XF 2.2 Only only one subforum: how to simplify interface

[ForestForTrees]

Hi everyone,

Any ideas for how I could greatly simplify the XenForo interface if I have only one subforum? I'm new to XF2 and am setting up a new forum.

Many visitors to the new forum don't understand web forums, so I want to keep the interface as simple as possible. When they arrive at the forum, I want them to see a thread list. They can click on threads that interest them without being overwhelmed.

Any ideas for how I could remove some of the following elements? Is there a theme I could use?

Any other ideas for how I could optimize a new "1-subforum" forum?



I hang my head in shame, but I'm also considering Discourse, as it seems like it might work well if there's only one subforum.

Thanks in advance.

Forest

 

[whynot]

If you do not make subforums than there won't be subforums.

 

[beerForo]

Prefixes

 

[ForestForTrees]

Thanks, @whynot and @beerForo. I especially like the idea of prefixes. I also just discovered the public navigation settings at myforum.org/admin.php?navigation/ . I'll have to check these out, too.

Is there any way to move the site logo to the left of the tabs in order to save space? (aka to the left of the "top-level navigation" items)

 

[djbaxter]

Thanks, @whynot and @beerForo. I especially like the idea of prefixes. I also just discovered the public navigation settings at myforum.org/admin.php?navigation/ . I'll have to check these out, too.

Is there any way to move the site logo to the left of the tabs in order to save space? (aka to the left of the "top-level navigation" items)

That depends at least partly on the style. I don't think there is an option to do that in the Xenforo default style but there may be an addon to do it.

I know in at least some PixelExit styles you have the option to move the logo inside the navigation bar.

 

[briansol]

I'm thinking you should try the new posts option here
admin.php?options/groups/nodeList/

that will show your users the latest posts as the home page, which, in theory should be the same thing as having 1 forum category, but it will be thread based instead of category based on the home page.

 

[ForestForTrees]

Thanks folks. Those are helpful tips.

I've been tinkering some more and gone super minimal, and I love it. I remember when I set up my first forum a decade ago, I wanted all of the bells and whistles. Now, I look at my super minimal version and I love it.

Here's what it looks like now. There is a single subforum called "All Topics," and I'll use .htaccess to take people directly there. They will never see the forum list, and they access everything else, through looking at specific threads. The threads, after all, are what my visitors care about the most.



Basically, I just turned everything off in admin.php?navigation/ : (literally, everything else is disabled)


I don't expect to be super popular by going to an incredibly powerful and well written forum script community and turning everything off, but I really love it so far.

 

[ForestForTrees]

I don't expect to be super popular by going to an incredibly powerful and well written forum script community and turning everything off, but I really love it so far.

Here's why I like it, I think. If you go to my forum, you immediately see topics. Having run a community for a decade (about 2M pageviews a year) for a similar community, I know that that is exactly what they want.

They click on the threads they want and they are done for the day. The other XF functionality is still there (profiles, settings, etc.), but it isn't staring my visitors in the face (most of whom don't know webforums at all, and many of whom are technophobic).

Later on, if my traffic soars, I can add subforums. But for now, I imagine following @beerForo 's advice and using prefixes.

 

[ForestForTrees]

Hi everyone. Is there a way to make it so that when people go to my forum at https://www.mydomain.org/ they automatically see the thread listing of the only subforum.

In other words, when they go to https://www.mydomain.org/, I would like them to see https://www.mydomain.org/forum/all-topics.2/

Could this be done with routes?

 

[ForestForTrees]

By the way, thanks, everyone, for your understanding that I want to do this strange thing and for being helpful rather than trying to convince me not to do it.

I understand that the idea of making a web forum with only one subforum and correspondingly stripping out so much of XF's amazing functionality probably seems crazy for people as technically sophisticated as you are. It would be crazy for people like me, too, but my nonprofit serves many people who are very bad with tech and they will appreciate the much easier learning curve. (And will be more likely to sign up! Getting them to sign up is half the battle.) For the record, we will be the first and only webforum covering this topic, so we won't have to compete on features; only signups.

 

[briansol]

options / basic options / Index page route

enter:

forum/all-topics.2/

 

[ForestForTrees]

Thanks @briansol. That's exactly what I was looking for.

Here's what I've got right now.

I've noticed that when the page width is below 650px, the tabs are replaced by a "hamburger/3drawers menu." Is there any way to turn this off? I tried changing the "medium responsive break point" but that messed with too many settings. I'd rather just disable the hamburger menu since my tabs are already so simple.

 

[ForestForTrees]

Perhaps there is a way to do it by manually editing a template to set a lower cutoff for the hamburger menu?