cotton shirt wrote:
you do not need to re-design the whole forum, it is mostly very good as it is. however...
* forum front page - have name of last user to post in each thread next to the date
* sub-forums or "channels" - the problem you have with the current setup is that there are a lot of posts that don't fit into any of the current channels. you currently have: non-running, pro-news/info/results, college running, high-school running, masters running, training advice/discussion, injury/nutrition, LRC Community/where to run/race reviews. it said in your post that you have 5 but it looks as though you actually have 8 so maybe you're not the guy to be leading this topic.
this setup is firstly, very, very, American-centric. in my country there is virtually no "college running" at all. there is some, but there is very little news about it and no websites dedicated to it and no one I know of knows anything at all about it other than Roger Bannister ran for Oxford University (if you want to look it up it's called BUSF British Universities Sports Federation). in the US, by contrast, "college running" is the peak of non-pro running and anyone who is not a pro or in college is almost certainly not an athlete. this means that 90% of athletics in your country takes place in "college running" while 90% of athletics in my country does not fit in any of your categories.
you will no doubt reply along the lines that 90% of your users are from the US. but this is a chicken and egg situation. are your users predominantly from the US because that's who you accommodate, so other folk go elsewhere, or do you accommodate them because that's who you have? I've been coming here for a year and still feel like an outsider trying to speak a foreign language and at least one category that accommodates experiences outside the tiny box that is the US might help.
a category for historical topics would be welcome. I tend to think of "non-running" as being discussion of tv programmes and whether or not Donald Trump is a scaled lizard space alien, so a category for discussion about anything not recent (pro-news/info/results feels to me like it means current stuff).
a category for rankings and statistics would also be welcome.
* Tagging system ("show posts tagged Alan Webb") - to my mind this is an essential precursor to a better search function. you need tags first, then you can have something approaching a useful search.
* Improved search - essential. the current search is a joke. it isn't in fact a real search function, it is just a way for you to say, "we have a search function," without actually having a usable search function.
I'm not overly fussed about functionality for logged-in users but the facility to edit a post within some reasonable time of posting it would be useful.
cheers.