Is the TI community over?

Yuki · September 28, 2015, 01:31:51 AM

There's a ton of stuff that don't have anything to do with calcs.

Dream of Omnimaga · September 28, 2015, 01:45:54 AM

I doubt a calculator-only forums would ever work. It was attempted in the past and people felt too restricted, especially that the average time someone spends using calculators for any hobby is 2 years.

Unicorn · September 28, 2015, 04:07:08 AM

True, I know I would be hard pressed to make 2000 posts JUST about calculators.

princetonlion.tibd · September 28, 2015, 04:10:24 AM

I would be hard pressed to post if it was calc only, and then only vague comments.

Honestly I'm amazed that I am still posting.

Dream of Omnimaga · September 28, 2015, 04:15:55 AM

What are you interested the most in, lately (other than Chess)?

utz · September 28, 2015, 07:59:22 PM

Just to clarify, I don't mean to say this forum should change directions or anything (and especially the "ponies" comment was more directed at Omni). CW is what it is, and it's great as it is.

What I meant to say with my rather incoherent rambling is this: As others have pointed out, CW doesn't really appear as a TI forum. In fact I'd very much argue about calcs being the primary focus here - the news on the front page are one thing, but the "recent posts" list clearly suggests otherwise. Of course a calc-only forum might be rather difficult to sustain (though TI Planet actually seems to do well doing precisely that). However, with CW's focus being as broad as it is, it's unlikely to get the attention of people who are interested in calc programming/hacking beyond their school years. Yet on the long run, the TI community won't be able to sustain itself at the past activity levels just from attracting newcomers in their school years, cause no matter how long calcs will be a part of the curriculum, kids nowadays have other priorities.

@Streetwalrus: True that. Perhaps complexity is more of an issue than the level of control you can achieve. Because honestly, how many people do you see programming the nspire in asm? Imo programming in C doesn't give you the same level of control, because it adds an extra layer of abstraction.

novenary · September 28, 2015, 08:01:51 PM

Quote from: utz on September 28, 2015, 07:59:22 PM
@Streetwalrus: True that. Perhaps complexity is more of an issue than the level of control you can achieve. Because honestly, how many people do you see programming the nspire in asm? Imo programming in C doesn't give you the same level of control, because it adds an extra layer of abstraction.

Indeed, but it's much simpler to program in C and you can use inline asm too. That's what everyone does on platforms bigger than calcs.

semiprocoder · September 28, 2015, 08:11:16 PM

Btw how long will it take for ndless to update to 4.0 cause I bought a locked calc with 4.0 os and cant get ndless

Lionel Debroux · September 28, 2015, 08:18:53 PM

For the few past releases, Ndless for a newer OS version was released when it became ready, and without any kind of public advance notice.

Yuki · September 28, 2015, 08:19:30 PM

Quote from: semiprocoder on September 28, 2015, 08:11:16 PM
Btw how long will it take for ndless to update to 4.0 cause I bought a locked calc with 4.0 os and cant get ndless

Eventually. One day, when you'll not expect it.

princetonlion.tibd · September 29, 2015, 03:34:02 AM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 28, 2015, 04:15:55 AM
What are you interested the most in, lately (other than Chess)?

Cold war history, and I'm reading some things about communism from America's POV

Dream of Omnimaga · September 29, 2015, 03:41:40 AM

Quote from: utz on September 28, 2015, 07:59:22 PM
Just to clarify, I don't mean to say this forum should change directions or anything (and especially the "ponies" comment was more directed at Omni). CW is what it is, and it's great as it is.

What I meant to say with my rather incoherent rambling is this: As others have pointed out, CW doesn't really appear as a TI forum. In fact I'd very much argue about calcs being the primary focus here - the news on the front page are one thing, but the "recent posts" list clearly suggests otherwise. Of course a calc-only forum might be rather difficult to sustain (though TI Planet actually seems to do well doing precisely that). However, with CW's focus being as broad as it is, it's unlikely to get the attention of people who are interested in calc programming/hacking beyond their school years. Yet on the long run, the TI community won't be able to sustain itself at the past activity levels just from attracting newcomers in their school years, cause no matter how long calcs will be a part of the curriculum, kids nowadays have other priorities.

@Streetwalrus: True that. Perhaps complexity is more of an issue than the level of control you can achieve. Because honestly, how many people do you see programming the nspire in asm? Imo programming in C doesn't give you the same level of control, because it adds an extra layer of abstraction.

Yeah I know. And yeah the thing is some things made CW what it is. While we are open to changes, there are things that are probably here to stay in the short terms, because they were one of the very reason why CodeWalrus split off from Omnimaga in the first place

.

As for CW not being a calc site, I agree. However, this occasionally reflects in news too, because a few months ago, there was a news article about Iron Maiden's newest album and there are currently two computer games in the news pending queue. We wanted to cover similar but still different fields of interests to cater to a larger amount of people, and we would be more than happy to have more discussions about PICO-8 and old-school games/softwares.

While our larger focus might deter some older people from sticking around after they move on from calc programming, sometimes it has helped because some people said they would not have stayed around if CW's focus was entirely calc-related. I guess the main deterrent might be the less mature atmosphere overall, but the last website prior CodeWalrus to have a similar atmosphere averaged at 300-400 posts per day at one point.

By the way @utz , do you have any idea of stuff we could add to the site that could help?

utz · September 29, 2015, 07:36:13 PM

I don't really have any big suggestions, especially not in terms of additions. I prefer minimalism, so I'd rather suggest trimming some things. One thing that could be done is ditch the OT from the "recent posts" list, at least on the front page. Eg. "Funny/Awesome Youtube videos", "What are you listening to", "Funny sites" etc. don't need to be on the front page imo. Similarly, site internals (eg. "CodeWalrus restructure" and "Making forum skin mobile friendly" should only be visible in recent posts when logged in, as they are irrelevant to outsiders.

Other than that, it really depends where you want to go. Do you want to provide a comfy home for the current crowd? Then keep things as they are. Do you want to "grow up", be seen as a more mature/calc-oriented forum? Then consider some radical changes. Like, ditch that "top 5 posters" stuff, collapse/remove the "featured member projects" section (perhaps grant trusted members access to an extended front page newsfeed instead), and perhaps move the board index to the front page while condensing the newsfeed into a linklist of headlines/snippets.

Well, in any case, these are just some ideas. Really, I have no business in telling you folks how to run this forum. It's a nice place as it is, and I very much enjoy the friendly atmosphere.

DarkestEx · September 29, 2015, 07:56:25 PM

Quote from: utz on September 29, 2015, 07:36:13 PM
I don't really have any big suggestions, especially not in terms of additions. I prefer minimalism, so I'd rather suggest trimming some things. One thing that could be done is ditch the OT from the "recent posts" list, at least on the front page. Eg. "Funny/Awesome Youtube videos", "What are you listening to", "Funny sites" etc. don't need to be on the front page imo. Similarly, site internals (eg. "CodeWalrus restructure" and "Making forum skin mobile friendly" should only be visible in recent posts when logged in, as they are irrelevant to outsiders.

Other than that, it really depends where you want to go. Do you want to provide a comfy home for the current crowd? Then keep things as they are. Do you want to "grow up", be seen as a more mature/calc-oriented forum? Then consider some radical changes. Like, ditch that "top 5 posters" stuff, collapse/remove the "featured member projects" section (perhaps grant trusted members access to an extended front page newsfeed instead), and perhaps move the board index to the front page while condensing the newsfeed into a linklist of headlines/snippets.

Well, in any case, these are just some ideas. Really, I have no business in telling you folks how to run this forum. It's a nice place as it is, and I very much enjoy the friendly atmosphere.

I still think its fine as it is today. Removing off topic from front-page wouldn't be a big problem as long as the RSS feed is not affected in any was as I like getting post updates through the post notifier.
Also I like that the forum is not that mature. We don't need another cemetech. Don't try to be something you aren't. Other forums are way ahead in calc stuff and I doubt CW will ever outperform them. Let CW stay how it is - it's unique in its current way.
Also how big should CW be? Growing is all fine, but with growth comes big management effort. If you won't like another disasterous Omnimaga then having a massive forum is a bad idea.

This is just my opinion on the whole topic, but I think it should be said

semiprocoder · September 29, 2015, 08:27:34 PM

I agree. I think that besides some minor changes that were listed before no major changes should be added. This forum is really nice the way it is. If there were to be any major changes, then maybe make like a special subpart of this site, which would be a copy of the new forum, but with the changes, that people could see if they liked it or not.