Hi Nova,
I agree that the forum has kind of grown a bit erratically in certain areas. We have 319 topics in the forums now, and it can be a bit overwhelming to read all the posts in each of them.
I try to summarize the main findings from the forums within a fairly well organized main site:
http://www.physicsgre.com
(i.e. a site map, and essential tour)
(i.e. when the GR0177 came out I included that finding in the main site)
As a quick response to your original post I have combed through the forum and found all posts pertaining to the ETS physics problems (i.e. GR0177, GR9677, GR9277, and GR8677) and moved them to the
ETS Physics Problems Forum. Also I added the test and problem number into the title of each post (i.e. GR0177 #61). Perhaps setting up a new Q and A forum for each test would be a good idea but subdividing the forums too much can add to the confusion. I think what I might try is to post a "sticky" thread on top of the ETS physics problems forum that indexes all the threads that talk about certain ETS problems.
I also think I am overdue to do full sweep of the forum to give it more organization. Some of the things I plan to do are:
1) move some of the off topic posts into the "everything else forum".
2) re-word some of the titles so that are highly descriptive of what is contained in the thread.
3) move all posts into the most appropriate forum category.
4) of course delete any spam - but I already do a pretty good job at getting rid of all the random spam stuff).
5) ?? other suggestions are welcome
I also plan to simplify the forum layout a bit so it is less busy. Also, I plan to include a different header in the forum so people know that there is a main site.
I think I should also read all the threads and identify some of the really useful ones and link to them from a prominent area of the main site.
I also think I should look for a moderator to monitor the forum on a daily basis as my time is somewhat limited - but i do enjoy it when i have the time to improve the site and so I make time.
I appreciate your comments. They give me motivation to give the site some more attention.