With the addition of some new forums recently, I think the time is ripe to reorganize the current forum layout. The pupose of such re-design would be to allow users to more easily find the information they are looking for. Here's how the forum topics are currently distributed under the forum headings:

Silent PC Discussions
-SPCR Announcements
-Article Discussion
-Newcomers Briefing Room
-General Discussion
-Cases & Damping
-Power Supplies
-Cooling
-Fans & Control
-Storage
-Deals, Vendors & Classifieds
-SPCR's [email protected]
-Off Topic

SPCR Gallery
-General Gallery

Site Feedback
-Site Feedback
-Test Forum

I think a good redesign would look something like the following:

Silent PC Discussions
-Newcomers Briefing Room (could go in Community)
-General Discussion
-Cases & Damping
-Power Supplies
-Cooling
-Fans & Control
-Storage
-Deals, Vendors & Classifieds

SPCR Community
-Article Discussion (could go in Discussions)
-General Gallery
-SPCR's [email protected]
-Off Topic

Site Information
-SPCR Announcements (only 10 messages ever, so keep it down below)
-Site Feedback
-Test Forum

Other suggestions for how to group topics would be appreciated.

Justin_R,

I think your new layout looks great. I like the Newcomer's area at the top.

Chris

This is something I have meaning to look at, its on my long, long list. I appreciate your initiative and agree with many of the suggestions.

I agree too. So much that I made the changes already

I like your topic layout, Justin. It'll take a bit of getting used to for folks that are used to the current layout but hey..... Change is good

The only change I would make to your proposal would be to put the "Article Discussion" under the Silent PC Discussion heading.

Thanks for the time you spent thinking this thru.

Good ideas Justin_R.

Here's my $.02:

Group: Newcomers, Article and General Discussion under one heading such as the proposed Silent PC Discussions
Group: A Components section (maybe a subheading to the Discussions group--that would add a layer to the outline which I guess is a bad idea, but I don't have a top-of-my-head idea for a heading and logically I see the components section falling under the Discussion group)
Move: Deal, Vendors & Classifieds to SPCR Community (rename to Deals and Classifieds since the vendors tend to wander around whatever forum is specific to their wares anyway???)

And just because of the ways categories work in my brain [fizzling out light bulb]...I'd move the PSU forum down the list resulting in the order Cases&Damping--Cooling--Fans&C--PSU--Storage.

Just some thoughts. Please kick them around, improve upon them, and reject them as need be.

possible new sections:
components or 'video cards' section comes to mind as there have been many discussions about video in the general forum.
same for 'motherboards'
watercooling?
case modding?

Wow, how's that for responsive Admins?

Somebody makes a suggestion that the entire forums be reorganized and in less than an hour...Poof! It's done.

I love this place.

I do think a section for video is a good idea, maybe motherboards, but so much of a motherboard dicussion overlaps with other components, like heatsinks.

I don't know if we have the critical mass needed for a watercooling section yet. We have maybe 10-20 members who've ever used it.

Wouldn't case modding go under the general cases category? It would seem nit-picky to me to have a category for Cases-Unmodded, and Cases-Modded.

ah yes, i forgot we had a case section for a moment... i think i'm spending too much time here, i'm getting drunk.

On the other hand, a water-cooling forum would give a dedicated space to those who are interested and help those who are not to avoid having to step over the water cooling threads in the cooling or general discussion section. Maybe divide cooling into Air and Water (or maybe even a third section for Passive Cooling). rambling....

Wow. That was quick. [gush]This forum is so great.[/gush]

Lasted longer than a quiet hardrive poll