Please give me some structure ideas

[robert]

I still haven't fully read the new long post about our direction. In time I'm sure I will get to it.

 

For a while I've been thinking of reducing the amount of forums we have. After all we have 32 sections! That is more than any other forum I've seen. The reason we had so many was to keep everything in very organized categories to make it easy to find what you were looking for. Lately I've heard that it makes it hard to find things because there are so many possible sections it could be in.

 

I've thought about doing away with the Yoga section and putting it with martial arts and maybe Endurance and Other Sports can go together.

 

I'm sure there is a way to combine Regional, Events, and Traveling sections.

 

And there are probably other categories that could just be removed, as we've done in the past.

 

Others are e-mailing requesting to add more categories such as Vegan Families or Vegan Kids, or something like that.

 

I know I went pretty general for a while. We went from a Vegan Bodybuilding forum 2-3 years ago to a General Vegan Forum over the past year with slight emphasis on Raw/Fitness/Portland/Meet-ups/Photos.

 

So what I'm asking for is some suggestions. I am very busy and I have major trust issues so I like to be in charge of making actual changes in the admin panel. The wrong click could delete longtime uses or potentially shut the site down, etc. and I'm just not ready for that yet. Maybe in due time.

 

I can make some changes if that is what the community wants. The forum section is just one aspect of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness. We organize events, sell products, have a main website, promote other companies and organizations, promote other athletes, etc. But the forum is one of the most popular things we offer, so I'm very open to listening and creating change.

 

I have to leave now, but if you reply, please give some solid suggestions like reformatting the site and lay it out for me such as:

 

Introductions

Blogs

Nutrition

Bodybuilding

Community Events

General Discussion

 

etc.

 

Show me what you'd like to see it look like and I'll see what I can do to make it appeal to most people.

 

I would like to reclaim the bodybuilding aspect of it, but I also know that as we focused on community building over the past year we have made a huge impact as well.

 

Any ideas?

[Daywalker]

Any ideas?

 

 

Rob, first of all, you're doing a great job!!!

 

Yet i agree that we have a lot of sub boards, too much really.

Remember that it will never be perfect, there will always be evolution that keeps us on our toes

 

Introductions

Blogs

Nutrition

Bodybuilding

Community Events

General Discussion

Looks good to me.

 

I'd call it "Community" and have the travelling, regional, photo and video boards there.

 

Have a "Bodybuilding & weight training" board and another for other sports, be it yoga, endurance or martial arts. We are a BB forum after all

 

Nutrition, Intros, General and Blogs are a must.

Add one more for the news and animal rights stuff.

 

Just my 2p

[veggieprincess]

Okay,

 

Here is my input:

 

Introductions

New Members introduce themselves

 

Blogs/Training Journals

(Should be the same thing. A place where we can follow somone's progress and they can also rant about their life all within their training journal and blog)

 

General Discussion

This should be the general area where EVERYTHING gets combined. A place we go to just discuss things Vegan or not. News, Articles, Recommended Reading, Animal Rights, School and Work Related Stress, Entertainment. These should all go in a General area

 

Diet & All Food Related Topics

Everything related to food. Nutritional Programs, Supplements, Raw, Etc

 

Recipes

I appreciate the recipes section and am always looking for great ways to prepare things so I think this should be seperated out.

 

Bodybuilding/Strength Training

Everything related to body building, training programs, getting strong, building muscle

 

General Fitness/Other Sports

Cycling, Marathons, Endurance Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, all other sports

 

 

Before/After Photos & Progress Photos

I like turning new people onto Veganism and this would be an area to really motivate new members! Could also be a Before/After Photo Section along with a "Success Stories" for people to talk about the positive ways that Veganism changed their life.

 

Events/Meetups

Regional, Local, etc. all in one

 

 

[Kon]

News & Announcements

for announcements of any sort, or news of events, meetups, etc..

most likely limited to thread creation only by the moderators/admin.

 

General Discussion

discuss anything related with veganism or vegan life.

also, an introduction thread in here(or in the life section, see below) can be used for posting introductions (we dont need seperate section & seperate threads for everyone. one thread will do fine).

 

Vegan Health & Nutrition

Foods, supplements, vitamins, etc

 

Vegan Kitchen

cooking, recipies, mealplans, etc

 

Beginner's Vegan Bodybuilding

questions, concerns, advice, game plans, support!

archived information or great posts people have made could be stored here as a resource for beginners.

 

Experienced/Advanced Bodybuilding

detailed bodybuilding discussion

Basically a section for the experienced to talk about beginner unfriendly things and also shed light on fresh concepts.

This section could attract more experience bodybuilders.

 

General Sports / Fitness & Training

Exercises, training journals, routines, etc

martial arts, yoga, running... etc..

 

Life & Community *unsure of this one

could contain the introduction thread here instead of general discussion.

could contain threads which are more personalized. like relationships etc, local issues.. personal blogs.. photos, videos..

 

Off-Topic

anything off-topic

anything which doesn't belong anywhere else could go in here or get moved here.[/b]

[veggieprincess]

Others are e-mailing requesting to add more categories such as Vegan Families or Vegan Kids, or something like that.

 

Please... no more categories... LOL

 

Actually, although I'm a mom, I think there aren't many people on here for kids and family related issues to warrant a category. It would be another section with crickets in the background.

[Tasha]

Okay,

 

Here is my input:

 

Introductions

New Members introduce themselves

 

Blogs/Training Journals

(Should be the same thing. A place where we can follow somone's progress and they can also rant about their life all within their training journal and blog)

 

General Discussion

This should be the general area where EVERYTHING gets combined. A place we go to just discuss things Vegan or not. News, Articles, Recommended Reading, Animal Rights, School and Work Related Stress, Entertainment. These should all go in a General area

 

Diet & All Food Related Topics

Everything related to food. Nutritional Programs, Supplements, Raw, Etc

 

Recipes

I appreciate the recipes section and am always looking for great ways to prepare things so I think this should be seperated out.

 

Bodybuilding/Strength Training

Everything related to body building, training programs, getting strong, building muscle

 

General Fitness/Other Sports

Cycling, Marathons, Endurance Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, all other sports

 

 

Before/After Photos & Progress Photos

I like turning new people onto Veganism and this would be an area to really motivate new members! Could also be a Before/After Photo Section along with a "Success Stories" for people to talk about the positive ways that Veganism changed their life.

 

Events/Meetups

Regional, Local, etc. all in one

 

I like these topics Veggieprincess

[Guest]

I agree that the endurance sports should maybe be thrown in with yoga and things. It makes sense since there aren't daily posts in that section...just occational things.

[xveganjoshx]

Okay,

 

Here is my input:

 

Introductions

New Members introduce themselves

 

Blogs/Training Journals

(Should be the same thing. A place where we can follow somone's progress and they can also rant about their life all within their training journal and blog)

 

General Discussion

This should be the general area where EVERYTHING gets combined. A place we go to just discuss things Vegan or not. News, Articles, Recommended Reading, Animal Rights, School and Work Related Stress, Entertainment. These should all go in a General area

 

Diet & All Food Related Topics

Everything related to food. Nutritional Programs, Supplements, Raw, Etc

 

Recipes

I appreciate the recipes section and am always looking for great ways to prepare things so I think this should be seperated out.

 

Bodybuilding/Strength Training

Everything related to body building, training programs, getting strong, building muscle

 

General Fitness/Other Sports

Cycling, Marathons, Endurance Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, all other sports

 

 

Before/After Photos & Progress Photos

I like turning new people onto Veganism and this would be an area to really motivate new members! Could also be a Before/After Photo Section along with a "Success Stories" for people to talk about the positive ways that Veganism changed their life.

 

Events/Meetups

Regional, Local, etc. all in one

 

I like these topics Veggieprincess

 

I second this!

[markc7]

Okay,

 

Here is my input:

 

Introductions

New Members introduce themselves

 

Blogs/Training Journals

(Should be the same thing. A place where we can follow somone's progress and they can also rant about their life all within their training journal and blog)

 

General Discussion

This should be the general area where EVERYTHING gets combined. A place we go to just discuss things Vegan or not. News, Articles, Recommended Reading, Animal Rights, School and Work Related Stress, Entertainment. These should all go in a General area

 

Diet & All Food Related Topics

Everything related to food. Nutritional Programs, Supplements, Raw, Etc

 

Recipes

I appreciate the recipes section and am always looking for great ways to prepare things so I think this should be seperated out.

 

Bodybuilding/Strength Training

Everything related to body building, training programs, getting strong, building muscle

 

General Fitness/Other Sports

Cycling, Marathons, Endurance Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, all other sports

 

 

Before/After Photos & Progress Photos

I like turning new people onto Veganism and this would be an area to really motivate new members! Could also be a Before/After Photo Section along with a "Success Stories" for people to talk about the positive ways that Veganism changed their life.

 

Events/Meetups

Regional, Local, etc. all in one

 

 

 

Wow, that was pretty much what I had in mind too! This structure has my vote.

[Zack]

Okay,

 

Here is my input:

 

Introductions

New Members introduce themselves

 

Blogs/Training Journals

(Should be the same thing. A place where we can follow somone's progress and they can also rant about their life all within their training journal and blog)

 

General Discussion

This should be the general area where EVERYTHING gets combined. A place we go to just discuss things Vegan or not. News, Articles, Recommended Reading, Animal Rights, School and Work Related Stress, Entertainment. These should all go in a General area

 

Diet & All Food Related Topics

Everything related to food. Nutritional Programs, Supplements, Raw, Etc

 

Recipes

I appreciate the recipes section and am always looking for great ways to prepare things so I think this should be seperated out.

 

Bodybuilding/Strength Training

Everything related to body building, training programs, getting strong, building muscle

 

General Fitness/Other Sports

Cycling, Marathons, Endurance Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, all other sports

 

 

Before/After Photos & Progress Photos

I like turning new people onto Veganism and this would be an area to really motivate new members! Could also be a Before/After Photo Section along with a "Success Stories" for people to talk about the positive ways that Veganism changed their life.

 

Events/Meetups

Regional, Local, etc. all in one

 

I like these topics Veggieprincess

 

I second this!

 

I third this!

[Veganitaliana]

Personally I like it the way it is, except that I would add even more subforums like vegan parenting etc. to attract an even broader user base. Sorry veggieprincess, I like compartmentalizing stuff.

[CollegeB]

I have no idea of how feasible this is but is there a way to just let the users come up with the forum sections themselves? It seems like a lot of people don't know exactly where their post fits in with the prescribed subforums. However, thats probably not the best idea since we'd probably just end up with something similar to now, and if you want to get away from what is now...

[robert]

Thanks for the feedback. I have lots of good ideas to think about. I'm very short on time, and at the moment time is very valuable..........but I will get to this soon and create a poll to allow people to vote and then we'll go ahead and make some changes.

 

I've been wanting to reduce the amount of categories for a while anyway. I also want to regain the Bodybuilding aspect of this forum, since it is part of www.veganbodybuilding.com and Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness. There are loads of general vegan forums out there and I guess I tried to go more mainstream vegan to attract more people from myspace and from different communities like Portland.

 

It worked for a while and we got a bunch of new members and for a time we were even getting 500 new posts a day! But it was all in the entertainment and general discussion sections and it didn't add much to the forum, other than more total posts, more friendships made, and more community building. Those are all good things, but I agree with many when they say we need to go back to the way we started and get more hardcore vegan athletes back on here and focus more on fitness.

 

Please give me a bit of time. I am listening and I am taking suggestions seriously.

 

I leave for Colorado in less than 48 hours and then I'm back on Monday and I'll be home for 11 days before heading out to the East Coast.

 

I'll continue to work on this, address concerns and listen to suggestions.

 

Thank you, and I believe we are making progress as a community.

[Richard]

I really think that the photos and videos sections should be kept, and not put into other sections. It's not really complicated to have a photos or videos section, nobody will be confused by that. Also I think they're really valuable, especially the photos section, as I think it really helps people to connect and share experiences.

 

What I would suggest:

 

Introductions

 

Blogs

 

Training Journals

 

Nutrition and Health

This would merge Health & Fitness Programs, Raw Food, Vitamins, Women's Health and Men's Health.

 

Recipes

This would merge Vegan Recipes and any recipes from Raw Food

 

Beginners Bodybuilding Questions

 

Just an idea for the bodybuilding sections, perhaps they could be split up like:

 

Bodybuilding: Bulking

 

Bodybuilding: Cutting

 

General Fitness

 

How does that sound? That way it would be more focussed, but also it's clearer where you're meant to post certain topics.

 

Sports, Martial Arts and Yoga

Merges all Other Sports

 

Vegan Lifestyle and Animal Rights

Merges Animal Rights, Vegan Lifestyle, News

 

Photos / Videos

 

Relationships

 

General Discussion

Merges General Discussion, Entertainment and possibly Events

 

I think the Community and Events section can stay as it is, but maybe merge Regional with Meet-ups?

 

I think that the way the forum is right now is fine, I don't see a big problem. But I do think that men / women's health was never necessary, and could easily be merged with general health. Also with vitamins and minerals, that's all the same sort of thing. The only other thing I always found confusing was the "Fitness & Training" and "General Bodybuilding"; I never understand what is meant to go where, so what I suggested would clear that up I think.

[DV]

I like the above restructuring ideas. Veggieprincess also had good ideas.

[dontxhide]

Just a thought. Merging the Raw Food section into a general Nutrition and Food section isnt a very good idea. We see how many people have debates, sometimes leading to a form of verbal abuse recently over raw foods.

 

Wouldnt have a Raw Food section with other Nutrition sections make this even worse? At least when It has its own forum the people who want to stay away from it can.

[xveganjoshx]

Just a thought. Merging the Raw Food section into a general Nutrition and Food section isnt a very good idea. We see how many people have debates, sometimes leading to a form of verbal abuse recently over raw foods.

 

Wouldnt have a Raw Food section with other Nutrition sections make this even worse? At least when It has its own forum the people who want to stay away from it can.

 

I basically really like veggieprincess' idea, but you make a good point. The only thing I would change from veggieprincess' idea, if we were to keep the raw forum here and seperate, would be to do something like general nutrition and then raw nutrition as two seperate parts. Everything else would be great the same way veggieprincess wrote IMO.

 

And really, there are WAY too many subforums.

[Zack]

General nutrition and Raw nutrition is a good idea.

[robert]

Thanks for all the input. I'm flying out to Denver in the morning but when I get back on Monday I'll re-evaluate things, create some polls, or simply just make a few changes, based on what people are requesting/suggesting.

 

Please don't complain too much about future changes. Everyone has an opporunity to speak up now, had an opporunity all last week and still have an opportunity over the next 4 days or more.

 

Thanks again for your input. I'm glad people care enough about this online community to express concerns, gratitude and other feelings toward our group.

[xveganjoshx]

 

Please don't complain too much about future changes. Everyone has an opporunity to speak up now, had an opporunity all last week and still have an opportunity over the next 4 days or more.

 

LOL yeah sorry about that Robert. I know this wasn't necessarily the best approach for constructive advice. It was a culmination of a lot of things and some feelings from several different camps. But hopefully we can have better, open and honest communication in the future to avoid some of the nastiness (I include myself in this too). Hopefully at least some good changes can come out of this situation.

 

Thanks for having this site. It really is awesome, and that people get so worked up about it is a testament to it's influence and importance in our lives. I think we all want this place to be the best it can be. Sometimes we just get into misunderstandings on exactly what that means.

 

Thanks Robert Cheeke: ()

[flanders77]

Thanks Robert Cheeke: ()

I second this soooooo much!

 

Back to the structure here is my idea of what it should look like (I used veggieprincess ideas as a basis) but changed the order (which I think is very important) and added pics/video and the idea of keeping a seperate rawfood-section (and I am very happy that I agree with josh on this one finally!):

 

1. Introductions

New Members introduce themselves

 

2. Training Section

 

2.1 Bodybuilding/Strength Training

Everything related to body building, training programs, getting strong, building muscle

 

2.2 General Fitness/Other Sports

Cycling, Marathons, Endurance Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, all other sports

 

2.3 Blogs/Training Journals

(Should be the same thing. A place where we can follow somone's progress and they can also rant about their life all within their training journal and blog)

 

2.4 Before/After Photos & Progress Photos

I like turning new people onto Veganism and this would be an area to really motivate new members! Could also be a Before/After Photo Section along with a "Success Stories" for people to talk about the positive ways that Veganism changed their life.

 

3. Nutrition and Recipes

 

3.1 General Nutrition

Everything related to food. Nutritional Programs, Supplements etc.

 

3.2 Raw Nutrition & Lifestyle

The title says it all.

 

3.3 Recipes

I appreciate the recipes section and am always looking for great ways to prepare things so I think this should be seperated out.

 

4. General

 

4.1 General Discussion

This should be the general area where EVERYTHING gets combined. A place we go to just discuss things Vegan or not. News, Articles, Recommended Reading, Animal Rights, School and Work Related Stress, Entertainment. These should all go in a General area

 

4.2 Events/Meetups/Gatherings

Regional, Local, etc. all in one

 

4.3 Photos and Video Section

 

 

This would be 11 sections in 4 main sections. By putting training right after intros we show what the forum focuses on.

[Zack]

Flanders' idea is awesome, good order too.

[robert]

Things are really coming together.

 

Thanks!

 

-Robert

[Zack]

I'm glad we finally discussed it as a community and didn't hold things in anymore...

[hsorlando]

Everyone has great ideas. I also like what veggieprincess came up with. I agree with Robert about getting back to the fitness part of it. The whole reason I joined was because of the bodybuilding/fitness aspect. There are a lot of other vegan/vegetarian sites, but this site for me deals more with peoples fitness, nutrition goals, and its all vegan related.