Duplicate Forum?

[xenTheory]

My forum is for Android tablets, tv sticks and phones. Each manufacturer is listed followed by models and then further sub forums, for example:

Cube
- U30GT
-- Where to buy
-- Support
-- Firmware
--- Official Firmware
--- Custom Firmware

This is the general layout for each forum. The problem is that with adding new models it takes a long time to create all of these entries etc. Is there an easier way of doing it? Ideally I would like to create a forum called 'Firmware' and apply it a set number of other forum so it creates it there as well instead of manually doing each one.

I'm pretty sure the answer to this will be 'NO' but I can hope

 

[LPH]

Have you considered one forum per model but apply thread prefixes for the where to buy, support, firmware ... ?

 

[tyteen4a03]

Have you considered one forum per model but apply thread prefixes for the where to buy, support, firmware ... ?

I think it will really clutter the forum. The only way seems to be creating a model one by one.

 

[xenTheory]

I was using phpBB when the forum only had a few hundred members and had a set up per model but it got very cluttered, sub forums for each model make it easier for members to find resources and get support. It's one of the features people have messaged me about saying they like about the forum. It's a shame there's no template type system for xenForo - so I could apply a 'template' of forums to create with a tick of a button or something similar.

 

[LPH]

I was using phpBB when the forum only had a few hundred members and had a set up per model but it got very cluttered, sub forums for each model make it easier for members to find resources and get support. It's one of the features people have messaged me about saying they like about the forum. It's a shame there's no template type system for xenForo - so I could apply a 'template' of forums to create with a tick of a button or something similar.

This suggests you will want to take the time to set it up. If there is traffic and posts then it is worth it. Generally sites with lots of forums but little posts look weak so it is a balance. I was not sure on the site size.

 

[James]

I was using phpBB when the forum only had a few hundred members and had a set up per model but it got very cluttered, sub forums for each model make it easier for members to find resources and get support. It's one of the features people have messaged me about saying they like about the forum. It's a shame there's no template type system for xenForo - so I could apply a 'template' of forums to create with a tick of a button or something similar.

An alternative to this would be to create the prefixes then mimic sub-forums by adding a link to each prefix in the forum_list.

This will give the impression of sub-forums, but when they click the "sub-forum" what it will really do is only show the threads with that prefix, reducing clutter and setup time in one go.

 

[TPerry]

This suggests you will want to take the time to set it up. If there is traffic and posts then it is worth it. Generally sites with lots of forums but little posts look weak so it is a balance. I was not sure on the site size.

Yep, but the other side of the coin is if I go to a general motorcycle forum I'm interested in one or two makes. It's easier to go directly to the area that holds my interest (like a touring bike instead instead of cruisers, sports bikes, etc). To take it further, if I own a Goldwing I don't want to filter through all the HD, Yamaha, et al types, especially if I am looking for tech related stuff. It could be done by using the prefixes, but I don't know how well that would go over for 150+ sub forums.
If I remember correctly, phpBB3 and myBB had the ability to clone an existing forum (all permissions, etc) and you just changed the node name and the root of the forum. It did make it nice.

 

[James]

It could be done by using the prefixes, but I don't know how well that would go over for 150+ sub forums.

It depends on how you go about setting them up and encouraging their use, but less forums is generally better for performance, especially if you have 150+. Admittedly the performance improvement may be trivial.

 

[TPerry]

It depends on how you go about setting them up and encouraging their use, but less forums is generally better for performance, especially if you have 150+. Admittedly the performance improvement may be trivial.

We're talking motorcycle riders here in my example.
For most of them (not the sport bike crowd), if it's not mechanical it's to much to learn.
They have gotten used to the vB (spit...spit) way of doing things.
I plan on setting up a test site to play with that on, but haven't gotten the "round to it" yet.

 

[James]

We're talking motorcycle riders here in my example.
For most of them (not the sport bike crowd), if it's not mechanical it's to much to learn.
They have gotten used to the vB (spit...spit) way of doing things.

It could work if you create prefixes and use them to impersonate sub-forums (some styling to make them look the part; suggestion above), it'll also reduce the amount of threads posted in the wrong forums (but may encourage incorrect prefixes).

Implementation is key!

 

[xenTheory]

Here's a good example - http://vondroid.com/forums/yuandao-n101-visture-v10.44/

And I understand the motorcycle scenario. It would be useful to have clone feature and, yes, prefixes can part do the job but that means creating hundreds of prefixes and the extra CSS needed for that (I've customised nearly everything even the prefixes). So I would rather have a clone feature if at all possible.