Chris Weimer

I'm getting there, I'm getting there. Well, let's break up the DSS, shall we? What are the main types of scrolls found there? Biblical, Pesher, Apocryphal, "Qumranistic," what am I missing...?

Messianic, interpretation, prophetic, mysteries, psalms/hymns,

Ted Hoffman

No offense intended but this is so damn funny. Muu haha haha.

Chris Weimer

What's funny? Me being a novice, or them thar intelligent folks correcting me?

Ted Hoffman

The whole shebang. No offence - really. I will definitely post in your site - you will allow ignoramuses like me to post - right?

Chris Weimer

of course, post away. I'll be working out the kinks under Spin's guidance, of course.

Spin, you too Joel, how do you think I should divide up the DSS forum? And other forums as well. You advice is highly appreciated.

Celsus

I think you should keep it to as few divisions as possible, until such time as there is a necessity to split the forums on account of cluttering and drowning out. Therefore, if you want a Judaeo-Christian Literature site you should have as main divisions:

Biblical
Jewish
Christian

Under Biblical: Ta, Na, Kh, Apocrypha
Jewish: DSS, Pseudepigraphia, Later Writings (Mishna + Talmud, forget Kabbalah, unless you also intend to put in stuff like Mormon texts)
Christian: Gospels, Pauline/pseudo-Pauline Epistles, Others (Canonical), Pseudepigraphia
Miscellaneous: Where everything that doesn't fit goes

There you go: 13 forums only, but that still sounds like too much. Now if it were to happen that mad OT scholars descend upon your forum and fill it with enormous amounts of discussion on the prophets, you can split it later into the Deuteronomistic History and the Prophets, and if they keep flooding, divide it into DtrH (former prophets), Latter prophets, and the Twelve (a.k.a. minor prophets). This may be too formal, and you could split it into Historical (Gen-Kings), Prophets, and Ketuvim since there's probably going to be a lot of overlap in looking at the DtrH and Torah. Similarly, if tons of NT scholars flood your Christian section, you could split it into Synoptics, Johannine, Pauline, Deutero-Pauline, and whatnot. But don't expect this to happen any time soon, so keep it simple in the meantime...

Joel

Chris Weimer

Thanks for the advice. Wow, you sound so rational... By the way, sorry about the comment.

Chris Weimer

I've updated the forum, what do you think of it now?

Celsus

You're welcome, and don't worry, it's already forgotten.

Joel

Celsus

Much better than my version, that's for sure. For consistency though, replace "Prophets" with Nebiim (or Nevi'im, etc.). Perhaps the subtexts need to be more descriptive. Also, make sure you start up some welcome sticky thing that tells people what the forum is about, what sort of discussions you want to see, that sort of thing. Next step, download and install some skins off the phpBB website and bin subSilver quickly before you start hacking the template (or else you'll never change it later). What goes on the rest of the site?

Joel