I noticed that the URL for this category for instance ends in a number 9: Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
It’s a different number for each board. For that matter what does the /c/ indicate. That’s the same for each URL.
The /c/ means category, much like every thread a has a /t/.
User profiles are /u/.
Though tags are /tag/
The number is an index number for each category. (Forum)
This helps with database storage. For instance if you were ignoring the Pit(11) but watching ATMB (8), they only need to store the respective number in each bucket.
Update: ninja’ed.
Weren’t there hidden categories, like ‘double-secret Mod Forums,’ or is asking about that going to get me ssent to the Principal’s offiice?
Tripler
http://boards.straightdope.com/c/Shut-the-hell-up-Tripler-before-you-get-us-all-into-trouble
There are many hidden forums. Probably some hiding from me.
Minor fun trick, when looking at the forum, edit the url by removing the name and changing the number to let’s say 8. Like this: \https://boards.straightdope.com/c/8
It will resolve to ATMB.
The numbers of the forums are the order in which they were created. And yes, there exist forums that are visible only to the moderators, and forums that once existed but are now defunct but still have a lingering undead existence.
They end in 666.
on that, shouldn’t this thread be moved there?
Third time I was asked this believe it or not. As the question is really about Discourse in the end and not the SDMB, I figured it can stay here. Any FQ Moderator can override this of course.
Got it!
Maybe Site Feedback?
Is it really feedback?
I believe this is all of the visible forums plus one Discourse added:
| Category | # |
|---|---|
| site-feedback | 2 |
| comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports | 7 |
| about-this-message-board | 8 |
| factual-questions | 9 |
| miscellaneous-and-personal-stuff-i-must-share | 10 |
| the-bbq-pit | 11 |
| great-debates | 13 |
| in-my-humble-opinion | 14 |
| cafe-society | 15 |
| the-game-room | 17 |
| politics-elections | 22 |
| marketplace | 23 |
| thread-games | 28 |
| the-quarantine-zone | 29 |
| templates | 30 |
Templates are almost like text macros. I seem to be the only one using these.
And please, drop the meta-conversation about where this thread belongs.
What some of the extinct forums?
Exactly, though we recently got rid of a few of those also. I tagged them and moved the threads to another one of the hidden forums and Ed removed the forum completely.
What does Ed know that we don’t know that we should know?
Well he has a direct line to Cecil, but I’m not sure we should have that.
I suspect he knows a lot we don’t know but as I don’t know what that is, I can’t help you know what it is we don’t know that we should know that he knows.
You know?
I think that, WAY back in the beginning (i.e., 1999), there were a few hidden forums created to test things out before the real forums were created. The contents of those forums are long gone, even to moderators, but their existence has still left an imprint on the numbering of the forums that we do have.
Then there were forums that did actually exist and were visible to the public for a while, like The Barn House and Straight Dope Chicago, and (briefly) an April Fool’s forum and a Halloween-themed forum.
And then there are a few moderator-only forums, that we use for things like tracking Warnings and looking out for repeat sock-trolls.
Oh, and while this is partly about Discourse in general, it’s also about the history and evolution of this specific board, so I think that ATMB is probably the better fit. Moving.
Cool. What was the focus of the Barn House forum?