Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

I'd say Mer should have a sub-section, perhaps under a general "Hacker Editions" heading or similar.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

How to promote threads as news: could be based on the current stars. I nn users give 4/5 stars then off you go. Or something like that. Or the same karma principles used for planet Maemo. Or...

ITt has shown a big success with the current structure so I'm not thinking of proposing any radical change, only an evolution.

General is good IMHO.

Mer or anything needs more than 10 threads to get an own forum. As a former admin of forums I have seen many subforums opened for something before it was strictly needed, becoming dead places less than a year after. I don't wish this to Mer, but because of this I have no doubt they will reach the right volume to deserve one

I commented to Reggie that I would draft a proposal here. And the initial post is what I'm going to propose him tomorrow unless someone comes with amazing improvements.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

Most people don't rate threads (I know I don't), and the people who do usually do so because they really love or really hate a thread. We'd need to get people rating threads more, or perhaps make it easier to rate threads (maybe just a thumb/heart like Planet). Tying it into the favorites karma might help too.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

I was looking at the list of OS's under Software, and I see where you're going. Only the last official OS for each device is represented.

So where do people put threads about OS200[78]HE? Same treatment as Mer, place it under Alternatives? Or just do like people are doing now, put it under Devices/770?

There's a discussion about this very problem here.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

Wow I didn't even know you could rate threads! Maybe the box for rating them should be at the bottom, not the top, as you don't know what rating to give until you've read it.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

I'd say the HEs go to the OS forum they correspond to e.g OS2008 for the OS2008 HE.

It is important to keep the Devices forums hardware centric.

About Mer, the threads started in Alternatives and nobody complained. I'm for keeping it there until something relevant happens. For instance, if they achieve Maemo 5 API and UI they would be probably fine in a subforum under Maemo 5.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

I am much in favor of promoting items of especial interest from the forums, as previously noted.

These aren't always News, however -- unless you can keep in mind the weekly newspaper standby, usually entitled something like "Goings on around town." The interest of the community makes some non-newsworthy events worth being reported.

I guess I'm saying the interpretation of what is usefully boosted to the News level should be as broad as possible, without simply grabbing every very-active thread because the number of posts indicate there's a lot of interest.

Of course, that's what editors are for, or moderators as we call 'em.

Roger

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

True; a controversial thread might gain a lot of attention while not being worth it to be noticed on the main page.

I'd say a balance between beginner (outsiders) and advanced (insiders) is important. You don't want it to be too global and simple (boring for regulars); you don't want it to be too technical and deep (confusing and cultist for new-comers).

And perhaps using tags. Editors can pick the topics and write about them, or change the order they are shown (related to relevance and catering both outsiders and insiders).

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

I would recommend to start a new thread discussing the promotions of threads to news, so here we can concentrate in the forums reorg.

Re: Forum reorg pointing to talk.maemo.org
 

I have modified the forums to reflect the new proposed structure.

The major thing that changed was to merge the "Alternatives" sub-forums. I have manually pre-fixed the post titles on the merged sub-forums with [Android], [Debian], [KDE], and [Palm OS] to make it easier to know where they came from and what they are talking about.

Also, I think some of the forum names are a bit too long.

Let me know what you think.