** Board Structure ** Phase 3 - 17th December

[Clariman]

Hi All

As you will see, we have made some additions/changes to the Board structure. If you want to make any comments, want to offer generous gifts of Gold (keep the Frankincense and Myrrh to yourselves thanks), want to request further boards, or want to complain that your requested board has not been included, use this new thread. Thanks

The changes are

• Creation of an "Any Other Business" forum group at the bottom which houses many of the new boards
• Testing board has moved from the Lemon Lounge into the AOB group
• The "Food & Drink" and "Recipes & Cooking" boards have been restructured and simplified as "Drink" and "Food" - the latter incorporating Recipes and Cooking
• Some minor name changes
• No boards have been removed altogether because all have recent activity

New boards

• "Macro and Global Topics (The Sanctuary)". This is a nod to Bert's Sanctuary which seems to have provided an imporant discussion area, but without using the old name.
• "International & Expat Investors". Requested by quite a few
• "Other Investing" as a catch-all and to allow those who wanted "peer to peer lending" and "Boring Investment Green Room" to post here
• "Pharmaceuticals" under Sectors
• "Other Sectors" catch-all
• "Cycling" under Travel
• "Books and Reading" - under Interests
• "Photography" - under Interests
• "Science" incorporating climate change - under Interests
• "History - Genealogy, Local, General" - under Interests
• "The Meaning of Life - Religion and Philosophy - this is on a TRIAL basis. Please see Announcement post on that board
• "Pedants' Place" - under AOB
• "Grumpy Old Lemons Like You (Bitter Lemons)" - under AOB
• "Curiosity Corner" - under AOB
• "Games, Puzzles and Riddles" - under AOB
• "Land of off topic posts" - under AOB
• "Catastrophe Corner" - under AOB

Many thanks to Redsturgeon for helping summarise the requests and for checking the final list before Stooz put it live.

Cheers
Clariman & Stooz

[PinkDalek]

[*]"Land of off topic posts" - under AOB

Cheers
Clariman & Stooz

Congratulations and thank you on the further enhancements.

I take it is deliberate that one cannot even post a "Bink" here:

viewforum.php?f=74

More seriously, is there a reason the sub-forums are not listed alphabetically?

[Clariman]

[*]"Land of off topic posts" - under AOB

Cheers
Clariman & Stooz

Congratulations and thank you on the further enhancements.

I take it is deliberate that one cannot even post a "Bink" here:

viewforum.php?f=74

More seriously, is there a reason the sub-forums are not listed alphabetically?

Stooz

I forgot to mention the suggestion of ordering the boards in alphabetical order within group?

[stooz]

They can be in any order.

[melonfool]

YTST still seems to be crying out for a description?

Mel

[Gengulphus]

New boards
...
* "Games, Puzzles and Riddles" - under AOB

I don't suppose it matters much, but why under AOB? It seems to me to be a perfect example of something that fits under Interests - in particular, the Leisure type of interest.

Gengulphus

[Lootman]

YTST still seems to be crying out for a description?

It always did.

[Clariman]

New boards
...
* "Games, Puzzles and Riddles" - under AOB

I don't suppose it matters much, but why under AOB? It seems to me to be a perfect example of something that fits under Interests - in particular, the Leisure type of interest.

Gengulphus

Fair point. If folk would prefer it there, we can move it.

[PennyUK]

YTST still seems to be crying out for a description?

Mel

We'd had a tentative discussion about a description here - http://lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=645, but no real conclusion. I think "Think it, Plan it, Do it" was the suggestion with most support, but then I suggested it (it came from a TMF thread name started by someone else).

[gryffron]

YTST still seems to be crying out for a description?
Mel

We'd had a tentative discussion about a description here - http://lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=645, but no real conclusion. I think "Think it, Plan it, Do it" was the suggestion with most support

Seems to be a popular choice with the regulars. But I must say, as an outsider with no clue, that doesn't really give ME any more idea what the board is about. Think what? plan what? Surely the point of the descriptor is to explain/advertise to newbies, and thus hopefully lure them in? Rather than a banner motto for regulars. Indeed, several of the changes Clariman/Stooz have made today to the existing descriptors are to make them more - well - descriptive.

I just looked at the board for the first time ever. Seems to be about self improvement via life planning. Something suggesting that perhaps?

gryff

[DiamondEcho]

New boards ...
* "Games, Puzzles and Riddles" - under AOB

I don't suppose it matters much, but why under AOB? It seems to me to be a perfect example of something that fits under Interests - in particular, the Leisure type of interest. Gengulphus

Fair point. If folk would prefer it there, we can move it.

-----------------
Not a board I've looked at, hence I have no 'prefer'[ences]; but it is the one board from the original list that struck me as perhaps not being best located. Just my 2c!

[redsturgeon]

I don't suppose it matters much, but why under AOB? It seems to me to be a perfect example of something that fits under Interests - in particular, the Leisure type of interest. Gengulphus

Fair point. If folk would prefer it there, we can move it.

-----------------
Not a board I've looked at, hence I have no 'prefer'[ences]; but it is the one board from the original list that struck me as perhaps not being best located. Just my 2c!

I will take responsibility for that one as I think it was in my original suggestion to Clariman. If I had any reasoning behind it then it was I felt a low traffic board that had a few stalwarts and they would find it where ever it was. In hindsight, interests etc. looks a better fit.

John

[Gengulphus]

Fair point. If folk would prefer it there, we can move it.

-----------------
Not a board I've looked at, hence I have no 'prefer'[ences]; but it is the one board from the original list that struck me as perhaps not being best located. Just my 2c!

I will take responsibility for that one as I think it was in my original suggestion to Clariman. If I had any reasoning behind it then it was I felt a low traffic board that had a few stalwarts and they would find it where ever it was. In hindsight, interests etc. looks a better fit.

You're probably right about the existing stalwarts finding it wherever it is, but now that the point has been made above about the main purpose of a board's name being to attract newcomers, I think the same can be said about a board's positioning - I can certainly imagine a newcomer looking through the "interests" list and deciding the site doesn't welcome e.g. discussions about chess.

So I've become rather more strongly in favour of it being put under "interests".

Gengulphus

[BrummieDave]

There are approaching 70 subjects on TLF around half of which have little (or nothing tbh) to do with the the subtitle/tag line of the site 'The Lemon Fool - Talk Finance'; around half of the subjects are not finance related at all.

Shouldn't one of the key finance related subjects, and one which surely reflects the age and financial interests of many here, namely how best to invest to secure an income stream therefore be featured prominently?

It is, I think, the only 'Subforum' and as such, is both easily missed by visitors scanning the Board index, and entries posted can soon be overwritten in the 'Last post' column by something on the main board item 'Investment Strategies'. This results in fewer readers being alerted to a new post, fewer readers of the post, and fewer respondents.

The site is now up and running (well done) and is possibly due a quick look back at what's worked, what's not, and what needs tuning. I would suggest that 'Investing for income' merits a more prominent position than it currently has.

[tieresias]

I agree with the above. Investing for Income is important and, too often, overlooked in mainstream discussion of investments. Good that it got into the lifeboat though

[Lootman]

Shouldn't one of the key finance related subjects, and one which surely reflects the age and financial interests of many here, namely how best to invest to secure an income stream therefore be featured prominently?

I would argue that income is already represented in many places. On TMF (aside from the fact that TMF articles were obsessed with dividends) you had not one but two boards devoted to high yield investing, plus a bonds board, plus various property/BTL boards, plus retirement boards, plus a savings account board and, just in case all that wasn't enough, there was also a generic catch-all "investing for income" board.

So in fact income was deemed so important that there were a variety of specific boards for every sub-class of income investing.

Maybe it is growth investing that is neglected, at least in relative terms?

[BrummieDave]

Not sure why my new topic post has been appended to an existing one with a different subject title; ironic given the point I was politely making was that 'Investing for Income' doesn't feature prominently enough IMHO.

I recognise that income is represented elsewhere but it's within other specific subjects such as HYP which deals in specific shares and if you dare to post something about ITs for example, or something even broader, the few who dominate the world of HYP and its associated world of analysis are quick to point you in another direction.

I just felt that a large number of visitors to the site are probably people approaching or in retirement, and a home for them to discuss investing for income should be represented at the highest level; currently is the only subforum on TLF and easily missed or its posts overwritten, when it is far more 'core' to the 'Talk Finance' strapline than pets or cycling.

Not my board, I'm happy to visit and occasionally post, appreciate the effort and cost put in by others, but was providing what I thought was constructive feedback a couple of months after first launch.

Merry Christmas to all.

[mc2fool]

Not sure why my new topic post has been appended to an existing one with a different subject title; ironic given the point I was politely making was that 'Investing for Income' doesn't feature prominently enough IMHO.

It's because you clicked "Post Reply" at the top/bottom, which is the button you get while looking at a topic. To post a new topic you have to look at the list of posts in a forum, at which point you get a "New Topic" button at the top/bottom.

The advantage over TMF is that you can change the subject of your reply and so, in effect, start a "sub-topic" within a topic. The disadvantage over TMF is that you have to go back up to the list of posts to create a new topic.

All that aside, I agree with your Investing for Income point

[BrummieDave]

No, sorry.

It was a new 'New Topic' last night (I created it), had it's first reply, then this morning had been appended to this topic, presumably because it is about 'Board Structure'.

[Clariman]

No, sorry.

It was a new 'New Topic' last night (I created it), had it's first reply, then this morning had been appended to this topic, presumably because it is about 'Board Structure'.

BrummieDave

I moved it, so that your request is not lost amidst loads of others on this board. We don't have the time to read all the board suggestions and respond to them daily, but do our best to review the forum structure regularly. The site has only been operational a month and a half and we are already on our third set.

It is a lot easier to do this and minimise the risk of missing things if they are all in one place. Hence me locking the two other threads with board requests and creating this new one, which started with the words ...

As you will see, we have made some additions/changes to the Board structure. If you want to make any comments, want to offer generous gifts of Gold (keep the Frankincense and Myrrh to yourselves thanks), want to request further boards, or want to complain that your requested board has not been included, use this new thread. Thanks

So if you missed that thread, then that kind of makes my point. Best to have things in one place so that people don't miss them