Re: [tdf-discuss] LibreOffice Forums Categories Proposal

I do not totally agree Christian.... details inline...

That said, your summary was easier for me to read than the list...

On 09/27/2012 08:11 AM, Christian Lohmaier wrote:
> Where's the difference between "General Discussion" & "Lounge" (or
> whatever name will be chosen) - it is not clear to me.

I assume that it is an off "topic forum" where you can ask anything 
about anything (well, mostly anyway). Just guessing.

> #######
> I don't think there is a need for an installation & configuration
> category, let alone individual forums for each OS.
>
> Installation is best covered using "Tutorials"/The existing
> installation documentation.
> so I'd remove the Installation category & forums and instead cover it
> in Tutorials and in a catchall/general questions section in
> libreoffice apps category. After all installing is not black magic...

I partially disagree. One might argue for a specialty forum in general 
related to a specific operating system, but I don't think it need be 
specific to installation. I also don't think that installation questions 
should be handled in tutorials, it is certainly not the first place I 
would jump to if I could not install some software.

One nice thing about a separate installation section, is that it will 
probably primarily attract the new users that have difficulty in this 
area. It will likely not see heavy use, which is probably good because 
it means that a new problem will be close to the top where a new person 
is most likely to see it and maybe have their question answered immediately.

> #######
> In LibreOffice Applications, I wouldn't split them out as much, but
> rather shrink them to:
> * Writer & Math
> * Calc
> * Impress & Draw
> * Base
> * Catch-all/General (also the place to ask installation/configuration
> problems if not covered by the tutorials) - might even consider to put
> Base into this forum as well.

I disagree with this as well, but I will admit that Draw and Impress 
share much in common. Math people may be working in Write, and I expect 
much more traffic in Write than in Math, but again, categorizing in this 
way is generally useful, even if there are only a few posts a month in 
this category. The real purpose is that the Math questions are generally 
very specific, and it makes it much easier later to browse what has been 
discussed in that area. If you can have math be a sub-category of Write, 
however, that might be a good thing.

I certainly would not put Base into General, because the questions are 
so specific.

> For installation related questions, people can be asked in a sticky to
> prefix their topics with [win] [lin] [mac] (, [sol], [and] [ios],...)

New people in general are not likely to do this. If they are asked as 
part of the registration process, however, that might help in this regard.

> #######
> The SiteFeedback & Website contributor forums seem to overlap

I assume that site feedback is for a general user that wants to say 
something like "this forum is horrible because" (or similar). I assume 
that the later is for people actively developing the LO web site (ie, 
not the forum).

> #######
> And I assume that the Admin-Category will be hidden for Anonymous &
> regular Users, right?

:-)

One can hope!

> So I'd rather start with fewer forums, and if real-life usage proves
> me wrong, create the additional, specialized forums.

It is certainly easier to add new categories than it is to remove them.

> But especially
> Math and Draw don't get so many questions that are specifc. Base might
> deserve its own section because the nature of the questions is
> redically different, and most of the time require database knowledge,
> but probably not from a volume perspective. Then again, I don't
> read/monitor the english user's list, so it might be different from
> e.g. the german project.
>
> So in short:
> * remove Installation Category (cover it in tutorial and app-questions)
> * combine Apps forums (and create a general forum for non-app specific
> question like for installation)
> * explain difference between "General Discussion" and "Lounge"
> * check overlap betwen "Site Feedback" and "Website"
>
> ciao
> Christian

--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
Info:  http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php


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