Direction of board

Victor

I'm wondering what direction the users of this board would like to see it go. There is no resident moderator to do housekeeping (WhiteWashMan is a Category Mod)

I've noticed some distinct types of thread.
Gardening
Household repairs
DIY
Issues with neighbours
Planning Permission
Self Build
House extensions
Recommend a contractor
How long is a string?
Plumbing / electrical

I have set up a similar thread here on Accommodation / Property as it has some overlaps: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=51418084#post51418084

Litcagral

It might be useful to divide it into:

1. DIY
2. Building/Construction
3. Gardening






(1000th post )

The Hill Billy

I'll second that.

Reyman

It's a bit difficult to separate out DIY from Building / plumbing etc. because the knowledgable guys are all going to be on the serious pages - they won't be interested in the DIY.

So maybe it will be hard to get any useful advice on DIY - a case of the blind leading the blind.

crosstownk

Litcagral wrote:

It might be useful to divide it into:

1. DIY
2. Building/Construction
3. Gardening






(1000th post )

Congrats!

I think these 3 categories would suffice. Too many sub-categories would probably complicate things a little and would probably also result in the individual forums being 'quiet'. But currently the Gardening/DIY is quite varied.

delly

There are not many sections of boards that I would go to randomly just to check what’s being posted, but Gardening/DIY is one of them.

There is not that many posts relating to gardening itself and most of the time it’s related to drainage or laying roll down turf. I feel that it would not necessarily need its own section. (As a side note to this, I have been doing a drainage project in my garden for the last year and am nearing completion. I was going to make a post on the whole thing from start to finish and hopefully get a mod to sticky it, would WWM still be the man to ask?)

The DIY aspect comes up all the time and can relate to building, heating, plumbing, electrics and lengths of string. Its not that often where a topic comes up that would not be appropriate for this forum.

Issues with neighbours and other legal questions could possibly be covered under the legal forum, but you’d have to check with Hull what would be acceptable over there. In relation to planning applications, although they can be answered here, if you had an architecture forum, that would be the place to put them, but I don’t think it exists afaik.

I think regardless of what changes are made, I would hope that the dynamic of the forum would remain the same, as there is a lot of useful information floating around and a good sense of helpfulness.

Alun

OK, a dissenting voice here ... I think it's fine as it is.

The problem with sub-categorizing further is that you can bet your bottom dollar that 50% of all questions will then start with "I didn't know which section to ask this in, so I'll try all three ...", and quite possibly legitimately so. By doing this, you narrow the number of people who may potentially see the question and be able to answer. Example: I have absolutely zero interest in Gardening, so if there was a separate sub-forum, I'd almost certainly ignore it, but having said that, I, like many others here, have amassed a certain amount of knowledge / experience in it out of necessity, so may well be able to answer questions related to Gardening.

Reyman

The problem with separating out Gardening is that it's a seasonal activity.

There'll be no posts at all from October to March

Saruman

Thats not true.. your garden still needs looking after at any time of the year.. just less so in winter.
I agree with Litcagral though maybe diy and construction and be the same thing.

Carb

Athough the title gardening/DIY title wouldn't indicate it, this forum has also become the place to discuss, home furnishings, doors, floors, kitchen appliances, 3 piece suites etc. Perhaps a sub-forum for interiors/appliances might be a good idea. When I think of wooden floors, I'd think DIY, as I'd want to do it myself, where as a lot of people, wouldn't even associate buying a floor with DIY.

Firewalkwithme

I agree in that I don't think there is any need for separate categories.

The forum isn't so busy that it really needs to be split up and once a moderator is in place, any threads that would be better placed in the Legal forum for example, can be moved there with little fuss required.

squire1

What Alun said. The forum thrives because of the amount of people viewing it and giving their advice or experience. By diluting the forum you will dilute the field of knowledge available.

Firewalkwithme

Carb wrote:

Athough the title gardening/DIY title wouldn't indicate it, this forum has also become the place to discuss, home furnishings, doors, floors, kitchen appliances, 3 piece suites etc. Perhaps a sub-forum for interiors/appliances might be a good idea. When I think of wooden floors, I'd think DIY, as I'd want to do it myself, where as a lot of people, wouldn't even associate buying a floor with DIY.

Perhaps the forum title should be altered to include Home Improvements as an umbrella title? That should cover pretty much everything without the need for creating a new forum?

rok

I agree - leave the forum as it is, I like the diversity

Soledad

Leave it as it is, there are already far too many sub forums on boards without creating more.

morgana

I agree, leave the forum as is and rather rename it (home building and improvments for instance to include alll the self-buiders around) to emcompass all what goes on here. This is one of the most interesting forums around and attractive due to the amount of knowedge and expertise shared so freely by those who possess it.

Borzoi

Victor wrote:

How long is a string?

About so long.

TBH I don't think there's much need to split the board yet - though the way it's grown over the last year has ben great. But a few stickies, esp now that search is out of action would be good. There are a few pereials like wood floors, self building and UHF that a good sticky would avoid alot of reposting

Occidental

I'd prefer to see it left as is.

There's a good cross section of people (gardeners, DIYer's, self build, professionals) and you're always likely to get the information you're after. It's also great to browse as there's always something interesting to read. Fragmenting the board would make it loose much of it's interest and probably much of it's usefulness.

Gandhi

Another vote for leaving it as it is.

Part of the appeal of this forum is that a thread titled "Hardwood Floors" could be anything from:
"What should the maid use to get the caviare stains off the dining room floor?"
to
"Putting in a hardwood floor with my bare hands. As we all know, saws are for girls. Back teeth or front teeth better to trim the edges?"

FrankGrimes

Another vote for leaving it as it is, with possibly only some minor changes.

A 'Furniture and Appliances' sub forum might be good for grouping together all the 'which brand is best for cookers' questions etc and maybe a separate gardening sub-forum. But I think separating out into tiling, plumbing etc, forums with a separate DIY forum would be disastrous.

The main forum should be left as is and will deal with pretty much anything to do with building, home improvements, or DIY - but I do feel that if it aint broke don't fix it. This is for me the best forum on boards.ie and I don't come across many problem threads.

Pataman

I also agree to leaving it as it is. We have one title(well ok two) but you get a great diversity of questions and knowledge being spread around. "Leave well enough alone" as my mammy says, and she knows everything!

Alun

If you really, really want to change the name only, then on Askaboutmoney.com they have a similar forum called "Homes and Gardens". I think that maybe encapsulates what we're about here better than the current title, maybe?

Dilbert75

I was going to suggest something similar - maybe House & Home? But like the other posters say, its nice and diverse as it is. Its not so busy that you have to trawl through endless posts on cushion choices or varieties of decorative grass before you get to the meaty demolishin' & buildin' stuff (or vice versa if that's what floats your boat). Leave structure as-is, maybe change forum name is my vote.

Dub13

Leave it as it is would be good with me.

chuckles30

I also say leave it as it is - I have found out some very useful bits of info on this forum quiet by accident. If it was split I may not go into each sub group and might miss out. As a first home owner, I've found this forum to be a brilliant help.

muffler

I find this a great place for day to day issues concerning house and garden, mostly house mind you. There is a wealth of information here and i think I will join in with the majority and suggest that it stays as is.

"If its not broke dont fix it" would be a fairly appropriate saying

byte

I also vote to leave the board as it is.

rooferPete

Hi,

I also say leave it as it is, some topics do come up a few times but look at the variety of answers given, different people posting with their own experiences thats fine by me even at this crazy hour.

I wouldn't be inclined to call in before switching off the computer if I had to look through different forums.

.

hullaballoo

delly wrote:

Issues with neighbours and other legal questions could possibly be covered under the legal forum, but you’d have to check with Hull what would be acceptable over there. In relation to planning applications, although they can be answered here, if you had an architecture forum, that would be the place to put them, but I don’t think it exists afaik.

Any legal issues at all can be discussed in the Legal Discussion forum - what's important is how the question is framed. The best thing to do if you have a legal question, is to say "I acknowledge that information given on this forum is not legal advice and I will not rely on it as such."

That way you'll cover yourself either way.

Oh, and by the way, planning permission regulations etc would be ideal for the LD forum too.

Macy

Another vote for leave as is. I don't think the volume is there to split off into sub forums. At the moment, even coming into the height of Gardening season, there is exactly loads of posts.

To echo other comments, I like it as a one stop shop where you can get advice and titbits of information of a wide variety of experts/people with experience.

De_man

as the saying goes "if it's ain't broke don't fix it"

i reckon leave it as is





a pint of plain is yer only man

fobs

i would second the idea of renaming it to home and Garden but not to bother with the sub-sections. Relatively new to this forum but find sub-sections confusing in general....

eddiej

I afraid another vote to leave the forum alone its great the wide mix of stuff here a real almanac of info strongly agree with anti-diy forum would surely loose the likes of Saint RooferPete and Sir Kadman but to name a few other stalworts with great info.

No no leave alone sure be gora its like Mickey's habidashary on the web

Desmo

Litcagral wrote:

It might be useful to divide it into:

1. DIY
2. Building/Construction
3. Gardening

(1000th post )

I vote to separate out gardening into a different board.
As it is now, this is basically a building and DIY board and as such it is excellent; it is active and busy and there are some very good posters.

I am interested in gardening and there is more or less no point in asking anything here or posting anything on gardening as it gets lost/hidden/drowned out very fast. There really is almost no connection between DIY and building on the one hand and gardening on the other apart from how to lay paving etc. That is an interesting connection and those sorts of hard landscaping questions can still be asked on a DIY board but most gardening questions are about plants (flowers and begetables etc.; those green things that you just parked a skip on).

Desmo

cuckoo

It was mentioned upthread and i liked the idea - an appliance sub forum. That, and a gardening forum as the green fingered threads tend to be lost amid the DIY here.

I don't think having a seperate place to discuss growing greenbeans and the relative merits of different brands of dishwashers will detract from the successful mix of this forum.

TempestSabre

I vote for leaving it as is. I like seeing all the posts aswell.

Dunno whats with the urge to have so many sub forums on boards.