Displaying all the topics on AB

[boxtops]

Ed, there has been some discussion this morning about the drop-down topic menus which appear when you click on the Topic heading, or on the individual headings. Why don't the sub-headings display all time? New members (and some of the old ones) don't always know that there is an appropriate sub-heading for their topic. (The query this morning was about Hobbies, which is not evident to all as hiding under Society & Culture.)
Why can't all the headings and sub-headings be displayed all the time, please?

(and BTW if I display the sub-headings, they close again as soon as I change screens.)

[ummmm]

They close when I change screens as well.

[bibblebub]

If one posts a question from the home page then one can only select a category (should that be renamed as topic?), not the sub-topics. Maybe that should be changed too.

[naomi24]

It's an excellent idea to have all the sub-headings permanently on display. I'm sure if they were more interest would be shown in some of the more neglected categories.

[ChuckFickens]

Or people wouldn't be bothered to scroll down all the way through the list of topics so everything would be posted in the top half.

I don't think it would make much difference to the people that post in the wrong topics either, they seem like they will continue to post in a totally random topic no matter what is done, I sometimes think there are a few posters on here who'd manage to get post in the wrong place if there was only one topic!

[naomi24]

Chick, I only ever post in minor topics if an interesting question pops into the gray box, but I think if all the topics were on display I'd be more inclined to 'click' and have a look. And actually, I think some of the minor topics could be ditched. Politics for example.

[naomi24]

Sorry, 'Chuck'. Oops!

[ChuckFickens]

They would have to ditch a hell of a lot of topics.

One of the first rules of clear and concise web page design is to try and get all the main aspects of the page into the top part of the page so people have not got to scroll down to find what they want, AB manages this on my normal aspect ratio monitor and is not that far off on a wide screen monitor. it all comes down to people being lazy by nature, if they click onto a web site and what they want to see isn't on the first page that comes up then they won't start scrolling down through pages of information to find it.

[ChuckFickens]

P.s.

Chick is better than Chuckfingers, which is what I got referred to in a post yesterday :)

[AB Editor]

As Chuck says it would be a stupidly long list for most - and many don't scroll down at all.

In essence, for those people, the current system offers them everything from Adverts to Tech, but in the new System it only ranges from Adverts to Diy.

We'll probably be moving towards a tagging system in the future which should make things a little easier.

Spare Ed

[vivandorron]

It was a year or more before an AB member drew my attention to hitting the Topics button to get the full list. Up until then I had looked for what I thought was a suitable section and, without a further sideways glance, just posted my question.

Perhaps many other folk are doing what I did. Consequently as many ABers post into a Main Heading, I would question the need for so many sub divisions.

Ron.

[Dris]

Learn something new everday !
After all those years I didnt know you could expand the Topics by clicking on the bar -amazing.I try to select the proper category anyway even although its hit or miss at times.

[boxtops]

I only learned it the other day, dris, when chickfingers explained it to me ;-)

[anneasquith]

well even i knew about the topics sub section !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[naomi24]

Wow! I didn't know that. That's excellent! Maybe it should be included in the tutorial. Problem solved!!