Thank you for your suggestions. The team are always willing to hear from members.
Change General Chat to Off Topic Chat or Discussion.As far as I'm aware this is the case already. Unless you mean the title of the section? Do you feel it would much of a difference? Other professional forums I go on use the title 'General Chat' and then have a description underneath saying something along the lines of "...for off-topic discussion..."
Introduce a New Members Forum and do away with the one thread for new members. This will give a more personal touch to new members and will look miles better.Due to a low traffic of new members I don't feel that this the best idea. I understand sometimes a single thread isn't sufficient enough, but the majority of members have already introduced themselves so there is no going back! We may consider a subforum though - I will see what the other Admins/Mods think. (other members are also welcome to voice opinions)
Possibly introduce seperate discussion areas for hobby enthusiasts like me and professional enthusiasts like Phosco or Claire.I don't quite understand what the main outcome would be in doing this?
Put the Archive at the very bottom of the forum.At present, the archive section is under 'General' because it relates to all forums, especially those which are non-lighting, hence why the decision was made to not place it under 'Streetlighting'. But I understand where you're coming from all the same.
Hide the collections thread from anyone not logged in. Currently it is visible but not accessible.On the older versions of UKASTLE, indeed Collections was completely hidden. The reason behind advertising it on the index page is to encourage members to sign up; it shows that there is more to UKASTLE than the standard forums which are visible to all. But if other members also agree that it is a better idea to hide it, please get in touch.
Possibly expand the collections area further with things like a dedicated ''For Sale & Wanted forum with a sub heading ''Streetlighting Related Only'' and another one with ''For Sale & Wanted'', sub heading: ''None streetlight related''. Also ban replies in these areas as any enquiries will be by PM. The seller can delete the thread once sold or an admin can set it to auto delete topics after 30 days. PHB forums have bbcode for a ''FOR SALE'' or ''WANTED'' tag to the title too.That is not a bad idea Stelmer. We can trial it with subforums within 'Collections' first. I will discuss this idea with the team first and then make some changes.