My take on the forum clean up

After reading through Saurav's thread and the thread about abolishing the gaming forum (Which seems rather split), I've took on lots of peoples ideas and a few of my own radical ideas to create my suggestions on what changes should be made in regards to forums & categories.

Habbox
- Merge Habbox Announcements with Development Announcements


Help / Questions / Feedback
- Keep the same


Trading
- Merge Categorized Rare Trading and Normal Trading

- Remove "Trading in International Hotels" as there is no real demand for it


Habbo
- Merge "Bobba - Scams - and Bugs Errors and Glitches" with "Habbo In General" and leave it being called "Habbo In General"

- Add a forum called "Alterations" with a sub-forum for "Elite Alterations" (See below).


Graphics (Remove this category)
- The "Habbo Alterations" forum is added within the Habbo category and "Elite Alterations and Animations" becomes a sub-forum of it.

- Merge together "Other Graphics" and "Graphics and Photography" to create a forum within the General section called "Pictures and Photography"

- Remove the "Graphics Discussion, Help and Requests" forum, threads requiring help can either be posted in the new "Pictures and Photography" or "Alterations" forums depending on whether it is Habbo or not.


Games (Remove this category)
- Move Runescape forum (and it's sub-forums) to "Entertainment"

- Move "Forum Games" to "Entertainment"

- Merge "Console Gaming", "Online Games" and "Computer games & Board Games) to Entertainment to create a forum called "Gaming". This will include four sub-forums, "Microsoft", "Sony", "Nintendo" and "Call of Duty".


Entertainment
- Add the "Runescape", "Forum Games" and "Gaming" forums to this section, see above.

- Remove the Hobbies section, all posts relating to this can be posted in "Discuss Anything"

- Rename "Jokes" to "Humour" to make it more relevant to the funny YouTube videos frequently posted within it

- Move the popular Anime threads from "Anime and other Entertainment" to the "TV & Films" section. This forum can then be deleted and "Other entertainment" if there is any, can be posted in "Discuss Anything"


Technology + The Web
- Remove the "Forum Designing" forum, threads can be moved to"Designing & Development"

- Remove "Online Radios", content here will be either relevant to "Designing & Development" or Free/Paid Requests


General
- Remove "Fashion & Clothes", "Food & Drink" and "Animals & Pets", all content here can be added to "Discuss Anything"

- Rename "Tourism, Holidays, Vehicles & Transport" to simply "Tourism & Transport"

- Remove the "Tabloids" sub-forum of "Current Affairs" for inactivity

- Addition of a "Graphics & Photography" forum, see above.


Teens
- Merge "Health Tips + Advice" and "Teen Life" to become "Health Advice & Teen Life"

- Remove the sub-forums within "Relationships"


I have no doubt there will be many disagreements about this, particularly between avid Graphics & Anime users, however everyone will still have a place to post everything they want to, in reality nothing will be lost, just simply be merged. It is also a fair way of doing it as all forums make compromises rather than just individual forums being picked on by.

This will clean up the colossal 57 forums there is at the moment to a more manageable 40 (with 2 less sections), which is certainly a step forward in adapting the forum for today's needs and the improvements needed in general.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

Technology + The Web
- Remove the "Forum Designing" forum, threads can be moved to"Designing & Development"

- Remove "Online Radios", content here will be either relevant to "Designing & Development" or Free/Paid Requests

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Agreed, they are the least active forums and "Online Radios" can go weeks without new posts.

I think it should be like this

Habbox

Habbox announcements (merged with dev)
Community Notice Board (comps+events would post here*)
Welcome/leaving
Habbox Feedback

Habbo
Uk news
Inter. news
Habbo discussion (sub cat for Habbo alts)
Trading (no sub cats.)

i agree with the rest

i disagree with his though
- Remove "Fashion & Clothes", "Food & Drink" and "Animals & Pets", all
content here can be added to "Discuss Anything"

and no elite subforums/forums lol


add a help section category and have 2/3 forums

Rep/Infraction/Warning/
Ask forum staff
Report Problems with forum/site


(*merge comps and events, and they can be like people for forum events and people for client events

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

After reading through Saurav's thread and the thread about abolishing the gaming forum (Which seems rather split), I've took on lots of peoples ideas and a few of my own radical ideas to create my suggestions on what changes should be made in regards to forums & categories.

Habbox
- Merge Habbox Announcements with Development Announcements


Help / Questions / Feedback
- Keep the same


Trading
- Merge Categorized Rare Trading and Normal Trading

- Remove "Trading in International Hotels" as there is no real demand for it


Habbo
- Merge "Bobba - Scams - and Bugs Errors and Glitches" with "Habbo In General" and leave it being called "Habbo In General"

- Add a forum called "Alterations" with a sub-forum for "Elite Alterations" (See below).


Graphics (Remove this category)
- The "Habbo Alterations" forum is added within the Habbo category and "Elite Alterations and Animations" becomes a sub-forum of it.

- Merge together "Other Graphics" and "Graphics and Photography" to create a forum within the General section called "Pictures and Photography"

- Remove the "Graphics Discussion, Help and Requests" forum, threads requiring help can either be posted in the new "Pictures and Photography" or "Alterations" forums depending on whether it is Habbo or not.


Games (Remove this category)
- Move Runescape forum (and it's sub-forums) to "Entertainment"

- Move "Forum Games" to "Entertainment"

- Merge "Console Gaming", "Online Games" and "Computer games & Board Games) to Entertainment to create a forum called "Gaming". This will include four sub-forums, "Microsoft", "Sony", "Nintendo" and "Call of Duty".


Entertainment
- Add the "Runescape", "Forum Games" and "Gaming" forums to this section, see above.

- Remove the Hobbies section, all posts relating to this can be posted in "Discuss Anything"

- Rename "Jokes" to "Humour" to make it more relevant to the funny YouTube videos frequently posted within it

- Move the popular Anime threads from "Anime and other Entertainment" to the "TV & Films" section. This forum can then be deleted and "Other entertainment" if there is any, can be posted in "Discuss Anything"


Technology + The Web
- Remove the "Forum Designing" forum, threads can be moved to"Designing & Development"

- Remove "Online Radios", content here will be either relevant to "Designing & Development" or Free/Paid Requests


General
- Remove "Fashion & Clothes", "Food & Drink" and "Animals & Pets", all content here can be added to "Discuss Anything"

- Rename "Tourism, Holidays, Vehicles & Transport" to simply "Tourism & Transport"

- Remove the "Tabloids" sub-forum of "Current Affairs" for inactivity

- Addition of a "Graphics & Photography" forum, see above.


Teens
- Merge "Health Tips + Advice" and "Teen Life" to become "Health Advice & Teen Life"

- Remove the sub-forums within "Relationships"


I have no doubt there will be many disagreements about this, particularly between avid Graphics & Anime users, however everyone will still have a place to post everything they want to, in reality nothing will be lost, just simply be merged. It is also a fair way of doing it as all forums make compromises rather than just individual forums being picked on by.

This will clean up the colossal 57 forums there is at the moment to a more manageable 40 (with 2 less sections), which is certainly a step forward in adapting the forum for today's needs and the improvements needed in general.

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I like this idea. Plus one rep for you! (EDIT: Got to spread)

I think this would make the forum more presentable and easier to manage as well.

and get rid of the 4/5 complaint subforums, this is what the support system is for and you can PM complaints

Tbh there are lots of setups and we can go about suggesting permutations until the end of the world, I don't much care how everything ends up as long as something is done!

I agree with most of your changes. However, I would merge all the announcements - I don't check development or community announcements because anything important would be posted in Habbox announcements. It used to be like this and I think it was more effective and people paid more attention to all announcements.

Also, I'd scrap the whole of trading and just make it a sub forum inside the Habbo forum. People aren't stupid they can put "Selling Throne" "Buying red plasto chair" or whatever they need as thread title. People who are selling/buying items would then reply to the threads they wanted to trade. Then have Report Rare Values as a sub forum. I agree with you in regards to Games and Graphics, get rid and I agree with everything you say about them, would make a lot easier to navigate.

However, I think the proposed changes to the General Forum aren't really needed because they are active enough and I think it would lead to a decrease in posting. People won't post about their pets or their new clothes in discuss anything imo because discuss anything is used for semi constructive chit chat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

- Move the popular Anime threads from "Anime and other Entertainment" to the "TV & Films" section. This forum can then be deleted and "Other entertainment" if there is any, can be posted in "Discuss Anything"

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Against this for reasons I've already stated. I suggest merging jokes and hobbies with anime and other entertainment then renaming the forum just 'other entertainment' like it used to be called.

Entertainment
- Music
- TV & Film
- Gaming
- Other Entertainment

My take on the forum cleanup:
huh is something happening?

I agree with this all, apart from 'General' which I think should stay the same as it is now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

Habbox
- Merge Habbox Announcements with Development Announcements

Trading
- Remove "Trading in International Hotels" as there is no real demand for it

Habbo
- Merge "Bobba - Scams - and Bugs Errors and Glitches" with "Habbo In General" and leave it being called "Habbo In General"

Entertainment
- Remove the Hobbies section, all posts relating to this can be posted in "Discuss Anything"

- Rename "Jokes" to "Humour" to make it more relevant to the funny YouTube videos frequently posted within it

Technology + The Web
- Remove the "Forum Designing" forum, threads can be moved to"Designing & Development"

- Remove "Online Radios", content here will be either relevant to "Designing & Development" or Free/Paid Requests

Teens
- Remove the sub-forums within "Relationships"

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These ones I agree with as they make logical sense. Now for the ones I don't agree with and why :P not all of them just the ones I'm properly opposed to

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

Graphics (Remove this category)

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What the hell that can't be healthy. Graphics is an active community and has been ever since I can remember. All this would do is clog up other areas of the forum

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

- Merge "Console Gaming", "Online Games" and "Computer games & Board Games) to Entertainment to create a forum called "Gaming". This will include four sub-forums, "Microsoft", "Sony", "Nintendo" and "Call of Duty".

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Why would COD get its own sub when the rest are based on the company? This move looks like just a personal taste matter and I'm fairly sure a lot of people in the gaming area would be opposed, although I may be proved wrong on that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

- Remove "Fashion & Clothes", "Food & Drink" and "Animals & Pets", all content here can be added to "Discuss Anything"

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Hell no. These are all active areas and this would do nothing other than make DA even more messy than it can often already be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

- Rename "Tourism, Holidays, Vehicles & Transport" to simply "Tourism & Transport"

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Why?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jordy

- Merge "Health Tips + Advice" and "Teen Life" to become "Health Advice & Teen Life"

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As with most of the other proposed changes I'm against, I think these two areas are sufficiently active enough dependantly of each other to remain separate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Immenseman

I agree with most of your changes. However, I would merge all the announcements - I don't check development or community announcements because anything important would be posted in Habbox announcements. It used to be like this and I think it was more effective and people paid more attention to all announcements.

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It was changed because most of us don't actually care how well a fridge racing event or whatever went, and such threads blocked us from seeing potentially important announcements from the main page. Devs and Hx announcements however are more likely to appeal to everyone or at least be checked, so merging them would not be nearly so much of a problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Immenseman

Also, I'd scrap the whole of trading and just make it a sub forum inside the Habbo forum. People aren't stupid they can put "Selling Throne" "Buying red plasto chair" or whatever they need as thread title. People who are selling/buying items would then reply to the threads they wanted to trade. Then have Report Rare Values as a sub forum.

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I believe these are separated to make it easier for people wanting to buy or sell certain items, rather than have to trawl through 3 pages on the off chance of finding what they want, and for sellers it means your thread is less likely to be pushed back out of sight within a day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silicone

and get rid of the 4/5 complaint subforums, this is what the support system is for and you can PM complaints

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Agreed

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Immenseman

I agree with most of your changes. However, I would merge all the announcements - I don't check development or community announcements because anything important would be posted in Habbox announcements. It used to be like this and I think it was more effective and people paid more attention to all announcements.

Also, I'd scrap the whole of trading and just make it a sub forum inside the Habbo forum. People aren't stupid they can put "Selling Throne" "Buying red plasto chair" or whatever they need as thread title. People who are selling/buying items would then reply to the threads they wanted to trade. Then have Report Rare Values as a sub forum. I agree with you in regards to Games and Graphics, get rid and I agree with everything you say about them, would make a lot easier to navigate.

However, I think the proposed changes to the General Forum aren't really needed because they are active enough and I think it would lead to a decrease in posting. People won't post about their pets or their new clothes in discuss anything imo because discuss anything is used for semi constructive chit chat.

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Good idea with the trading, either cut it down or put it in the Habbo section.

Maybe yourself and others do have a point with the General forums, none of them are that active (Specifically animal and pets) but there is the risk of clogging up Discuss Anything.

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Originally Posted by Neversoft

Against this for reasons I've already stated. I suggest merging jokes and hobbies with anime and other entertainment then renaming the forum just 'other entertainment' like it used to be called.

Entertainment
- Music
- TV & Film
- Gaming
- Other Entertainment

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If jokes was merged into it, then people would be confused where to post funny YouTube videos etc. So then it'd have to be called Anime + Jokes and the two don't really go together. It's more logical to merge the few active threads into TV & Film.

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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus

What the hell that can't be healthy. Graphics is an active community and has been ever since I can remember. All this would do is clog up other areas of the forum

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Graphics really isn't that active and it wouldn't be clogging up the forum if it was separated into General and Habbo sections.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus

Why would COD get its own sub when the rest are based on the company? This move looks like just a personal taste matter and I'm fairly sure a lot of people in the gaming area would be opposed, although I may be proved wrong on that.

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The Call of Duty sub-forum already exists and has proved successful since being implemented a few months ago. There were so many discussions about the series of games it made sense to give it a sub-forum even if it was a bit out of the ordinary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus

Why?

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Holidays fall under Tourism and Vehicles fall under Transport. Just makes sense to make it shorter if at all possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus

As with most of the other proposed changes I'm against, I think these two areas are sufficiently active enough dependantly of each other to remain separate.

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Neither the teen life or health tips + advice forums are particularly popular, about 2 threads posted in every day. They also crossover a little bit.

i suggest hxf just shuts down to stop the arguments

x

I'm for the trading forums to merge, it means its easier to find things instead of having to swap forums to find something you'll be interested in, it also means people can just sell all their stuff in one thread rather than them making two threads and forgetting about the other one (as usually happens). On announcements, we only need one announcement forum - merge them all.

agree 100% dan - trading would be so much easier and who even checks community announcements. sure you might not want to but at least it'd raise the profile of events. if you don't want to go then don't read, not too hard to comprehend.

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Originally Posted by Homosexuality

i suggest hxf just shuts down to stop the arguments

x

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gr8 idea!!

Complaints about specific staff/members can go too. You can PM or post in serious rule breaking and with staff members, the staff AGM is there for a reason and if you have a complaint about a manager you can PM the GM. If there isn't already a thread about staff complaints stickied in feedback then there should be so people know what to do. Not drastic suggestion, they're just not really needed. Jrh2002 actually added them or tried to get them added for people to complain about ---MAD--- or at least it certainly looked that way.

forum management are in the process of finalising their list of changes, so we should see changes within the next few days. Im sure these things will also be taken into account, but some of the things suggested seem pretty similar as to what forum managment have already suggested.

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Originally Posted by Jordy

If jokes was merged into it, then people would be confused where to post funny YouTube videos etc. So then it'd have to be called Anime + Jokes and the two don't really go together. It's more logical to merge the few active threads into TV & Film.

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That's precisely why I said rename the forum to 'other entertainment' (remove the anime part). :eusa_wall That way the section will cater for everything; anime, jokes, hobbies, books, etc. TV & Film is already quite active, it doesn't need merging with anything else.

Merge Health with Fashion and call it
Fashion, Beatuy & Health

Teen Life doesn't need exist, the forum is effectively one huge Teen Life Community. And the category named Help / Questions / Feedback may need a new name, it's dreadful and acts more like a description than a name :P Community or Help & Guidance or two that come to mind, but it depends how well you can combine the 3 bracketed words into a few wholesome words.

I don't really care whats done as long as it becomes unclogged and more neat.

To be honest, I don't think any of us have much right to say what should happen to the sections we don't use. I only use a few sections of the forum so I don't see how I can make a fair judgement on what should happen to the rest and I know if the sections I use most, were taken away/moved because of the opinions of people who have no connection with them, I wouldn't be too happy.

I think the best method of finding out what to do, is either create individual polls within each of the sections asking that people only respond if they use that forum (you'll get a few who don't but anyone who sees the poll in a particular section is kind of a user of that section by definition) OR just ask the moderators of each section what they think would be best based on their day to day observations of moderating each section.

Forum Management are appointed for a reason though. Whatever they do is going to be controversial but we just have to accept it, they aren't stupid and will think it through before making any decisions. Sure, people are going to be annoyed I know that for sure but it's a good thing they want to make the forum easier to navigate and make it more visually attractive. To get to those cuts have to be made. I certainly don't envy them having to make the decisions.

Have we thought about all the stickies threads that there will be if/when we merge the forums? Wasn't there a huge thread complaining we have too many not that long ago?

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Originally Posted by Immenseman

Forum Management are appointed for a reason though. Whatever they do is going to be controversial but we just have to accept it, they aren't stupid and will think it through before making any decisions. Sure, people are going to be annoyed I know that for sure but it's a good thing they want to make the forum easier to navigate and make it more visually attractive. To get to those cuts have to be made. I certainly don't envy them having to make the decisions.

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Oh you little bum kisser, you ;) :-j Provided the changes aren't pointless, where they rename things, or merge them with sections completely unrelated, then it's fine. There are alot of pointless forums that serve no amazing purpose. A forum should only exist if the first page contains the majority of new threads/posts. If only 1 third or a half is used, then the forum needs changing or removed. If aload of forums are removed, then you think about categories getting merged together if they have a similar purpose e.g. Gaming is a type of Entertainment <merged> Gaming & Entertainment. It's not quite rocket science, they just need to pick out the dead and useless forums, find out what forums are left, then look at the categories with these forums, see if they can be merged if the categories lack a sufficient number of forums then think about merging them. Opinion and desire of these forums is somewhat pointless, just have a strict rule that follows basic forum designing rules. If a forum isn't used alot, look at why, if it's because it's a sub-genre of a type of forum topic or discussion point, then see what the main category or genre is and then think about moving it or merging it. Fashion, Health and Beauty is another example of 3 discussions that can be merged together.

Again, all they need to do is see what use the forums have, and how much they are used and whether or not a merger would cause chaos in the posting front. Though judging by the forum usage over the past few months, that won't be too hard, you just have to fight the people who love their forums a little bit too much and are affraid of change, which may just be beneficial in the long run :P

Not forgetting, a forum also needs to have decent looking skins to reflect the number of forums and categories. It's all well and good removing categories and forums, but it's useless if the skins are messier.

EDIT: One forum that needs work is the Education forum (just did a quick look). Perhaps this could have all its sub-forums merged together into the main forum?
EDIT AGAIN: Infact, it should be merged, the sub-forum is about College and School Work "help", people are asking for help in the main parent forum deeming this sub-forum virtually useless. Besides, if all the school and college work ends up in the sub forum, what is there left to discuss in full in the main forum parent? Not alot, and there isn't alot.

For the first 2 catergories (Habbox and Help), I reckon they could probably do something like this (which involves merging the catergories).
- Habbox
-- Habbox Announcements (merging Development and Habbox announcemnets)
-- Community Notice Board
-- Competitions
-- Introductions, Farewells and Congratulations (merging Welcome and Congrats forums, if the MGMT are unhappy then it could be a subforum in welcome OR feedback, it's annoying to see congrats threads in here)
-- Habbox Feedback and Discussion
--- Ask the Habbox Staff (removing all subforums from here and using the parent forum)
--- Feedback Polls
-- Become a Habbox Donator / VIP
-- Bug Tracker

Complaints and Report Serious rulebreaking should go into the support system, and actually make some use of that as I'm aware it cost a few bob as it intergrated into vBulletin.
[HxHD] can move into Habbo, the staff could be active in those forums as opposed to that forum, so members feel welcomed into the habbo section by these staff members.

I haven't really looked into the other forums yet as it's a lot to organise, and will probably be somewhat unaffected by the changes, although I would say that EVERY forum needs to be reviewed as there are some wasted forums out there now.

EDIT: And in regard to what GommeInc said on another thread, the skins should be cleared up as well (even I find some of them an eyesore, and I made a good handful of them), maybe add the coding into the templates which breaks the catergories up, which could be easier for the new members. I believe this is default on vb4.