No, I would like to see a new node type. After 20 years of doing this from the BBS days to XenForo I've learned that people are looking for easy to find content and discussions. On this site, everyone is an admin and we are here looking for resources so the default is fine. But on a most sites people spend most of their time in the nodes. And I think as much information as possible should be placed in their path. It's really hard to get the average user to venture off into other things like galleries and blogs and resources.
So I would like to see a new node type. A resource node. So for instance, on a gaming site the RM might be used for mods or reviews and such. Say you have several forums under a category for a specific game. Most of the members that are involved in that game are going straight there and they don't venture off much. With a resource node you would create resources right in the resource only node like you create a thread in a thread node. And they would display in that node just like a thread but maybe different resource specific stats. And when you clicked it you would go to the resource not the discussion. Yes there are threads in nodes now but so many people click them and never find their way out of the discussion. Tabs aren't as intuitive as we admins would like them to be. These resources could be also attached to a category in the RM but they would be homed in the node.
Perhaps both links, resource and discussion, could be displayed in the node view. One over the other with their own stats. And of course it would use the resource icon.
I understand that the threads are there now but when you have lots of categories or resources that may be topic specific but the category covers many topics, it's hard to get those threads where you want them without manually managing them. Even then, people see them as threads not resources.
For instance, I have a gaming site. I may have a space simulation category with sub cats for reviews and mods, etc. Yet some games might need lots of resources. So I have to choose a node to place the threads. I can't choose a node for each game since I would have to create more categories for each game under space sims and then have more sub cats for reviews, mods, etc just for that game and just so the discussions can go in the right forum. It becomes a mess.
With a resource node I would be able to create a resource node within the forums under the forum category for a specific game which would be right there in view for those users. I could also assign it to the space sim category in the RM without having to worry about where the threads are going to be placed.
I don't think the threads for these nodes should be in a separate node at all. They should be accessible from the resource and also the resource list in the node view.
The way it is now is perfect for the mission of this site but the RM is so much more powerful than that I and believe it can be used for many many more things.
I hope I explained that well enough. I'm pretty scatter brained these days having to deal with end of life issues with my mom. If not let me know and I'll give it another go.
