Ok... So yesterday I created sections for every thing. Some people really liked them, some people really didn't.
This morning I wanted to see what I could do to simplify things.
I broke things up into three categories: International Arcade Museum, Arcade Machines (including all machine sections, all tech, all for sale, etc.), and a tiny non-machine category (for things like 'Chat About Almost Anything').
In short, it didn't look good. With just over a dozen sections in the Arcade Machine categories they sort of all ran together. So I tried something else.
I separated out Tech and Trading into their own categories. I then removed the sub-titles from nearly all the category and forum sections (only adding a few where clarification would clearly be helpful).
Instead of sorting by type of machine, I have sorted by type of discussion (general, tech, trading). It's part of my desire to support not just the majority videogame collector, but also the minority often-neglected collector of older penny arcade and EM games...
Removing a couple hundred words from the list seems to have helped.
I personally like the monitor tech section that was created and so do most of the people that have contacted me, though I know a few people don't. As far as the cabinet section, it is a little more unclear. Part of me thinks it would be fine to merge it back into general tech help, and part of me things that one of the advantages of keeping it separate is so it can occasionally be of help on non-videogame, non-pinball machines (ie: older wood arcade games, etc.). If those topics are buried in a mostly videogame section, they will never get seen by anyone else.
I'm done moving things around the home page for the day. There is only so much I (and you) can take at a time. Please give it a chance to become a little less unfamiliar and then let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Greg