Announcing: Forum Reorganization

[Amy]

Those of you who spend a lot of time at Crochetville have probably noticed today that the furniture has been moved around a bit! As Crochetville has grown, we've added all sorts of new forums (folders) as the need has arisen. While things were added where they made sense at the time, as the forum grew, things became a bit disorganized over time.

 

Donna and I have spent some time over the past few days thinking about how best to organize the forum. We thought about which forums covered similar topics and tried to organize all those things together.

 

We also tried to organize the main categories of the forum in an order that seems to be of most importance to those visiting the forum. We tried to take into account both registered members and non-registered visitors, placing the most frequently accessed areas toward the top of our main forum page.

 

You may want to spend a few minutes looking at the main page of Crochetville to get a feel for how we've organized things. Hopefully, our reorganization will make sense to most of you after you're more familiar with the changes. There will always be some who prefer a different way method of organization, but we hope this will meet the needs of most people.

 

If you don't understand why something is in a particular place, feel free to ask.

[RachelG]

Yes, I definitely noticed! It will take some getting used to (I usually one visit five or so sections and right now I keep missing them because everything is all changed around) but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

[Crochet_Gram]

I like almost all of the changes. The only one that really bugs me and seems to not make sense is the placement of the Other Crochet thread. Now I am sure there is a reason for the placement, but I have been trying to figure it out and it is driving me nuts. Not to mention tat with my limited time, that is the one thread I visit almost daily even if I don't have time to go any where else and I am having a heck of a time finding it every day. Of course that may just be Old Timers setting in and not related to the reorganization at all. Anyway, just my two cents.

 

 

Those of you who spend a lot of time at Crochetville have probably noticed today that the furniture has been moved around a bit! As Crochetville has grown, we've added all sorts of new forums (folders) as the need has arisen. While things were added where they made sense at the time, as the forum grew, things became a bit disorganized over time.

 

Donna and I have spent some time over the past few days thinking about how best to organize the forum. We thought about which forums covered similar topics and tried to organize all those things together.

 

We also tried to organize the main categories of the forum in an order that seems to be of most importance to those visiting the forum. We tried to take into account both registered members and non-registered visitors, placing the most frequently accessed areas toward the top of our main forum page.

 

You may want to spend a few minutes looking at the main page of Crochetville to get a feel for how we've organized things. Hopefully, our reorganization will make sense to most of you after you're more familiar with the changes. There will always be some who prefer a different way method of organization, but we hope this will meet the needs of most people.

 

If you don't understand why something is in a particular place, feel free to ask.

[Amy]

Do you think "Other Crochet Topics" would be a better fit someplace else? To us, it seemed to best fit under Special Crochet and Fiber Techniques, where it could cover anything related to crochet that the other forums didn't cover.

 

It didn't really seem to fit under any of the other categories: Online Classes, Patterns, Show and Tell, Crochet Help, Crochet Activities, In the Media, Shopping Strip, Crochet Business Center, Recycling Center, or Off-Topic.

 

Please let us know if you think it fits better in one of the other categories (and why you think it fits better there). Members may see things from another perspective that we haven't considered yet.

[Amy]

Crochet Gram, I forgot to mention that if you continue to have a hard time finding "Other Crochet Topics," you could just add it as a bookmark in your browser. I use Firefox, and I can even pull a URL down into a nav bar at the top of my screen that puts a direct link to the page right there. Then I just click on that link any time I want to go to that page, without having to find the bookmark in my list of bookmarks.

[tiffer93]

I noticed the change yesterday morning and at first thought I had hit a strange key on my keyboard. After refreshing I realized it wasn't me and I'm liking the way things are now. Great job on the topic placements!

[Empress Busy Bee]

Yup I've been noticing the changes too. And thank you.

I never thought Other Crochet Talk belonged where it was. I didn't care for where you moved it yesteday either. Love it where it is now.

I think I like where everything is now. It makes more sense.

 

The only change I can think of is I would merge the child board Off Topic Q&A with Off Topic Talk. It just seems redundant to have it and the same type of things get posted in both sections.

[Simply.Crochet]

I noticed the change and I like, I thought I was finding things a lot faster this morning, so thanks!!!!!!!

[Amy]

We agree that "Other Crochet Topics" wasn't a very good fit for "Special Crochet and Fiber Techniques." It fit in the original name for that category, but we changed the category name and it was no longer as good a fit.

 

So, we've created a new category called "Crochet Talk." We've moved "Other Crochet Topics" over there, plus "Get to Know You: Crochet Q&A."

 

We've also moved that category so it's fairly high in the category listings on our main page, to help make it easier for people to find.

 

We hope these changes make a bit more sense to people!

[FrLopLady]

I just come in and go for new posts...so I haven't really noticed!! but will go look

[Crochet_Gram]

Amy thanks so much for your suggestions and hard work. Thanks also for being so responsive to all of us here at the 'ville. I like today's change much better and agree that "Crochet Talk" is a great heading.

 

We agree that "Other Crochet Topics" wasn't a very good fit for "Special Crochet and Fiber Techniques." It fit in the original name for that category, but we changed the category name and it was no longer as good a fit.

 

So, we've created a new category called "Crochet Talk." We've moved "Other Crochet Topics" over there, plus "Get to Know You: Crochet Q&A."

 

We've also moved that category so it's fairly high in the category listings on our main page, to help make it easier for people to find.

 

We hope these changes make a bit more sense to people!

[magiccrochetfan]

I usually do the new posts thing. but I do like the reorganization. things seem to be arranged very logically, with board announcements and the like in a prominent place. Crochet Talk is a great category

 

thanks Amy and Donna for all you do:cheer

[rascalsmom]

I think the reorganization is great. Thanks for all you do for us.

[mamabear10]

Wow! You weren't joking about reorganizing! Looks much better. I usually just check new posts because I had found the old organization system too broad. This is a huge huge improvement. I'll probably still mainly use the 'new posts' function mostly, but when I need something more specific, the new look will help immensely.Thank you for all your hard work. :cheer:hug

[Amy]

Wow! You weren't joking about reorganizing! Looks much better. I usually just check new posts because I had found the old organization system too broad. This is a huge huge improvement. I'll probably still mainly use the 'new posts' function mostly, but when I need something more specific, the new look will help immensely.Thank you for all your hard work. :cheer:hug

 

It's amazing how much just moving things around and regrouping really helps the organization, isn't it? We didn't really get rid of anything except for merging two Q&A forums into one, but it somehow looks a lot more streamlined.

 

I'm glad most people think the new organization will be helpful, at least once you're used to where to find everything now. We're probably all going to be hunting for things in their old places for a little while, including Donna and me!

[mamabear10]

Isn't there an organized listing of all the patterns that have been posted here? I remember stumbling on it a few times and wish I'd bookmarked it. The logical place would seem to be in the sections for Free Patterns, but I didn't see it.

[Amy]

Isn't there an organized listing of all the patterns that have been posted here? I remember stumbling on it a few times and wish I'd bookmarked it. The logical place would seem to be in the sections for Free Patterns, but I didn't see it.

 

I don't remember ever seeing this. I certainly haven't put something like that together. It would take regular maintenance to get new things added.

 

We do have a pattern directory of all the patterns posted by Dot Matthews, AKA patbythehook. Her patterns are hosted on her blog, but the photos weren't showing because her photobucket account was inactive. Dot graciously allowed us to host her patterns here, complete with photos, to make it easy for people to find the complete patterns. Because her patterns are so popular and there are so many of them, we have a sticky thread that serves as a directory of links to all her patterns here at Crochetville.

[Donna]

Isn't there an organized listing of all the patterns that have been posted here? I remember stumbling on it a few times and wish I'd bookmarked it. The logical place would seem to be in the sections for Free Patterns, but I didn't see it.

 

I don't remember ever seeing this. I certainly haven't put something like that together. It would take regular maintenance to get new things added.

 

Yes, unfortunately there is no way for us to create such a list automatically with the forum software. We've had this request a few times, though!

[mamabear10]

I don't remember ever seeing this. I certainly haven't put something like that together. It would take regular maintenance to get new things added.

 

We do have a pattern directory of all the patterns posted by Dot Matthews, AKA patbythehook. Her patterns are hosted on her blog, but the photos weren't showing because her photobucket account was inactive. Dot graciously allowed us to host her patterns here, complete with photos, to make it easy for people to find the complete patterns. Because her patterns are so popular and there are so many of them, we have a sticky thread that serves as a directory of links to all her patterns here at Crochetville.

 

 

Hmm..it would help if I had the link to show you what I'm talking about, wouldn't it?

 

I'm glad to see Dot's patterns here.. they're wonderful. Besides being beautiful, they're easy to follow. Can't ask for more than that!

[Amy]

Hmm..it would help if I had the link to show you what I'm talking about, wouldn't it?

 

I'm glad to see Dot's patterns here.. they're wonderful. Besides being beautiful, they're easy to follow. Can't ask for more than that!

 

It's possible a member put together a directory at some point in time. However, I've searched the forum and haven't run across such a directory yet.

 

If a member wanted to volunteer to create such a directory, that would be fine by us. But right now there are 1,094 patterns posted here, so it would take quite a lot of effort to get those all categorized. It would also be difficult to keep up with new threads as they were posted. I have a feeling it's more work than anybody would want to take on!

[mamabear10]

It has been a good while since I saw this list. I don't recall it being linked from the main directory...it all blurs, so maybe I'm confused. I know it was here at some point(hard to miss the blue crocheted backdrop) and I think it was listed by project type, similar to crochet pattern central, but limited to patterns posted here. I think the search function here works well for helping us find specific projects or patterns.

[Amy]

It has been a good while since I saw this list. I don't recall it being linked from the main directory...it all blurs, so maybe I'm confused. I know it was here at some point(hard to miss the blue crocheted backdrop) and I think it was listed by project type, similar to crochet pattern central, but limited to patterns posted here. I think the search function here works well for helping us find specific projects or patterns.

 

 

Hmmm, the only thing like this that I know of is the pattern directory I created for Dot's patterns.

[mamabear10]

I think it DID look somewhat like your DM Directory. The main difference was I found it by pure accident at the time. I just now tried to recreate my process by doing an advanced search, focused on the Free Pattern section, but did not find it. If I stumble on it again, I'll be sure to show it to you! Maybe it was just a Twighlight Zone moment...you really HAD to be there:think

[grandmalolly]

Is this it? http://www.crochetville.org/forum/archive/index.php/f-29-p-5.html

[mamabear10]

Is this it?

 

http://www.crochetville.org/forum/archive/index.php/f-29-p-5.html

 

 

Eureka!:cheer

Grandmalloly gets the golden hook award:hook

 

Glad to see I'm not crazy yet!