Thread icons

With the talk about having a forum for every conceivable topic (religion, jokes etc. etc.) wouldn't it be a good idea if we could give threads icons to show what the underlying topic is.
This way we can see at a glance if it's a discussion we are interested in and would like to join. Some titles can be a bit confusing.

But then you'll need hundreds of icons?
And if that will be the case, why would an icon be more descriptive than the title? With lots of icons surely there will be quite a few unclear to most of the people. Icons are better suited for recognition than they are of explaining.

Originally posted by Aiko
But then you'll need hundreds of icons?
And if that will be the case, why would an icon be more descriptive than the title? With lots of icons surely there will be quite a few unclear to most of the people. Icons are better suited for recognition than they are of explaining.

Why would you need 100s? Just general descriptions should be enough, you could have:

Religious
Scientific
Philosophical
Poltical
Current Affairs
Academia
Sport
Media

Maybe a couple of others, but these should cover 99% of the discussions, perhaps even a miscellaneous icon too.

Originally posted by Starrman
Why would you need 100s? Just general descriptions should be enough, you could have:

Religious
Scientific
Philosophical
Poltical
Current Affairs
Academia
Sport
Media

Maybe a couple of others, but these should cover 99% of the discussions, perhaps even a miscellaneous icon too.

Uhmmm.... yes, you are right, sorry, I was thinking this a bit more in depth. For instance, a topic with e.g. "I lost my slice of cheese in my car, what to do?" would need quite a specific icon. Ah, but you mean general icons of the topic where a discussion is being held, so to speak just an icon for the top topic 'Cheese' where the discussion of the lost slice of cheese is being held? Than just a few are enough, indeed. Guess I misunderstood the original post.

Originally posted by Starrman
Why would you need 100s? Just general descriptions should be enough, you could have:

Religious
Scientific
Philosophical
Poltical
Current Affairs
Academia
Sport
Media

Maybe a couple of others, but these should cover 99% of the discussions, perhaps even a miscellaneous icon too.

Yup, that's what I thought. Obviously the icons would only be used in the general and debates forums.

I just think that instead of people getting irritated and then moaning about how there should be new forums "because I don't like to talk about god" etc. etc. if you could indicate what the thread is 'about' then other users could easily skip past threads they're not interested in.