Making The Forums The Forefront Of ExtremeHW

[ENTERPRISE]

Hello all. 

 

As part of the 2023 initiative I am wanting to ensure that we are capturing as much traffic as possible with a view to growing our community. 

 

Over 2022 I have been developing the forums homepage to capture as many different content types as possible, including our reviews. This has been in an effort to make the homepage a one stop shop digest of ExtremeHW overall.  

 

I strongly feel that we are at a point whereby on the forums homepage, it is difficult to "miss out" on the daily goings on within the community. At the moment our ExtremeHW.net domain points directly to our reviews site, however the heart of the community is on our forums, at forums.extremehw.net. 

 

Much of our traffic hits extremehw.net but our forums capture a very small percentage of that. So I am wanting to switch things up and host our forums on the forefront of our domain, extremehw.net. Now that forum experience is where I want it, it seems counterproductive to hide it behind a subdomain and have people pass us by. Generally speaking, if you have not captivated a passer by within the first 10 seconds, you likely wont. Instant first impressions are so important.

 

I feel that this move will have little affect to the reviews side of EHW as we promote the reviews heavily on the forums homepage via the carousel and the "Latest Reviews" block. Just as a note, the reviews site will still exist as is, it would now be moved to a subdomain.

 

I am happy to hear thoughts on this move before I commit to it.

 

Many Thanks,

E

[UltraMega]

Much needed change. Glad you got the back end sorted 

Edited January 7, 2023 by UltraMega

[Avacado]

Agree and support your decision. Lead us oh great one!

[bonami2]

That a great idea never did think about talking about it but it a real issue even for myself.

It add another click to reach the forum and for someone that is not used to forum as much as we do will probably make them give up.

EHW is the best forum 

 

[Fluxmaven]

This is a welcome change. I have always had forums.extremehw.net bookmarked and rarely go to the main site. 

[schuck6566]

3 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

This is a welcome change. I have always had forums.extremehw.net bookmarked and rarely go to the main site. 

Same here, I was like "What main site?" I'm not on the main site?

[Sir Beregond]

100% the right move to make E. 

[pio]

Very welcome change.  Definitely support this decision, I see it as nothing but a good thing.  Our reviews are still top and centered on the forum homepage, and right below that you get to see the community content.  If that's not enough to get somebody to click around, nothing is going to.  We have some top notch reviewers, if I must say so myself, but that's just a small portion of what the site offers.  

[neurotix]

Probably a wise move.

[ENTERPRISE]

Well as I thought, it looks like this move is welcomed. 

 

I will start making preparations with the team to make this move happen

 

Thanks for the input all! 

E

[LordXeb]

I think this a great idea as well. Going to throw my hat in the ring if you need help I am on board.