Change application type question

[vinmansbrew]

Is there a way to get more info on this, maybe screen shots that show the differences?
I have a current forum I want to expand, and I have it set to Mixed. I am not sure if that is the best way to do it though.

[GregChapman]

What do you mean by "expand"?
Post more topics?
Add more sub-Forums?
Show more than the default 6 posts in each Mixed sub-forum?
Something else?

Board, Category, Mixed, etc all present your forum data in different ways. It's easiest to try each in turn to see which works best for you -  You will need a reasonable number of posts in any sub-forum to see the effect each has.

[vinmansbrew]

Well, it is a motorcycle forum, and we basically focused on 1 model. Now we want to expand it. Certain sections are generic, such as repair tips or member bikes. However, it wouldn't work very well to have questions for all the bike in 1 area. so I want to, I think, create a new parent and put sub section under it for each model.
So it kinda looks like this: http://v4musclebike.com/forums/index.php

[GregChapman]

Unfortunately, Nabble cannot replicate the format of the Muscle Bike forum.

As you have discovered, its "Mixed" format will divide the forum into a number of sections showing the Subjects of the topics and Titles of Sub-forums, within each sub-forum.

Its "Category" format will show a set of sub-forums with their descriptions, in a similar fashion to the Muscle Bike forum, but you cannot combine those two features such that you get the segmented format of the "Mixed" format with the sub-forum descriptions of any sub-forums.

If you look at one of my forums at:
http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/forum.php
you find a "Mixed" format forum, that includes a "My Boat" sub-forum, this is in "Category" format, but you don't see the sub-forum descriptions until you enter that sub-forum.

If the presentation of the sub-forum descriptions is more important to you than the segmented format of the "Mixed" format, then you have no choice but to select "Category" (or possibly "Board") as your top level format and forego the segmentation that "Mixed" provides.

Hope that helps!

[vinmansbrew]

Hmm, so I am kinda tied, plus since it has been in the mixed format for a while, no saying what will happen if I change the format. Do you know of any examples of how the different formats look?

[GregChapman]

It really is best try try it for yourself with your particular content and customisations. It takes but a moment to go to:

Options > Application > Change application type

select a new type, take a look at the effect and, if you don't like it, change it back.

Don't forget that all sub-forums default to the "Forum" type, but these can be changed to a different application type too.

Just play!

If traffic on your forum is so heavy that it would confuse users while you were exploring the effect of the various options, then create another forum as a testbed, fill it full of dummy content, and play with that. You can always delete a test form once it has served its purpose via:

Options > Delete

[vinmansbrew]

I thought about doing a test forum. I was just wondering if there were screen shots before I did that. Thanks!

[GregChapman]

I'm afraid the only Board or Category forums that I maintain are run for clients and are hidden behind Login screens.

I do have a couple of highly customised "News" apps. There's an example at:
http://www.gregafloat.org.uk/blog/index.html
(Sadly, I've had no time to add entries recently!)