Important

[marx_was_right]

IMPORTANT

Since being made a moderator, I have not yet had time to carry out any changes here. I would now like to get started, but I will not do anything without the permission of the posters.

I think we have too many forums/sub forums which make discussions harder to follow.

So here is what I’d like to do

(No posts will be deleted, just moved)

In the ‘Activism’ category, I would like to merge ‘The US Labor movement’ with ‘Strikes and Labor Disputes’ with it being named the latter.

‘anti-war demonstrations’ should be re-named ‘demonstrations’.

The ‘Politics’ category seems fine for now, although I’d like to hear any ideas and suggestions as always.

In the ‘Get Involved’ section, do we need to add a YFIS USA, or should YFIS UK simply be merged with ‘Britain’ in the politics section?

Do we need 5 forums on the Middle East? Can they not be merged into one and put in the politics section?

‘Latest Discussions’ – I’d like to hear some suggestions on this.

‘Marxist Theory’ I’d like to see merged into a single ‘Theory’ forum.

‘Marxist Classics’ should be merged into one ‘Literature and Movies’ forum

‘Art, Music, Poetry and Culture’ should be merged into a single forum.

In ‘General Discussion’ the ‘social’ and ‘non-political’ forums should be merged into a ‘talk about anything’ forum.

As for the ‘Intellectual property debate’ I’m not sure, could it fit in anywhere else?

The basic idea is to cut down on the forums/sub forums to make the forum more accessible.

I look forward to your feedback.

[TiK]

sounds like it all makes sense!

Intellectual property could be put in to "Art , music, poetry and culture" ?

[fire_mat99]

That would be good thing ! Too many forums/sub forums .

This form put the The Middle East  in the blow so it looks like.



 United States
 
   
 Europe
 
   
 Canada
   
   
 Britain  

Middle East  ( you do not need all other Middle East  countrys )



Latest Discussions is fine

Marxist Theory some thing should be done here

Art, Music, Poetry, Culture  put all to gether

[fire_mat99]

In the ‘Activism’ category, I would like to merge ‘The US Labor movement’ with ‘Strikes and Labor Disputes’ with it being named the latter.

‘anti-war demonstrations’ should be re-named ‘demonstrations’.


good idea

[Morag]

It looks good. Although, and this is embarrassing, but do we need the forum on Canada? I think I might be the only one using the forum, now, from Canada, and talking to oneself is actively discouraged here. Maybe you could amalgamate the Canadian and American threads under "North America." It doesn't make sense to amalgamate other areas, but not North America. Which would toss Mexico up in the air- North American, or Latin American?

[proletarianrevo]

Personally, I dont have a big problem with the way that the forum is organised now - since you can see all your unviewed posts by simply logghing in to the forum. However, I reckon that new comrades might be scared off signing up, by the rather caotric state of the forum. So all in all I think Igor´s suggested "reforms" look fine. With two little amendments:
I dont think that "Marxist classics" should be fused with "Literature and movies". It would create a mix-mash between two remote subject-fields. I think that we still need a place for threads about Marxist classics (maybe just one forum for it, instead of having individual sub-forums for the diofferent books...). Secondly I think it should be considered to add a forum for discussions in Non-English languages. In this way we might hope to attract more people from other countries, who do not possess English at a discussion level. This might later lead them to have a look at the English discussions....

[Daymare17]

While we're at it, why not clean the table shiny.

I think we ought to look at http://www.revolutionaryleft.com forums (former che-lives) for inspiration, since their subject matter is basically the same, and the forum layout is one of the simplest. We can make it even leaner since we have fewer members.

Suggestions:

Add an "Introduce yourself!" forum

Add a "news" forum

Add one politics forum for each continent (maybe except antartica). Lots of members have requested this.

On anti-war demonstrations and the labor disputes, stick with igor's ideas.

Turn "get involved" into one forum where people can ask questions about what they can do in their area.

One thing to remember is to keep/make the forum names simple. "Historical Analysis" is overkill when "History" does the trick just fine.

Delete the following forums:
United States, Canada (move the contents into North America)
Britain, The Balkans (move it into Europe)
YFIS UK (Move it into "Get Involved")
all of the middle east forums (into Asia)
latin american revolution (into south america)
Marxism and the state (into Marxism FAQ, which is renamed "Political Theory")
Historical Materialism (into historical analysis, which is renamed "History")

Rename "Dialectical Materialism" into "Philosophy"

Rename "Marxist economics" into just "economics" (makes the frontpage more attractive you see) and put the contents of "World economic crisis" into there as you delete the forum.

Make a new forum called "culture" where you put the contents of the following forums, which you then delete.
All 3 "marxist classics" forums, and all three art music etc. forums.

Pour the non political forum into the social one and discard the non political forum since the two forums always overlap anyway.

Add appropriate blurbs for each forum.

Fry for ten minutes and serve straight from the pan.

After all this is done the frontpage will look something like this:


 YFIS DISCUSSION BOARD

Introduce Yourself! - Say hi to the comrades!
Social - Here you can talk about ANYTHING!!
News - Cant you think up the rest of the blurbs yourself?

 Activism

Strikes and Labor Disputes
Demonstrations
Get Involved!

 Politics

North America (down to the Panama Canal)
South America
Africa
Europe
Asia

 Theory

Political
History
Philosophy
Economics
Culture


And suddenly it's a lean, mean, discussion machine!

The list is obviously open to amendments. If you get all this done then you will be reeking with respect, Igor. Great that someone finally got around to cleaning up! I can help you with the lousy work if you need it, just give me admin status and teach me the ropes.

[marx_was_right]

Thanks Rune, excelent suggestions. I will contact you later on today :)

[Morag]

I agree with Daymare, except that I do think that the Middle East warrants its own forum and shouldn't be lumped in with Asia, however technically correct that may be.

[marx_was_right]

YFIS DISCUSSION BOARD

General

Introduce Yourself! - Say hi to the comrades!
Social - Here you can talk about ANYTHING!!
News - Post any latest news stories here.

Activism

Strikes and Labor Disputes
Demonstrations
Get Involved!

Politics

North America (down to the Panama Canal)
South America
Africa
Europe
Middle East
Asia

Theory

Political
History
Philosophy
Economics
Culture

Does anyone have any problems with this layout as it looks good to me?

I just need the blurbs now, i'm relying on you all chipping in with some ;)

[marx_was_right]

I have carried out most of the ‘re-structure’ work, let me know what you all think and if there are any changes still to be made. There is still a lot of threads to be moved into the correct categories and I will get round to that over the next few days. The main thing though was to improve the user friendliness of the forum, I think it’s looking a lot better now and hopefully we’ll get some new members to add to the excellent discussions here :)

[Daymare17]

Great work! Looks good now.

[the_sociallist]

Originally posted by igor
IMPORTANT
Do we need 5 forums on the Middle East? Can they not be merged into one and put in the politics section?

Middle east is too broad a topic...r u talking about the war in iraq?  r u talking about the nuclear crisis in Iran and the possible US invasion?  Are ou talking about the Al Quida in Pakistan and Afganistan?  Are you talking about the isreali and palestinians?

[the_sociallist]

The middle east needs to be broken into Iran/Iraq and than all others.

The middle east is a hot topic, world politics are based upon what is happening in the middle east.

[marx_was_right]

I understand what you are saying comrade but the forums (even the middle east one) aren't exactly overflowing with posts and threads are they? I think in the current situation "less is more" applies, just because we have more (and more specific) forums does not mean there will be more discussion or people joining.