Number of forums

[Graham S]

I've been away from the CNCzone for a while and I was really surprised to see the number of separate forums that exist now.

Before the CNC zone we were limited to more simple forums such as CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO on Yahoo and I think the zone has surpassed these in popularity and also usefulness.

But I cannot understand why there are for example over 40 forums on CAM. Granted there are more than 40 pieces of CAM software but most of these forums have less than 50 posts. It would make much more sense to have the general discussion forum, then a few forums for the most popular pieces of software. That way those using less common software will still have their posts read by those reading the general forum. Let us not forget that many issues are are actually quite general when it comes to it.

And I think the same is true for the rest of the forums, I am sure that someone experienced in CNC could answer many questions in forums about software and machines he/she has never seen and if not answer them learn from the answers others give, at the moment it is impossible to even browse the forum lists because they are so long.

It is always possible to classify and subdivide further and further but I think this can be bad because you lose the cross pollination that is so important to problem solving and learning.

Graham

[CNCadmin]

Thanks for your input, but I rather keep separate forums, as it makes it easier for anyone to find what they are looking for based on the band or type of product. Having on GIGANTIC "general forum" would be going back to OLD group mentality. Breaking away from that is why CNCzone is the biggest cnc forum. On all threads is a list of other thread that do a great job of "cross pollination" and helps to find topic that match what your looking for.

[port_huon]

Personally I like the multiple forums.
If there's a forum on a subject in which you have no interest, you can add it to your ignore list and never see it again.
There aren't many forums I do this with, just ones that deal with specific commercial CNC machines or software I know I'll never run.

[moldcore]

I agree that the more forums the better as long as they’re easy to find and are currently being used. In other words some of the forums are not listed in alphabetical order, such as metalworking machines, and others have not seen post in years.

Because they’re so many forums, Is it possible in our user setup to make it so only the forums that interest us are visible when we log in without setting cookies on my computer. Even with a fast internet connection it still takes too long for the whole page to load some days. I’m sure it’s the ads that make it slow and I understand they are necessary to make this site what it is. I just don’t want to have to scroll down so much witch I can’t do anyway until all the ads have loaded. Very frustrating.