[Ent]

It has been mentioned repeatedly that we don't want too many forums and subforums and subsubforums and so on, and a number of proposed changes would create exactly that situation. These include Language Specific Software development forums, individual brands or OS divisions for handhelds, and so on. I agree wholeheartedly with the point. We don't want to create confusion among new members. We don't want helpers to miss threads they can do in an unfamiliar forum, and of course we don't want to make fora look too empty.
I'm therefore trying to think of an alternative solution, and I'm particularly attracted to the notion of a guided tagging system.

Essentially I'm thinking of a drop down box when people create a new thread (annalgous to the "Serious Debate?" box in the controversial forum) which allows people to set a tag for their thread. The tags would be predefined according to the names of the fora we're considering, such as Language in the Software Development one. Helpers can then see at a glance threads in whichever languages they feel competent in. Ideally, because it's standardized (i.e. everyone answers, and everyone says "javascript", not "JS", "Jscript"), they could also filter by language (or tablet OS or whatever other forum is proposed) to see only those threads. The drop down could also be automatically added as a normal thread tag for the standard search engine.

I don't propose that these be implimented across the board, only in those fora where an excessive number of divisions seems likely.