Corporate Intranet.. forum categories?

[hstraf]

Hello,

I have been tasked with starting a message board / forum system for our company..

At this point I'm fairly confident on what technology I'll be using, but I have no idea what kind of categories to have.

So.. for all you employees out there.. what would YOU like to see for top-level (or lower level) forum categories?

Thanks!

[jamesglewisf]

Why don't you give us your own samples so that we can get a good idea of what you are talking about?

[hstraf]

OK. Here's my thoughts.. It's a unionized technology consulting company of about 300 people, spread out between 3 major locations with several smaller locations.

General Forums
- The Water Cooler (general chat, meet new people)
- New to CompanyName? (just started? Need some help finding out how things work?)
- Website Feedback (Suggesions, comments, etc.)
- Thoughts and Suggestions (do you want to discuss an idea to make CompanyName a better place?

Department Specific Forums
- Human Resources
- Power Supply
- Infrastructure Services
- one for each department/group

Technology Forums
- How Does This Work? (technology problems? Post your question here.)
- Programming Problems? (??)
- ??

Do you think this is too many different categories? Should I just have one or two general categories to start, and then build them out over time?

[jamesglewisf]

That looks excellent. I would start with those categories/forums and let the users suggest new ones.

I have found that some forums never take off. I just merge them with another and don't look back.

You might have an off-topic area for when a question doesn't fit any of the other categories. I would name it carefully, because you don't want it to be a place to hang out and goof off.