Organization of the Library

The value would be greatly enhanced with a topical directory.

[Dante_Maure]

The Library could easily become one of the single most visited webmaster resources on the net if it was organized in a topical fashion.

While the dewey decimal system might be a managerial nightmare, if nothing else, having the archived threads organized by forum would be an enormous time saver.

This could also help bring alot of new visitors up to speed by including a link in each forum to the appropriate forum archive, thereby avoiding a lot of redundant queries like "where can I find my PageRank".

Anybody care to share their thoughts?

Members... Mods... Admin?

[Marcia]

Dante, we actually have a library for each forum, but it's most likely an under-utilized feature. I've given some thought to what you're mentioning. I've tried a few times to dig through for topics that always show a lot of interest, primarily in the Google forum, but they're sometimes hard to categorize because sometimes there are a few major points covered in one.

I do have a small collection of topics, I've got a pretty good idea of what comes up repeatedly. But sometimes there are cross-overs that pertain to more than one forum, so what you're suggesting with cross-referencing is a good point.

We were getting repeated questions on where to submit, and there's a long post done in the Submission forum now, plus Brett's wonderful chart on search engine relationships that's in the Promotion forum. Those are both library items in those forums and an easy to find resource now.

Topics will get covered one at a time, it seems to come in waves of interest from what I've noticed. I've been thinking of something since this update started, and a member stickymailed me about that very thing this afternoon asking for threads, so that's next on the agenda.

Probably the forum libraries need some updating, and at some point it'll be possible to index across them.

[Dante_Maure]

Dante, we actually have a library for each forum,

Oh... there they are. lol :)

Granted, I'm relatively new to the community but I've spent literally hundreds of hours browsing the categories and various sections of the site without ever having noticed the library link in each forum.

but it's most likely an under-utilized feature.

I'm fairly sure your logs would support your hunch.

For one thing, in reading literally thousands of posts I've seen many people direct new users with questions to individual on topic threads, use of the site search feature, and to the site wide library, but not once have I seen a user directed to the forum specific library.

One possible solution I've seen used in other forums is to have a permanent locked "thread" that stays at the top of each topical forum that serves as a starting point for new visitors.

This could be used as a welcome / faq / which then directs users to important links such as the forum charter, the forum specific library, and even highlight a few of that forum's "hall of fame" threads.

Probably the forum libraries need some updating, and at some point it'll be possible to index across them.

Does each entry into the site wide library get simultaneously entered into the topic specific forum's library? (or vice versa?)