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[SUGGESTION] [DISCUSSION] [controversial?] Forum Structure Overhaul

Started by aetios, December 10, 2015, 04:26:25 PM

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aetios

Hello everyone.
As of lately, there's been a lot of talk about whether or not CodeWalrus and the TI community are going to die. I too notice that the general focus of the people on the site is shifting, or rather, broadening from calculators to a wide range of science and tech related subjects. A concern that I heard was 'How do we keep members around when they lose interest in calcs?', and the answer is most likely 'Give them more place to discuss the things they like and get replies!'. Now CodeWalrus does actually have place for most discussions. However, quite a few of them are buried and hard to find. I think this should change so that these boards get more posts, and therefore I want to present you what I call the Forum Structure Overhaul v1.0000000069! :walrii:

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts.

CodeWalr.us
|
|Site News & Announcements
|Site Discussion & Bug Reports
|Contests
|File Downloads Archives

Featured Projects
|
|[projects]
|

General Discussion
|
|Safe-Haven
|General Help & Troubleshooting
|Tech, Science, IT discussion & news
|Other

Development
|
|-Software
| |Phones
| |PC/Mac
| |Consoles
| |Calculators
|
|-Hardware
| |a \  not exactly sure
| |b  > what child boards
| |c /  this needs


Multimedia
|
|-Gaming
| |Discussion
| |Walkthroughs & questions
|
|-Music
| |Production & Showcase
| |Discussion
|
|-Movies & TV
| |Anime & Manga
| |Cartoons & Comics
| |Films & Series
|
|-Drawing & Animation

Miscellaneous
|
|Forum Games & Randomness
|Spammy
|Topic Graveyard

I want to make clear that this is not a finished product. I want you to think about a couple things. First, a huge forum restructure like this will have to go with a certain change of focus. Are we okay with that? Are we not? I can't decide for what everyone wants. Next, if we move, there are bound to be topics that get lost, or at least it might take some time to find them again in a new forum structure. This is not a flaw in the proposal I want to make, but is rather inherent to moving from one forum structure to another. Is it fine if some topics do not fit 100% in a new forum structure?. Last but not least, do you have any suggestions or things that you want to see different? If you have suggestions, please mention me by including @aeTIos in your post, so I get the message in my PMs.

Together, we can make this community outlast the TI community. Let the walrus prevail! :walrii:

~
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Snektron

I like the idea :) The general discussion is a good way to get some weight off the off topic topics :P
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+
Legends say if you spam more than DJ Omnimaga, you will become a walrus...


alexgt

  • Calculators owned: Ti-84+, Ti-Nspire, Hp Prime, Broken HP Prime, HP 48SX

novenary

I really like the idea, I don't see any improvement that could be made to this myself. It is indeed true that we need to emphasize non-calculator topics if we want to keep the community rolling, and we haven't done that enough since we created the site. My opinion is that we should also modify the banner to emphasize calculators a bit less. I don't mean to reduce the calc activity but instead of specifying multiple models, it should say something like "Programming, hardware, retro-gaming, digital arts".

Yuki

I do agree with this, it's a good first draft.

Fun fact, CalcWalrus was a suggestion for the name of the site, but I didn't wanted it to emphatize on calcs so we went with CodeWalrus instead.
  • Calculators owned: TI-83+ (dead?), Casio Prizm (also dead???)
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: A lot
Read Zarmina!
YUKI-CHAAAANNNN
In the beginning there was walrii. In the end there will be walrii. All hail our supreme leader :walrii: --Snektron

if you wanna throw money at me and/or CodeWalrus monthly it's here

novenary

Yeah indeed, also CodeWalrus sounded cooler. :P

Dream of Omnimaga

#6
My only gripe is that safe-haven should actually be with off-topic stuff since it's also off-topic but private, and I don't think we need a second spam section (since forum games/randomness serves that purpose)

Also perhaps there should be more emphasis on development and the general discussion area merged with miscellaneous at the bottom? I don't see the point in duplicates.


EDIT: What about this?


CodeWalr.us
|
|Site News & Announcements
|Site Discussion & Bug Reports
|Contests
|File Downloads Archives
|Staff (Hidden)

Featured Projects
|
|[projects]
|

Development & Technology
|
|-Software
| |Phones
| |PC/Mac
| |Consoles
| |-Calculators
| | | Calc Projects
| | | Calc Help & Discussion
| | | Calc Tutorials
|
|-Hardware
| |General Help & Troubleshooting
| |Tech, Science, IT discussion & news

Multimedia
|
|-Gaming
| |Discussion
| |Walkthroughs & questions
|
|-Music
| |Production & Showcase
| |Discussion
|
|-Movies & TV
| |Anime & Manga
| |Cartoons & Comics
| |Films & Series
|
|-Drawing & Animation

Miscellaneous
|
|Miscellany
|Safe-Haven (hidden)
|Forum Games & Randomness (members-only)
|Topic Graveyard (hidden)
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

novenary

I don't like that at all, general discussion != miscellaneous, and what you moved to hardware doesn't belong there. The hardware section is a dev section, not a support forum.

Dream of Omnimaga

What's your solution, then? Shouldn't general be called General technology?
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

novenary


aetios

I meant the Help & Troubleshooting section as a general everything section, ranging from 'Help, my leg hurts' to 'My phone is acting weird'. This way general support questions do not clutter development sections and questions.
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novenary

Also I don't like the calc section being split into yet more subforums, it makes things even more confusing, unbalanced compared to the rest and we already have tags for that. We can sticky some things as well.
The whole point of this overhaul is to limit the focus on calcs and to boost other sections.

Dream of Omnimaga

So calc projects would be mixed up with calc news and discoveries?
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

aetios

#13
No, calc news and discoveries would go in Tech, Science, IT discussion & news
Programming tutorials would go in the section that belongs to the system they discuss, and be tagged with a [tutorial] tag. We can then eventually make a compilation thread with all tutorials.
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novenary

Quote from: Streetwalrus on December 10, 2015, 05:23:00 PM
My opinion is that we should also modify the banner to emphasize calculators a bit less. I don't mean to reduce the calc activity but instead of specifying multiple models, it should say something like "Programming, hardware, retro-gaming, digital arts".
Thinking back on this, the MC-style slogans would be an even better replacement for that line.

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