Nomercy, admin has asked how many subforums and for guidelines on them. Since this particular forum has 3 areas grouped together (small game, predators, trapping), there would obviously be a limit on how many sub-forums would be workable, both for moderating and for even a member trying to research a topic.

I understand what you're saying about Cabela's but am not sure that is doable within the HNI format. HNI already has categories and sub-categories of topics. Adding numerous sub-sub-categories would add an awkward # of layers to work through and find one's particular topic.

For our particular project, I like your idea of restricting new topics in the sub-forum review. As a new predator hunter, I am eager to find a resource that can help work through others' 10-20+ years of experience, i.e. finding a good starting e-caller or should I just take the plunge with a more expensive caller. Which calls work on which predators and why, what time of the year, etc. That type of information is invaluable for any hunter and especially for one learning about this type of hunting.

I need to give admin more guidelines or they will be left with just starting something that has to get modified many times and involves too much admin work and frustration for members.

From what you've posted so far, it would seem like we could possibly start with a single sub-forum just for predator hunting (small game and/or trapping could be added separately if there was a demand/need for them). Within this new sub-forum, topics could be run with polls at the top if appropriate/workable (some topics are too complex for a simple poll) and the posts could be restricted to only members who have used the item(s) in the field and their honest opinion based upon such usage.

This sub-forum would/could be moderated to group topics into single topics, such as preferred e-caller and why, and also have the posts in each topic moderated for appropriate content.

I think any sub-forum(s) that are created will inevitably be modified to best serve members' needs but that might be a good (and admin-workable) place to start. I really like the idea as it provides so much more than a Cabelas review page for just Cabelas sold equipment (not trying to pick on Cabelas) and it would enable contributing members and researching members to focus on what works best (or not) and not be restricted to just the product lines that a particular websites sells.

Let me know what you think. Chopayne, please jump in also.