If a category has many subcategories, it can make the category row on the category page quite high.
If you have a category with no subcategories or only a few and a short description, this category row will be quite small.
This causes an issue when setting the number of featured topics.
Set the featured topics too low, and the category with many subcategories will look like it only has that many topics in it and leave a big gap. Set the featured topics number so that it fills the large category, and it will expand the small category, making all the categories on your front page quite big.
An example:
Featured Topics set to 3:
Featured Topics set to 8:
Why is this a problem?
- If set low, the large category will appear like it has less activity than it does. I realise there are stats on the right, but this is about split second first impression for new visitors. And also, it kinda just doesn’t look right.
- If set high to fill the large category, the smaller categories are expanded. If you have say 10 top level categories, this can significantly grow the size of your front page meaning people have to scroll more and put more effort into scanning the page for a relevant category.
Question…
Would it not be possible to automatically determine the amount of featured topics to fill the size of the category row? Or at least have the option to set it per category? It would allow the small categories to take up less space, and the larger categories to look busy.