Policy Guidelines for new forum suggestions

[Kyng]

One of the more common types of suggestion that we receive is for new forums and sub-forums. And I can see why: we're an eclectic bunch of people with diverse interests, and everyone wants a place dedicated to their interests!

However, the majority of these suggestions for new forums end up being rejected. That's not because lots of people are having bad ideas: it's because I simply can't implement them all without creating an overly complicated mess of a board layout. Indeed, there are people who think - entirely reasonably - that we already have too many forums and sub-forums as it is! The last thing I want to do is to complicate the board layout even further by adding on even more forums and sub-forums - and therefore, any suggestions for new boards have to clear a high bar before being accepted.

In particular - it's important to consider the following:

1. Why your proposed new forum or sub-forum is needed.
   
   A lot of suggestions for new forums and sub-forums come with no real justification whatsoever, or perhaps just "I think this would be a nice idea", or "This would encourage more discussion of this subject that I'm interested in". However, as I said in the introductory paragraph, these suggestions have a high bar to clear - and thus, making these suggestions with no justification (or with minimal justification) simply isn't going to cut it, I'm afraid.
   
   When justifying why your proposed new forum or sub-forum is needed, a few things to think about are:
   
   
   • Whether the subject is already covered by an existing forum. Think about the topics that would go in your proposed new section. Where are these topics currently located? Do they look out of place there?
     
     
   • Whether topics about this subject are interfering with topics about different subjects (or vice versa). For example: suppose the topics that would go in your new section are currently in General Chat, because there's nowhere else where they can reasonably go. Are these topics currently clogging General Chat? Or, conversely: are the other topics in General Chat drowning these ones out - when they would stand a better chance of succeeding if they were located somewhere else?
     
     
   • Whether these are long-term issues. Perhaps there's been a lot of discussion about this subject lately. But, is this a long-term trend, or just a short-term spike? If it's just a short-term spike, then we shouldn't make a new section based on it - because that section will likely see very little activity once the current spike dies down, and everyone moves on to something else.
   
   
2. What overlaps will be created with existing sections.
   
   For example: consider a 'Shopping' board (which we used to have, but no longer do). Most of the things we buy on routine shopping trips are food, clothes, and other household products (all of which are covered under 'Health and Lifestyle' - and thus, that is where the 'Shopping' sub-forum used to be). But, we can buy other things in shops too - including books, games, and tech products. Would your new 'Shopping' section pull in threads about book shops, game stores, etc. (and thus pull them out of their current locations in Reading, The Gaming Table, and so on)?
   
   Of course, it's impossible to anticipate every possible overlap in advance - and there are always going to be edge-cases that straddle the boundary between one section and another. But it is helpful to 'show your working', and demonstrate that you've thought about these issues and tried to mitigate against them.
   
   
3. Which existing section(s) could be removed to make way for this.
   
   As I said in the introductory paragraph: our board layout is pretty extensive as it is, and if we start adding even more sections, then it'll just grow more and more complicated. So, in order to prevent this, I have adopted a "one in, one out" rule: whenever I add a new forum or sub-forum, I remove an existing one.
   
   It's helpful to think about which existing section you'd like us to remove. But this should give you an idea of why suggestions for new sections need to clear a high bar. In order to be accepted, a proposed new sub-forum doesn't just have to add value: it has to add more value than the existing section that would be removed in order to make way for it.
   
   
4. Why previous suggestions have been rejected.
   
   In our "List of Frequently-Proposed Suggestions", we have an entire point that's dedicated to proposals for new forums and sub-forums. In particular, suggested new sections have frequently been rejected in the past for being:
   
   
   • Small with no potential for growth (for example, a 'Christmas' forum would barely be used outside Christmas);
     
   • Doesn't fit in with the existing forum structure (e.g. a 'Reviews' forum would cause problems for the sections devoted to all the different things that can be reviewed);
     
   • Sub-forums of existing sub-forums (e.g. any new 'Pokémon' sub-forum would have to be a sub-sub-forum of 'Nintendo').

---

If you had a new forum or sub-forum idea that you were excited about - then, I'm sorry if this post has done anything to pour cold water over that. However, I also hope this helps you to maximise the chances of that idea being accepted!