XF 2.2 Why use a sibling forum instead of a child forum?

[CBI Web]

In what case(s) might a person want a sibling forum as opposed to a child forum?

Visually I don't see a difference on the screen, so what exactly is the purpose of a sibling?

 

[Kirby]

Example
https://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-pre-sales-questions.5/ would't make much sense if it was a child of https://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.18/.

It does however make sense being a sibling of https://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.18/ with the same parent https://xenforo.com/community/#public-forums.17, eg. they are siblings to each other and childs of https://xenforo.com/community/#public-forums.17

Creating a sibling can make it easier to have it at the position you want to have as opposed to create it as a child of the parent, especially if there are already many siblings.

 

[CBI Web]

I guess I just don't understand what difference it makes, when visually there is no difference.

How does a visitor know when they're viewing a sibling vs. a child? What makes the forum experience better for having siblings?

 

[Paul B]

There is a difference in how the forums are displayed on the index.

There is no difference in functionality - it is purely categorical and hierarchical.

Sibling is at the same level.
Child has a parent.

Parent A (sibling of Parent B)

Child 1 of Parent A (sibling of Child 2)
Child 2 of Parent A (sibling of Child 1)​

Parent B (sibling of Parent A)

Child 1 of Parent B​

 

[Kirby]

1. I guess I just don't understand what difference it makes, when visually there is no difference.

Uh? There is a visual difference (unless your style is modified to not show a difference).

Sibling



Child

How does a visitor know when they're viewing a sibling vs. a child?

If the viewed forum has a parent it is a child.
If there are other forums that have the same parent as the viewd forum it is a sibling.
In many cases it will be a child and a sibling at the same time, only if it has no parent (eg. a top-level forum which is kinda uncommon) it would not be a child; if there are no other forums with teh same parent it would not be a sibling.

What makes the forum experience better for having siblings?

In many cases it will be a child and a sibling at the same time, only if it has no parent (eg. a top-level forum which is kinda uncommon) it would not be a child; if there are no other forums with teh same parent it would not be a sibling.
So the general answer would be: Nothing, you can't have one without the other.

Creating siblings instead of childs just does make the administration taks of adding a new news easier if you have a large node tree though it isn't necessary, you could create any structure ny just creating childs (which, most likely, would implicity create siblings).

Example
Given the structure from the first screenshort you might want to add a 3rd "Forum C".

This could be achieved in 4 ways:

1. By clicking the Add node action button and setting Child-Sibling-Demo as parent
2. By clicking Add ... Sibling on the action menu of Forum A
3. By clicking Add ... Sibling on the action menu of Forum B
4. By clicking Add ... Child on the action menu of Child-Sibling-Demo

All 4 options would result in the same hierarchical structure.