Idea for forums - better topic management

Ranguvar · 2009-01-25 01:48:04

This issue is partly (not entirely) caused by evul help vampires avoiding Google, the Wiki, and the forum search, but...

What if the forums were redesigned? Two separate main categories: Issues and Other. Issues would have a different structure: Instead of each person posting a topic, it's organized by issue. As in, one for HAL issues, one for X issues... those in particular might be better as subforums. There should be a high amount of heirarchal design, with multiple levels of subforums, getting down fairly specific. Then, people post in a thread according to their common issue and work on it together. I've noticed that there seems to often be multiple threads discussing an issue the OPs are having, and wondered if there was a way to increase collaboration. I'm not sure whether users should be able to post their own threads, or if not, what system there should be to get a thread approved. The latter seems obnoxious, so I'm thinking... wait, what if issues that are not confirmed as really being an issue (others have the same, or it at a glance from any experienced Archer seems like a real issue - maybe those with over 100 posts can make a topic classified as a full issue, including immediately be able to post an issue as a real issue?) are in a subforum, or something similar? Or a different forum altogether?

Anyways, while the details are vague, does anyone think something like this might succeed? The forum software might have to be modified for this to really be elegant. It's a _little_ like the Talk pages in the Wiki, but I think a forum is a better setting, including it just being easier/faster/more viewed...

Allan · 2009-01-25 02:46:24

My thoughts on this:

1) People don't post in the right place as is. I wonder of a hierarchical design would help or hinder.
2) That would results in forum posts with many pages that are probably unrelated to the actual problem and even harder to search...

Ranguvar · 2009-01-25 03:06:21

1.) Tell everyone to _not_ post in threads that don't follow the guidelines or risk a warning, then make a big'n'bold notice at the top of every page saying click here if you aren't getting replies?
2.) In-thread search? A few other forums have it.

I'm just trying to come up with a better forum design.. it seems that every forum, as it grows larger, degenerates further and further. I almost feel like there should be active brainstorming on what to do about this - this should _not_ happen to the Arch forums.

Mr Green · 2009-01-25 06:39:41

With the growing user base it is getting harder to search forums, The really cool stuff that people share gets lost.

Wiki should be made more use of for a start

Very much like to see off topic - off world

Arch Forums has to be a place relating to Arch help, advice, tips etc...

Solved threads should be stripped down to the answer to the problem [1 post!] rest removed

Keep Arch Forums Tidy

Xyne · 2009-01-25 08:00:18

Stripping down posts would be tedious and alternative solutions might get lost in the process. I don't know how difficult it would be on the backend, but it would be nice if the OP could mark a reply as the solution and enable someone to jump directly to it (without having to find the post url and add a link to the OP manually).

More generally, perhaps having some sort of tag system for the forum would be good. Maybe there could be a separate help area that has some selectable parameters in dropdown menu format similar to the bugtracker to quickly categorize topics. This would also make it easier to keep "serious business" organized and on-topic while allowing "forum banter" in a separate area, which has a place on the forum too, imo... as the community grows, so will the social atmosphere around it, which is generally a good thing as long as it's driven in the right direction.

Heller_Barde · 2009-01-26 07:33:00

It should be more common to immediately put the solution to the problem in the wiki (if so applicable, we of course also don't want the wiki full of silly stuff)

cheers Barde

fukawi2 · 2009-01-26 22:24:08

Mr Green wrote:

Solved threads should be stripped down to the answer to the problem [1 post!] rest removed

I'm all for keeping the place tidy, but stripping solved posts down isn't a good idea (sorry!)...
1) If someone suggests a solution that doesn't work for the OP, that doesn't mean it won't work for me in 1 months time
2) If we want people to learn, it can often be beneficial to read all the intermiatary posts between the OP and Solution

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-25 01:48:04

Idea for forums - better topic management

#2 2009-01-25 02:46:24

Re: Idea for forums - better topic management

#3 2009-01-25 03:06:21

Re: Idea for forums - better topic management

#4 2009-01-25 06:39:41

Re: Idea for forums - better topic management

#5 2009-01-25 08:00:18

Re: Idea for forums - better topic management

#6 2009-01-26 07:33:00

Re: Idea for forums - better topic management

#7 2009-01-26 22:24:08

Re: Idea for forums - better topic management

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