Community Input on Lenovo Forum Organization

[MidnightSun]

Little more than a year after the last major reorganization of the Lenovo subforum, it seems Lenovo could be at another turning point of sorts. With the shift to 6-row island keyboards across the board, there's less and less distinction between "traditional" Thinkpads and the more "consumer-ized" Thinkpads. We've also seen some confusion in the last year of how the board is organized.

The Lenovo moderation team is currently discussing how best to organize this section of NBR: we don't all agree, and there's several pros and cons to weigh. Please feel free to post constructive comments and logical reasoning, but let's keep it in this thread.

Several notes:
1) As there's so many different ways of approaching this, I see little point for a poll: if there is overwhelming support for a particular option, it will quickly become clear.
2) We moderators do tend to have lives, and we do have a lot on our plates. Please realize that we may not have the time to explain every single reason for each of our decisions, although I'll personally try my best to make our reasoning clear.

Now, have at it.

[ibmthink]

First, thank you for opening this thread. I think the organization now is very confusing.

I think we should have 1 major forum (ThinkPads) and two sub-forums (1 for ThinkPad Edge (and SL) and 1 for the IdeaPads/Essential).

In the ThinkPad forum, there should be all lines without the Edge branding (except SL), namely T/W/X (X with X1 Carbon and the X1xxe) and L (this is important, because L is completely displaced in the Edge forum), and all old IBM ThinkPads. The SL should be in the Edge forum, because it was the Edge at its time.

[red grenadine]

First, thank you for opening this thread. I think the organization now is very confusing.

I think we should have 1 major forum (ThinkPads) and two sub-forums (1 for ThinkPad Edge (and SL) and 1 for the IdeaPads/Essential).

In the ThinkPad forum, there should be all lines without the Edge branding (except SL), namely T/W/X (X with X1 Carbon and the X1xxe) and L (this is important, because L is completely displaced in the Edge forum), and all old IBM ThinkPads. The SL should be in the Edge forum, because it was the Edge at its time.

I agree with this

[hmmwv]

I think the current model works but IMO we should have the Edge subforum dedicated to Edge and SL, while the main forum is used for L,X,T,W series, and add an additional Legacy Thinkpad forum for older models (prior to the XXX0, TXX0, WXX0 name change in 2008), the consumer Ideapad/Essential forum should remain the same.

[sbl03]

My suggestion: There should be three subforums for Thinkpad, Ideapad, and Essential. There should then be subforums for each Thinkpad series within the Thinkpad subforum.

EDIT: NVM, was not aware of the way this forum was organized. This would make the Notebook Manufacturers thread even more traumatically cramped.

[2.0™]

I think the current model works but IMO we should have the Edge subforum dedicated to Edge and SL, while the main forum is used for L,X,T,W series, and add an additional Legacy Thinkpad forum for older models (prior to the XXX0, TXX0, WXX0 name change in 2008), the consumer Ideapad/Essential forum should remain the same.

My suggestion: There should be three subforums for Thinkpad, Ideapad, and Essential. There should then be subforums for each Thinkpad series within the Thinkpad subforum.

These are both excellent suggestions and would likely make it easier for those new to the forum to find the appropriate section. I especially like the idea of a "legacy Thinkpad" sub-section.

And it might serve to separate Ideapad from Essential considering the direction Lenovo seems to be taking with these lines.

[Tsunade_Hime]

Should be how ThinkPad Forums does but you know that's just me.

[MidnightSun]

Thanks for the constructive comments so far.

These are both excellent suggestions and would likely make it easier for those new to the forum to find the appropriate section. I especially like the idea of a "legacy Thinkpad" sub-section.

I too like the idea of the "legacy" category. The description will be important to draw the distinction, though.

So far, in my mind, a breakdown that I think would work well without making drastic changes would be:
IdeaPad/Essentials
Thinkpad Edge
Legacy Thinkpads (T61/X61/R61/Z61 & Earlier)

We don't have quite the Thinkpad-exclusive traffic that forums like TPF or Lenovo has, so it would only stifle discussion and create more of a "ghost town" if too many sections were created.

At the same time, it would be valuable to prevent threads of less-popular IdeaPad and legacy Thinkpad models from getting pushed down the page too quickly. The Essential line has little traffic as is, so I think keeping it with IdeaPads for now would probably be more prudent.

Also, moving the X1/X1C, X100e/X120e, and L/SL to the bulk Lenovo section would clear up the current rather-confusing subsection name.

Finally, not breaking apart T/W and X-series Thinkpads would allow better "sharing" of the many topics common to the lines (ie, keyboard feel).

[ZaZ]

I personally don't think the legacy ThinkPads generate enough traffic to warrant their own forum. I think the current set up works fine for the most part, the traditional ThinkPads in the main forum with the newer consumerish ThinkPads in their own forum and consumer Lenovo in theirs too.

[lenardg]

...
IdeaPad/Essentials
Thinkpad Edge
Legacy Thinkpads (T61/X61/R61/Z61 & Earlier)
...
Also, moving the X1/X1C, X100e/X120e, and L/SL to the bulk Lenovo section would clear up the current rather-confusing subsection name.
...

I like this 3 subforums suggestion, as outlined by MidnightSun based on the discussion.

Separating the Thinkpad lines is not a very good idea in my opinion. As has been pointed out, by keeping them together, common features can be discussed together. I also find it that personally I am interested in multiple lines (T/W/X), so I would really hate if I needed to switch forums all the time. Currently when I want to catch up on the X1C thread, I need to switch forums and I am kind of annoyed with that.

I also like that this way the more current models - the ones most people are probably interested in - would be instantly visible in the main forums. The older models ("legacy") might interest less people and keeping that separate is a good idea in my opinion.