Rearranging the forum?

[kubicle]

First of all, if this suggestion would create a lot of work, feel free to disregard it.

Anyway, the rearrangement of the forums has been discussed before...and most common concern has been the length of the start page. (Which makes finding the right forum a bit intimidating and also causes quite a bit of scrolling )

To fight these issues I quickly put together a mock-up of an alternative arrangement to shorten and rationalize the start page...it's just a suggestion, I'm sure people can come up with better solutions. :P

Just a quick sketch, I tried to emphasize 3 ideas:

1. Shortening the Main page by reducing the number of top-level forums. This is done mostly by combining some (less used) top-level forums into sub-forums

2. Making the Documentation Forum more visible (and that way more used as a place for HOWTOs etc.)

3. Changing the basic top/sub-forum arrangement, making release versions as sub-forums. (Since most questions are not release specific, it is easier to browse for network support in one forum...instead of three) For release specific issues there would still be sub-forums.

Anyway, just wanted to know what you think, some of you probably prefer the current arrangement...and some might even call for more drastic changes.

I do understand that it is far easier to suggest changes than to actually make them happen, so I fully understand if you are not very enthusiastic to make any changes

[askrieger]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

I like you're suggestion for rearranging the forums,but I'd make a few changes: Rather than setting everything to be version specific, I'd make the hardware subsections refer to sound, video, printers and scanners, usb, and other or maybe just one big section. I'd separate the networking section into two subforums: wireless and everything else. I wouldn't bother with a Gnome section in the Desktop forum. They have a whole website.

Other than that, I like it and (I'll probably hate myself on Monday for this) I'd be glad to help implement it.

[Open Source]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

Thanks for your thoughts. Sorry for such a late reply, however I was out of town this weekend for guard duty. I will work with these ideas later this week and see about implementing them. Thanks again.

[aysiu]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

I'm with askrieger on this--there's no reason I know of to separate out by version. Versions pretty much separate themselves by date--before April 2006, people will most likely be talking about Kubuntu Breezy--after that, they'll be talking about Kubuntu Dapper.

[kubicle]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

@Open Source
Thanks for listening...again

@askrieger & aysiu
I concur...The advantages for version specific forums are not great...and even less if people would get into a habit of including the version they're running in their questions .

It was just easier to use the existing forums as a base for discussion (and I was quite sure other people could come up with more logical divisions than I would) :P.

Of course there could be a common sub-forum for 'Release Specific Issues'?

[aysiu]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

Very seldom (especially with Kubuntu) have I come across issues that are version-specific in terms of their solution. If those happen, it will come out with a simple question, "You wouldn't happen to be using ______ version, would you?"

It's not worth dedicating a separate subforum for--I'm speaking from my experience here and on the Ubuntu Forums.

[kubicle]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

Very seldom (especially with Kubuntu) have I come across issues that are version-specific in terms of their solution.

That is true...solutions are usually uniform across releases (with a very few exceptions), but all releases have their own perks and 'most common' problems, and it never hurts to know what version the troublesome system is using (of course it is often more important to know which version of the particular software is used rather than the distribution release version...but that's a whole another story :P).

Then again, making a 'Release Specific Issues' sub-forum is not that great an idea in retrospect, as someone asking a question usually has no idea his problem is 'release specific' and should go into that sub-forum :P...I didn't think that one through.

[aysiu]

Re: Rearranging the forum?

In the Ubuntu Forums, I've encountered situations where I end up being the only person helping a new user because she happened to post in the Hoary section (either because she was a Hoary user or accidentally ended up posting there), even if her question is not Hoary-specific.

Since most people are using Breezy, they don't bother to look at Hoary at all.

I happen to spot those, because I just look for new posts, regardless of section.