why a dumping ground for all topics ??

[ian 32]

ok before people freak out and think that Ian is starting to get excited about something on the forum... i have had a nice breakfast.... there is a beautiful blue sky outside and the birds are singing... so IM GOOD :-)

so to my question.. what is the benafit to having this whole DUMP EVERYTHING section on the top of the ultimaker forum ???

It takes users about 5 seconds to quickly scan the page and select the most relavent section of the forum to post, then other users also pick and choose specific topics to read.... so allowing a HAY HOO LETS GOOO section, basically trashed the organisation of the forum....

I have not the biggest problem is sitting down for a few hours and organise all the treads in this section, but then can this section be removed...

its just going to confuse the hell out of a lot of people....

Ok big hugs and happiness.

Ian :-)

 

[am001 0]

Hi Ian,

Personally - and again good breakfast, sky blue etc.- I hate the categories. They restrict cross flow of ideas and slow down the whole reading of the forum. I would be getting rid of - or seriously reducing the number of - the categories. The use of this dumping ground I think shows there are many who feel the same way.

I think it is good to see what the others on the forum are chatting about and what is the hot topic, which if I just flicked through the one or two categories that I think are most likely, I could well miss. If the forum has 1000 posts a day, then sure, you have to divide it up, but it doesn't.

Cheers

Andrew

 

[ian 32]

hehe :-) this is where Alexander starts to drink lots of coffee and go... oh shit what will Ian say next ? ;-)

answer.... ja ok ! ;-)

Ian :-)

 

[codemaven 0]

I also have to agree with others who disagree with Ian's original post ... the structured topics are too structured.. I think we just need a handful (5 or less) major topic sections... I always just read the latest posts and if the title are not interesting I don't read them... This allows me to completely ignore the topical groups.. When posting something it's rather a pain to figure out the best place to post it, especially since I believe most people just look at the latests posts list as well and ignore the sections. I would be strongly in favour of reducing the number of sections and lumping things together.

Cheers,

Troy.

 

[illuminarti 18]

I also much prefer a single bucket, although I only ever use the 'View New Content' mode, which gives me that anyway, irrespective of where the items are originally posted. Since most posts/problems end up touching on some mixture of hardware/software/firmware/materials I'm not sure that artificially dividing up posts on the front end is particularly helpful.

The only division I would see as useful is having separate areas for posting in other languages. Since the only non-english language I can even begin to try and speak is French, I like being able to filter out posts from my 'View New Content' feed that I simply can't hope to contribute to.

 

[jelleatprotospace 0]

I have a good idea: instead of having to go here to see if there is any new content, have it sent directly to your inbox. And when you wish to contribute, you just hit 'reply' and do just that. No barriers, no control freaks, no new logins that you forgot, no problem!

 

[corngolem 0]

So you're talking about the Current / Google Groups section. I thought it was an aggregation of a real newsgroup, then an aggregation of the latest posts, but it's just a place to post anything uncategorised. The point of using a forum is that you can organize content, if you don't want to do that, don't use a forum, use a newsgroup. Recently there was a migration from one forum software to another, this should indicate that Ultimaking Ltd wants a forum, otherwise somebody doesn't know what he's doing.

Makerbot for example has a newsgroup and it gives me the feeling that I can't know what was published, I can't browse content, I can't get an overview, it's pretty frustrating.

 

[codemaven 0]

I use both newsgroups, mailing lists and forums... And all formats work fine for me, but I personally prefer lightly structured forums. I.e. Forums like this one, but with only a small number of general topic sections like "Printer Help", "Newcomers", "Ideas", "General Discussion", etc. I don't like layers upon layers of sections...

However, I am not a fan of Google Groups... Basically because it is not accessible here from work. All I can get to at work is Google Search, Maps, and News. All other services are blocked by our proxy including groups, Google+, Gmail, GApps, etc... Since I do 99% of my forum surfing and posting while I'm working I am not able to contribute regularly to any group on Google Groups. Occasionally I check the Ultimaker Google Groups on my phone using 3g data... But it's not fun.

Cheers,

Troy.