else, I would have thought that I would need to respond to both queries.

Reards,
Chin Leng.

 

[obride]

Chin Leng, i think organizedforum means this and i agree..... that the forum should be sorted by last date of posting within each category.

in fact i think u are doing this for new threads started... all new threads are put at the top of the category for XX min/hours b4 they are put into their alphabetical order... it would be most useful if all postings (regardlesso f new threads or replies to posts) can be ordered in this way except they do not move to their alphabetical order after XX min/hours.

eg, when someone post a reply on thread 2, that thread is moved to the top of the list within that category. 30 seconds later, someone post a reply on thread 5 in the same category, thread 5 moves to the top position in that category, so it'd be thread 5 followed by thread 2 and the rest and so on.

the last 12/24/72 hour link is obviously not useful when we receive so much feedback on them already... why keep something not useful on thd forum.

for your consideration

 

[obride]

by the way, i noticed the market place category uses a diferent sorting criteria altogether... itts neither alphabetical, nor chronological?

 

[please]

Chin Leng, I like the 12/24/72 hours link... keep them there please...

 

[not_so_easy]

chin leng


Pardon me, I do agree with organizedforum's suggestion too.

Just my thought, some do not wish to post using the existing forum as they want to get respond to their post, thus alpha order is not very ideal.

Take for example, if someone posted a respond and do not come back within the next 72hours, and having used an old topic to post, they may not be able to remember the title of it and thus unable to follow the thread for their reply, this way, the alpha order do not serve well to user.

However, if topics are arranged by date order then alpha order (which I felt is unneccessary) is much easier as the user can remember roughly how long they had posted in a thread.

I too have tried to use the search format, so sorry to say that I find it time consuming and find it not very useful.

 

[organizedforum]

Thank you for the reply!
We have already held the wedding there.
In and out of Singapore within a week.
Mad rush but fun.

I understand the need to cut down on repetitive
posts. But being alphabetically sorted by thread titles serves little purpose to solve that or ease of search. Because this all depends on how the user phrases his question in the thread title.

An example straight from the forum:
"Any recommendations to Phuket?" is the same
as "Recommendations to Phuket." as well as
"Bangkok, Phuket"

These three threads are talking about the same thing but they are ALL listed together on the same page. This makes the forum very cluttered
and difficult to read. The best forum is where the user can find their info quickly and easily.

Pages are needed for each thread title if there
are too many posts. I realized that the Previous/Next link brings you to the next thread, not page.

The 12,24 hour search is good if the tree can be
modified with more graphics and clearer distinction between thread titles. The current tree might not very user friendly to new users.

Simple examples of subcategories:
Main Tree:

Bridal, Community, Classifieds, Blackhole

Subtrees of Bridal:
>>>>> ROM
>>>>> Wedding
>Hotels
>Gowns
>Dinner
>Wedding Pictures

Subtrees of Community:
>>>>> Honeymoon
> Asia
> Europe
> USA
> Africa
> Aust
> Others
>>>>> Matters of the Heart
> Movies and Television
> Sports and Fitness
> Food and Beverage
> Pets

Subtrees of Blackhole:

> Suggestions
> Annoucements
> Official use

I am sure you got the idea by now.
A click of each main tree link will bring
user to the subs in another page to avoid clutter.

Basically just see what people talk about most
in the forums and create sub categories out of them. Maybe a scroll box can be inserted at the bottom each page so that users can category jump.
A brief synopsis of the subcategory will be helpful too.

Like I said, VWVortex first started 5-6 years ago with a similar layout as SB and with so-so traffic. They adopted the new layout 3 years ago.
Now they have 120 million hits a month, a full time crew and Volkswagon uses them as their subofficial website.

Forums are addictive, users will be back several times a day if there is enough info in it.
That means subcategories must grow constantly and weed out dead ones.

It's all about organization of info. Simple