I voted for minor changed only: the forum as it is could do with a few minor changes, but in general it is structured fine.
The main change I’d suggest is to put the PCB/EDA board in the ‘Electronics’ Section, below Projects, Designs and Technical Stuff. At the least since it is a better fit in the Electronics Section.
Main sections
The current main sections ‘Electronics’ and ‘EEVblog’ are great. One is dedicated to everything electronics, and the other to more as a community section with the boards directly related to the EEVblog, electronics and the community.
To me the PCB/EDA Design section and board always has been a bit strange, like the black sheep on the bottom of the page. Yet I encounter many topics in the ‘beginners’ and ‘Projects, design and technical stuff’ –boards that are a good fit in this section/board/sub-category.
Deciding on boards/sub-boards
I think the main reason to have sub-categories is when the main category turns out to be too generic. So when deciding on splitting boards into sub-categories, that should be the main deciding factor.
The reverse is true as well. If a board has a too specific topic, it might be better to merge it with a similar board. That way the topics should get more views and stay alive.
I remember that a while ago, the ‘Microcontroller & FPGAs’ section was decided not to be split into sub-sections for this reason. Since then I’ve never thought that I should’ve.
Suggestions
• Currently the ‘Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff’ board is “This is the big catch-all thread for anything electronic.” This board in particular could do with a few sub-boards. I’d suggest at least one for projects/logs. I think those topics in particular are important as the discussion takes you through a lot of design decisions. I’ve found that there is a wealth of information in those threads and putting them into a separate category could help distinguish them from the shorter, more ‘single-question’ related topics.
• From time to time there are threads asking fellow members to review a design, mostly a PCB layout. I think those topics fit into a board within what is currently the PCB/EDA board. I’d suggest renaming it into Schematic & PCB design & Manufacturing i.e. everything related into getting your design actually made. The current EDA software specific boards can stay, those really help to get to your specific package quickly. Or vice versa to easily locate and answer question on the software you are familiar with. I suggest to put this board and its sub-boards directly below the ‘projects, designs, and technical stuff’ board for visibility.
• The ‘Test equipment’ board is one important section of the forum. Since it’s so big it might help to put a few sub-boards in on the most encountered types of gear: oscilloscopes and multimeters
• I’d be against merging the ‘Test equipment’, ‘other equipment & products‘ and/or ‘repair’ boards. The current division between them really helps to keep the topics apart.
• It might be helpful to create a ‘soldering equipment’ or ‘soldering’ sub-board in ‘other equipment & products’
• I don’t really know how much the ‘Open Source Hardware’ and ‘Crowd Funded Projects’ need a separate main-board. It might be an idea to put them both as sub-boards under a ‘new’ (merged) main-board.
• I really like the suggestion posted above to change the “Contest” board into a board on events, seminars, webinars, exhibitions, promotions, contests etc. Please do that.
So in summary:
Electronics {
Beginners
Projects, Designs, & Technical Stuff
Project Logs, <important sub-category 1>, <important sub-category 2>
Schematic, PCB design & manufacturing
PCB Design, Manufacturing & Assembly, KiCad/gEDA, DIPtrace, Eagle, Altium Designer, DesignSpark
Test Equipment
Oscilloscopes, Multimeters, Power Supplies (?)
Other Equipment & Products
Soldering Tools
Repair
Microcontrollers & FPGAs
<new name>
Open Source Hardware, CrowdFunded Projects
}
EEVblog {
<Everything the same except:>
Events, promotions & contests (instead of 'Contests')
}
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