The discussion Do users properly use categories? began with wellbing-go wondering how to help users choose the right categories, as some users don’t read the category descriptions carefully and often choose the first category. ondrej suggested that category names should be short and obvious, and that the category description should be written well.
Canapin shared an example of an app that forces a category pick before start writing, and Moin pointed out that this feature is also available in Discourse. Bas shared an example of Wix’s approach to simplifying categories, which noahl explained was the result of moving from “conversation style” categories to “intent-based” categories. This change led to significant increases in engagement and retention.
noahl also shared that they use tags to separate topics within categories, and that they had to manage a large number of existing topics when making the change. wellbing-go found this idea awesome, and noahl explained how they handled the existing topics, which took around a day to complete. The community was informed in advance about the changes, and the outcome was positive, with haydenjames bookmarking the discussion and appreciating the “less is more” approach.
Hi!
In our forum, some users don’t read the category description carefully, they often just choose the first category.
Previously, we make the first category Require moderator approval of all new topics. It didn’t work well, mods spent a lot of time helping users select the right one.
I wonder how you organize the categories and how you help users choose the right categories.
Hi @wellbing-go 
Mmh an interesting one… Although I’d say users don’t read (I’m guilty of this too) in general, I’ve not had issues with other users choosing the wrong category unless they are new etc.
Are your category names short and obvious? For example Support. And is the category description written well?
I’d try and find out why maybe its just the users or perhaps its confusing. Reach out to them via PM or create a topic explaining that categories are there to help organise the forum and increase its searchability etc. So it helps everyone if topics are categorised properly and if they have any questions to contact staff.
These are just my ideas but I’d love to hear what other ideas / experiences others have here.
If they choose one at all! 
Thanks for your sincere advice 
This topic makes me think of this post:
An example of an app that forces a category pick before start writing.
This:
and in addition to that, how many categories do you have?
Because we as community managers tend to have quite a few. Unfortunately, the nuances that are evident for us are less evident for first-time users.
I’ve been very enamoured by Wix’s recent approach of radically simplifying things, here’s their category dropdown in its entirety:
Or in meme format..
cc: @noahl I’m bragging about your work again 
You can do that in Discourse.
When you disable allow uncategorized topics and have “no category” in default composer category, you have to choose a category before you can type.
True.
Nolo’s example of a different flow with a mandatory, clear and free from distractions display of all the categories and their descriptions might help users pick the right category.
Thanks @Bas!
A few extra insights into how we got to 3 categories (only 2 of which users can create topics in). I know cutting back on categories can be hard!
We had 16 categories when we first launched our forum—each based around a conversation style: “Ask a question”, “General”, “Feedback”, etc.
Not only was it frustrating to manage and make sure everything was organised correctly, but it was also frustrating for users. We saw a month-over-month decrease in engagement and activity—simply because topics were incorrectly categorized.
We moved from “conversation style” categories to “intent-based” categories and have seen significant increases in engagement and retention.
We asked ourselves why people came to our forum, and it all boiled down to asking questions and showing off projects. We then use tags to separate topics within categories (e.g., “code”, “design”, “cms”, etc.).
A little preview into our thought processes:
Hi, Noah. Your idea is awesome!
But I wonder how you manage the previously existing topics, that could be a lot 
I guess you’re referring to moving the existing topics to new categories?
If so - yeah, it was a lot I think at that point, we had 45K+ topics across all the categories. Luckily, almost all of them were in the “Discussion> Ask a question” category, which we moved to be a main category, renamed as “Ask the community” and then moved the other categories’ topics into it.
Overall, it took ~1 full day of work to make the changes, and then obviously planning in advance.
For example, mapping all of the old pinned topics, and the permalinks needed to redirect to the new pinned topics for each new category.
We also took the time to communicate in advance to users - Studio Community Updates: What’s New - Be in the know - Community Support Forum | Wix Studio - explaining the decisions and the timeframe, which was super important to ensure regular users wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the change.
Bookmarked. Thanks for sharing this. I’m thinking about the Wix audience/niche vs. other tech niches, but often “less is more”. Kudos. 
