Forum Cleanup: Let me know what you think!

Blog Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by Todd, Oct 21, 2025.

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  1. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    Recent feedback regarding the North America forum (too hidden) inspired me to clean things up by decluttering the structure, increasing visibility, and reducing some clicks. Why? Basically, there was too much going on, too much (of me) trying to break things down, too much noise, too many clicks, and too many dead ends.
    • Removed or archived redundant / unused forums (you won't even miss them)
    • Converted some subforums into prefixes within a single forum (see: Europe, ISO;FT, Off-Topic)
    • Merged Beer Releases into Beer News with prefixes
    • Merged In-Person subforums into one (most subforums weren't being used)
    • Moved all threads from North America into Beer Talk and Beer News (mostly)
    • Put the Europe and United States subforums back into their own category at the top level (at least for now)
    I still have some tweaking to do, but let me know what you think.

    https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/

    Thanks! Time for a beer. :beers:
     
    #1 Todd, Oct 21, 2025
    mdaschaf, mikeinportc, jadejaws and 42 others like this.
  2. swid

    swid Pooh-Bah (1,834) Jun 5, 2004 Missouri
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I had a forum display idea most typed up for the BA Talk section yesterday; I'm glad I didn't hit Submit on it as about half of isn't relevant now. As an additional tweak or two, would it be possible to either:

    - select some number of subforums (say, up to 3 or 5) that you want to see displayed in the "Join the Discussion!" feed on the main page and/or
    - auto-insert posts from the relevant regional subforum into the "Join the Discussion!" feed based on the profile location you've set?

    While a change like that does little more than save a click or two for those of us who are used to navigating the forums, I could see it driving more engagement for the subforums if their content is getting displayed on the main page.
     
    #2 swid, Oct 21, 2025
    Beer_Economicus, ChicagoJ, Harrison8 and 6 others like this.
  3. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    The homepage will include recent threads from any forum that you watch when you're logged in. Simply click "watch forum" (top right) of any forum.
     
    #3 Todd, Oct 21, 2025
    ChicagoJ, Whyteboar, el_bobbo and 7 others like this.
  4. Shanex

    Shanex Grand Pooh-Bah (4,960) Dec 10, 2015 France
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    It’ll definitely save us some clicks and extra seconds, make things easier and simple.

    [​IMG]
     
    #4 Shanex, Oct 21, 2025
    dcotom, mikeinportc, Peach63 and 12 others like this.
  5. swid

    swid Pooh-Bah (1,834) Jun 5, 2004 Missouri
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I learned something today - had no idea the Watch Forums functionality can be used to do just what I wanted. Thanks!
     
    #5 swid, Oct 21, 2025
    dcotom, mikeinportc, DanO1066 and 11 others like this.
  6. bret27

    bret27 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,064) Mar 10, 2009 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Just in the last hour my account won’t let me view the trading section anymore. Not sure if it’s related. Hopefully I wasn’t kicked out of trading.
     
    #6 bret27, Oct 21, 2025
    Beer_Economicus, ChicagoJ and Resistance88 like this.
  7. jasonmason

    jasonmason Zealot (742) Oct 6, 2004 California
    Society Trader

    Looks much cleaner and back to being easier to navigate to the regional forums. Thanks for the work @Todd !
     
    #7 jasonmason, Oct 21, 2025
    ChicagoJ, Todd, Whyteboar and 6 others like this.
  8. LeinenkugelDrinker

    LeinenkugelDrinker Pooh-Bah (2,171) Feb 14, 2023 Nevada
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    This is a great improvement. Will definitely keep some threads active, instead of causing their decline.
     
    #8 LeinenkugelDrinker, Oct 21, 2025
    ChicagoJ, Todd, Whyteboar and 2 others like this.
  9. gatornation

    gatornation Grand High Pooh-Bah (10,388) Apr 18, 2007 Arizona
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I like it! Much cleaner looking and easier to navigate .
     
    #9 gatornation, Oct 22, 2025
    ChicagoJ, Todd, LeinenkugelDrinker and 1 other person like this.
  10. elNopalero

    elNopalero Grand Pooh-Bah (5,822) Oct 14, 2009 Michigan
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I definitely think it’s time for a beer!
     
    #10 elNopalero, Oct 22, 2025
    Resistance88, PapaGoose03, ChicagoJ and 2 others like this.
  11. Whyteboar

    Whyteboar Grand Pooh-Bah (4,286) Jun 7, 2008 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Isn’t it always?
     
    #11 Whyteboar, Oct 22, 2025
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  12. elNopalero

    elNopalero Grand Pooh-Bah (5,822) Oct 14, 2009 Michigan
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    As much as I like beer I also recognize when it’s time for coffee. Or whiskey. (Or whiskey in my coffee?)
     
    #12 elNopalero, Oct 22, 2025
    DanO1066, Whyteboar, PapaGoose03 and 1 other person like this.
  13. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    It's 06:15 here. So now it's time for coffee.
     
    #13 Todd, Oct 22, 2025
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  14. elNopalero

    elNopalero Grand Pooh-Bah (5,822) Oct 14, 2009 Michigan
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Early riser! I know this isn’t Coffee Advocate (or even the What coffee are you drinking now forum), but—what’s the coffee like over there? If you're even a fraction as passionate about coffee as beer, that is.
     
    #14 elNopalero, Oct 22, 2025
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  15. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    (I drink more coffee than beer. Especially now that I live in Finland, which has the highest coffee consumption rate per capita in the world. There's good coffee literally everywhere.)
     
    #15 Todd, Oct 22, 2025
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  16. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    #16 Todd, Oct 22, 2025
    ChicagoJ likes this.
  17. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    (Just moved your post into this thread.)

    Trading forums were adjusted (see above), but access and permissions weren't changed. And you're also in the trading usergroup, so you weren't kicked out (no one was).

    Sounds like you were viewing one of the forums that no longer exists and received an error when trying to access it after the update, but let me know if it's something else.
     
    #17 Todd, Oct 22, 2025
    bret27 and ChicagoJ like this.
  18. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    Update: I've dropped in a bunch of redirects to properly handle any requests (including whatever links are out there) for removed/updated forums. Testing now and things are looking good, but this should probably address what I suspect @bret27 experienced.
     
    #18 Todd, Oct 22, 2025
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  19. brewme

    brewme Grand Pooh-Bah (4,014) Mar 1, 2014 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Nice improvement...thanks....
     
    #19 brewme, Oct 22, 2025
    ChicagoJ and Todd like this.
  20. Bierman9

    Bierman9 Grand Pooh-Bah (5,313) Dec 20, 2001 New Hampshire
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Actually seems to require more clicks from me for my watched forums.
    Previously, when I clicked the Watched Forums button, I would get the 4 I follow:
    New England, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.

    Now I only get New England and Europe, requiring me to go to Europe then my desired forums there.
    And Europe has a mish-mash of threads from other European countries I don't care for .
    Am I missing something? Be nice! ;-)

    Prost!
     
    #20 Bierman9, Oct 22, 2025
    ChicagoJ, Beer_Economicus and PapaGoose03 like this.
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