Forum plugin to create Category and Sub Categories

  • Hey everyone, I’m looking for a forum plugin in which i can create a category and a sub category. Example: I have a travel site. I want a category called Ports, under the port category i would like a sub category called Alaska and then under The Alaska sub category i would like to have the forums, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Haines. I’m using wpforo, but can only create one category, when i try to create a second, it either becomes a top level category or switches to a forum.

    Any and all help appreciated
    TIA
    Lance

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • There are very few WordPress plugins for building a TRADITIONAL community/discussion forums (as opposed to the Q&A site, support site, social network, etc) — WForo, Asgaros, Simple:Press… and MAYBE bbPress (which, in my view is best suited for providing customer support, as it lacks many basic features you’d expect from a traditional forum software).

    And NONE of these has the sub-category/sub-group feature you desire.

    That said, I’m really wondering if you’ve thought through the distinction between a CATEGORY/GROUP vs FORUM, and concluded you indeed want your hierarchy at the category level?

    All forum software I’ve ever tested (and I’ve tested a bunch, including OGs like vBulletin, phpBB, myBB, XenForo, etc) that have hierarchical categories/groups make it clear that categories/groups are ONLY meant for visual grouping of forums only. The actual forum posts/topics belong to a FORUM (and its parent forum). Posts do not go into a CATEGORY/GROUP at all.

    And that means (at least for the WordPress plugins), these CATEGORIES/GROUPS are not clickable (no URL for them), and it’s impossible to navigate to them beyond the homepage. So your users will not be able to, say, click on your ALASKA category to go to only the ALASKA section.

    That’s why even BIG NATIONAL (US) forums like CITY DATA use categories ONLY to mark major sections on the homepage (eg US FORUMS, WORLD FORUMS, GENERAL FORUMS, etc)… while all the state/city/topical groupings are defined at the FORUM and SUB-FORUM levels.

    In other words, in my humble opinion, it would actually be better for you to define PORTS/ALASKA/KETCHIKAN/ as a hierarchy of FORUMS… which you can already do with WPForo… and have a forum structure like this (BOLDS are categories, all others are forums/sub-forums)

    WELCOME/INTRO/ANNOUNCEMENTS
    – INTRODUCE YOURSELF
    -.-
    – ANNOUNCEMENTS
    -.-
    – FORUM FEEDBACK
    -.-

    PORTS DUSCISSIONS
    – ALASKA
    -.- KETCHIKAN
    -.- JUNEAU
    -.- SKAGWAY
    – TENNESSEE
    -.-
    – DELAWARE
    -.-

    GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by George Appiah. Reason: Removed unsupported HTML
    Thread Starter lanceschuler

    (@lanceschuler)

    thanks for the reply George. Makes sense, but how would prevent people from posting a topic in the alaska forum? I don’t want them too, and if given the chance they would post in it on a specific port topic.

    … but how would prevent people from posting a topic in the Alaska forum? I don’t want them too, and if given the chance they would post in it on a specific port topic.

    You can’t. In fact, people will post TENNESSEE stuff in an ALASKA forum or sub-forum, so this goes beyond the earlier CATEGORY vs FORUM discussion or even the choice of forum software.

    A good percentage of my posts here at www.remarpro.com is simply reminding and directing people to re-post their issue in the appropriate theme or plugin’s forum (as I don’t have the MODERATOR permission to move the post myself).

    It’s a human problem that cannot be solved with computer code (yet).

    You can give as many instructions as possible (as forum descriptions)… but people will still post in the “wrong” forums (and even begin with “I hope I’m posting in the right forum”… when they’re clearly not).

    But that’s where you come in as a forum administrator and moderator.

    Every forum software provides MODERATION tools to help the administrator and designated moderators maintain some sanity in the forum: move a post to the appropriate forum, lock a post for further discussion, ban recalcitrant users, ban inappropriate words, etc.

    Yes, there’s a lot of work that goes into growing, administering and moderating a successful forum.

    The good news is, unless you have a very active website already, there won’t be that many users and postings at the beginning (and in fact, you may be talking to yourself for a whole ?? ). And as your community grows, you can pick some of the more active users and assign them the MODERATOR role to take some of the burden off your shoulders.

    Your biggest challenge for now is actually STARTING and GROWING the community, which is far more bigger challenge that most people imagine.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by George Appiah. Reason: Added text for clarity
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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