Thematic organisation

[Cheesus]

Hi

I think the board could perhaps follow a simpler design which makes it easier to post where you think your topic should go. Most importantly, however, for the purposes of growth and increased discussion, I think it would be a good decision to have fewer boards with broader topics so that people can more easily browse their areas of interest. Hopefully that would mean more threads would be seen, more would be replied to, and more people would sign up.

At the moment it's often not clear where you should post certain threads, and some sections appear a little redundant. For instance, the distinction between beginner, experienced and long-term seems a little fallacious, with experienced falling way behind in number of threads followed closely by long-term. Then appears beneath another board 'mindfulness questions'. It is not clear here where topics should be posted. These other 3 boards are browsed less and thus have less discussion.

Then comes mindfulness resources. I don't think the distinction needs to be drawn between different types of resources. Again, this makes browsing the forum more laborious and decreases the likelihood someone will stumble on something of particular interest to them.

For example, the board index could look roughly like this:

Mindfulness forum

1. Mindfulness Practice - A place to post questions or discussions specifically about practice

2. Mindful living - A board for discussion of mindfulness off the cushion and in daily life. A place to discuss how practice can be put to action.

3. Mindfulness and Me - Please post your mindfulness stories here and your story will also feature on our blog. We want to create a library of mindful journeys and experiences.

4. Mindfulness resources Got an interesting book or article you want to discuss? Talk about it here.

General discussion

1. Inspiration place - A place to post poetry, music, literature or anything else that you'd like to share

2. The Lounge - Want to discuss the football, moan about the weather, share a particularly nice recipe you've come across? Post it here.

3. Introductions - New to the forum? Drop by and say hello.

4. Feedback - Got any suggestions for the site? etc.

5. Announcements - Keep up to date with forum news

Obviously this is just an example and it would require work and discussion in order to refine it. However, I think it would help the forum to mature and hopefully get a few more people posting regularly.

What do you guys think?

[Gareth]

Fee, Jon and I will be having a discussion this weekend about exactly these issues. There will be a reorganisation of the forum happening very soon. I agree with the sentiment that less is more - much like mindfulness really.

[Cheesus]

A very timely thread, then!

[FeeHutch]

Timely indeed, thanks for your thoughts Cheesus
The boards as they stand have evolved over the last year or so based on suggestions from users and I think they will continue to do so until we find the way that feels like it fits

I am very keen to try a Lounge type board. I think we did have something similar to start with as I hoped it might encourage more bonding (for want of a better word) but it was under used. We are growing all the time though so trying something once doesn't preclude it from being tried again
Gareth, Jon and I will indeed be meeting to discus this among other things soon hopefully. Right now Jon is in Detroit and the next couple of weeks are very busy for me. I have more hospital visits for one daughter, the birthday of the other (and mine) and hopefully my college results will be through soon too. So if changes seem a little slow coming please be assured we are taking on everyone's feedback and suggestions.

[Cheesus]

Sounds great, Fee I look forward to whatever you guys agree upon.

Just as another thought, on a very successful and widely used anxiety forum I post on they put the general stuff above the anxiety stuff. So the announcements, lounge etc. is right at the top of the forum. So even if you don't click on it, you can see if there is new activity. It might encourage the lounge a bit as there is a danger that if the mindfulness stuff is at the top no one will ever scroll down the page.

[JonW]

I'm back from Detroit in one piece. Great city. Well worth a visit. Make sure you do the Motown Studio tour. You get to belt out My Girl in the hallowed room where Smokey, Marvin et al banged out all those delicious hits.