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<blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 6698538" data-attributes="member: 1">None of this is data.&nbsp; The conversation has 3 participants out of thousands of active forum members. Not to mention the quarter of a million folks who read but don't post - though how we get their opinion, I don't know!&nbsp; And, even that said, their opinion wouldn't be useful data either -- asking people to predict how forum usage might vary according to organization is asking them something beyond my expertise (and it's been my job for 16 years - I defy anyone who claims they know how to do that).Sure.&nbsp; It's certainly something I've been considering, and I might well do it.&nbsp; The thing holding me back is that combining them takes me about a minute and a few clicks; separating them back again isn't possible.&nbsp; So it's not a trivial decision!If the software had some kind of functionality where I could trial something for a couple of weeks and then revert it if it didn't work, I'd do it like a shot. It's the irreversibility of combining stuff that's the issue.There's a seesaw, a balance -- a separate forum gives people &quot;permission&quot; (they don't need it, but without it they often don't do it) to start a certain type of thread. A combined forum is busier.&nbsp; These two facts need to co-exist, and it's easy to get hung up on one or the other.&nbsp; There are certainly more character build threads on ENW now than there were a year ago, and the only change was the recent creation of that forum.&nbsp; So those are threads that would not have existed otherwise.&nbsp; On the other hand, like you say, they'd get more responses in a busier forum.&nbsp; More threads or longer threads?&nbsp; For the thread starter, the goal is a longer thread; for the forum owner, the goal is more threads.&nbsp; Longer threads can inspire more threads; but more threads can inspire longer threads.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Morrus, post: 6698538, member: 1"] None of this is data. The conversation has 3 participants out of thousands of active forum members. Not to mention the quarter of a million folks who read but don't post - though how we get their opinion, I don't know! And, even that said, their opinion wouldn't be useful data either -- asking people to predict how forum usage might vary according to organization is asking them something beyond my expertise (and it's been my job for 16 years - I defy anyone who claims they know how to do that). Sure. It's certainly something I've been considering, and I might well do it. The thing holding me back is that combining them takes me about a minute and a few clicks; separating them back again isn't possible. So it's not a trivial decision! If the software had some kind of functionality where I could trial something for a couple of weeks and then revert it if it didn't work, I'd do it like a shot. It's the irreversibility of combining stuff that's the issue. There's a seesaw, a balance -- a separate forum gives people "permission" (they don't need it, but without it they often don't do it) to start a certain type of thread. A combined forum is busier. These two facts need to co-exist, and it's easy to get hung up on one or the other. There are certainly more character build threads on ENW now than there were a year ago, and the only change was the recent creation of that forum. So those are threads that would not have existed otherwise. On the other hand, like you say, they'd get more responses in a busier forum. More threads or longer threads? For the thread starter, the goal is a longer thread; for the forum owner, the goal is more threads. Longer threads can inspire more threads; but more threads can inspire longer threads. [/QUOTE]

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