SubforumsSubforums usually hinder forum navigation by needing more clicks and more page loading to get to topics that can often be presented better within one forum.
Bear in mind that topics in your forum can be sorted by subject, poster, number of replies, number of views and of course, last posted.
A game forum is not like a folder on your computer. It is a dynamic environment. It is better to differentiate than segregate topics.
Do you need a subforum?
Subforums complicate the forum structure and make the site more difficult to navigate and maintain. For most members, this is nowhere more apparent than in the "Hop to" drop-down. The list of forums becomes a morass, barely usable, if every game forum has subforums.
Requesting SubforumsAll subforums must be requested by posting a reply to that game's topic in Game Forum Requests (as above).
There is a limit of one gallery forum* and one other subforum, per game forum.*If your gallery subforum accumulates over 30 images, you may find separating your images into two gallery forums makes them more accessible. If so, please do request another.
Gallery subforumsGalleries are an excellent use of subforums, but rarely if ever will a game warrant more than one gallery. If you have three galleries with five images in each, for example, move them into one gallery. Your players have access to all images in one forum and can
see what the images are by the thumbnails without needing a subforum to
tell them what they are.
Like topics in a normal forum, you can use prefixes in the subject to sort gallery images. For example, "PC: Bilbo Baggins" for a player character portrait, "NPC: Elrond" for a non-player character portrait, "LOC: Bag End" for a location, etc.
Subforums for game resourcesGame resources are best posted all in the same topic. The topic can be differentiated by a prefix in its subject, the post icon, it can be made sticky, it can even be linked to in the forum's header.
For example. If you have five game resource topics with one post in each, merge them all into one topic. Then you'll have one topic with five posts. Change its post icon, make its subject "GAME RESOURCES - README" and then either sticky it or request a link to it in the forum header. Suddenly your players have access to all your game resources with one click wherever they are in your game forum.
You can even create an index in the first post by linking to its replies. Each reply in a topic has its own unique address, you can find it by clicking on the icon in the top left corner of each post (above the poster's name).
Use of subforums for game resources is discouraged.
Subforms as archivesAlso bear in mind that users can set how far back they show topics from, from "all dates" to "active in the last day". This makes subforums also unsuited as archives. By default, topics are sorted by last posted so old topics scroll to the bottom. This is where users expect to find old posts and they're accessible just with a flick of the mouse-wheel.
Using subforums as archives merely makes it more likely they'll never be read, therefore...
Use of subforums as archives is discouraged.
Subforums for spin-offs and side storiesUsing subforums for spin-off games is also inadvisable. Players then have to navigate through a redundant forum to reach their goal.
Simply prefixing the subject with an alternate code is the most efficient way to differentiate game topics within the same forum.
Taking
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as an example, you could have "TT.A: Shelob's Lair" and "TT.B: Helm's Deep", dividing your game into two groups, A and B.
If on the other hand, you wanted to run
The Hobbit as a spin-off, then you should request a new game forum. Gandalf's player may even be the same, but it is a separate game, with its own post-rate. You might cancel one or the other. If you then wish to keep any topics from the cancelled game accessible to the other, you can move them into the active game forum.
Use of subforums for spin-offs or side stories is discouraged.
Subforums for adults onlySimilar to subforums for spin-offs and side stories.
If you think your game will have so many adults only posts that it might need a subforum, the game forum should probably be adults only in the first place. If you're running your game and decide on an adults only tangent, we have the Just Passing Through forum for just that reason.
Use of subforums for adults only is discouraged.
Just Passing ThroughSubforums as clipboard/file storesAlthough it would be great for each member to have their own private cyberlocker for their files, be they images, text, etc., our UBB.threads software doesn't currently support this.
It is possible to create a subforum with custom permissions, allowing only the GM and sysops access, but you should first consider private messages.
You can create a private message for each of your games and post to it, edit it, at will, accessible from anywhere on the site. Private messages can make a handy clipboard.
For storing and websharing files, such as images, character sheets, etc., we recommend you try one of the many alternatives off-site. You may already have access to
Google Docs,
Windows Live SkyDrive or
Apple MobileMe iDisk if you have an @gmail.com, @hotmail.com or @mac.com email address. Those with @yahoo.com email addresses already have access to
Flickr (images and video only).
It is a growing trend for people to webshare all their files, so that they can be accessible on a variety of devices from anywhere in the world. Forum software can't emulate this.
Use of subforums as clipboards/file stores is discouraged.