What do members think of the new web site & forum structure?

Street at this point is still operating as a genre. It should shortly (this week I think) become a Weekly thread.

I strongly advocate that we do not rebuild/encourage the genres. We finish up with what we had before, lots of boxes with little activity in them and people making posts that are rarely responded to. Because everyone else uses genres or camera brands as categories, new arrivals here will pick up on that kind of organization if it is seen to be easily available here. What we are trying to do here is create plenty of activity with a relatively small number of members, to engage newcomers.
If anyone wants to post on, say, architecture, there is plenty of opportunity still to do it and get responses back from those interested. Some of the smaller genres are likely to be catered for in the under development "Abstract and Experimental" Weekly thread.
If anyone thinks they see enough interest in a particular subject to support a weekly thread, talk to us about it and we can help to set it up. If there isn't enough traffic to support a "weekly" it is probably better dealt with through the other posting avenues rather than as a genre.

You can make it that way if that's what you (plural) want.

But you are shoehorning the site down a somewhat narrow path.

One of the issues we discussed was the large page with many dormant forums. I agree that it is better to group them.

But there are and always will be people who don't want to post in managed threads. I believe there should still be the opportunity for individual forums.

I like the managed threads. But I don't always want to post in them. Case in point - it doesn't feel correct to me to post Yet Another Dragonfly in the weekly C&C - so where do I post them?

Yes, there has to be the option to post in a share thread or post solo.

Wouldn’t it work to post any image or image set of anything at all under Image Showcase? I’ve been a member in a forum that was genre-less and there was a section like this called Photo Gallery.

I have said this over and over and everyone misses it.

I am NOT suggesting more on the front page. PLEASE read what I say.

I am saying that there could still be genre specific forums listed under Showcase your Photos (I think that would be the best upper level category).

Maybe I am missing something about the Misago setup?

So I will ask - is it possible to have forums under one of the upper level ones?

Otherwise I will just prepend the title with Fauna, Flora, etc.

More dragonflies could go under Weekly Collegial, or This week through your eyes, or Image showcase. Or, if Bryan thinks there is enough interest, start a repeating thread on the subject. or think of a broader category for a repeating thread that might include Dragonflies. "Nature" could include BIF, macro, dragon flies, general ecology.
I think we need a descriptor with each of the Weekly Thread titles so people get an idea of what is inside it.

This is an interesting idea. Could you demonstrate how it would work in a dev model that won't affect the working version of the forum?

Tags would be a good long term solution. Hope we can get to that point!

I have lots of doubts about this. Big doubts.

1. We need descriptors on the forum headings so people know what will be within.
2. The issue seems to me to be overstated. For example, I find it hard to envisage why anyone who wants to post a landscape image, or look at landscape images, wouldn't go to, say, the landscape weekly. This presupposes that we have headings that enable them to find The Landscape weekly. If they post to that thread they will get a lot more response than they will get from a stand alone landscape. I can envisage as a hypothetcal, someone saying they would like to have stand alone posting. But in practice? I don't know about y'all, but when I post I want the best chance of it being seen and people responding. It is crystal clear from looking at the posting on our site that the shepherded weekly thread model is the most effective way to do this.
3. If someone really, really don't want to post to a shepherded thread, there is plenty of opportunity still on the site for them to do it. All they need to do is, as Bryan suggests, use a heading that gives readers a clue as to what they are posting about.
4. If they strike gold with a subject, maybe astro photography, and they get a volume of responses that indicates a groundswell of enthusiasts, a new Weekly, or perhaps Monthly, shepherded thread can be started if they wish.
5. What is being proposed at the moment very much bothers me. I'd want to see what it looked like and at this point I can't envisage it.
   I agree that most people expect photo sites to be arranged in genres and gear labels. If that is what people see, and especially if it is high up on what they see when they arrive, that is what they will reach for. The tag searches will, I suspect, become the same as genres in how they are used. How many of those little genre labels/boxes do you think we will have to have? It goes on forever. Even DPR with a vastly bigger membership has problems keeping all those boxes filled and active.
   Meanwhile, can anyone see a significant topic area that we are missing with the Weekly threads? Note that Street and "Abstract/Experimental" appear to be on the way. I think we need "Nature" but we don't seem to have enough interest from the current members. I'd hope that with more members this might become possible.
   I'd also like to see something with some political bite, like ecology and social issues.

If it's not a big deal, let's not bother Martin with it and please forget my comment.