IMPORTANT POLL: New Forum Categories / Reorg

[EEVblog]

I'd have to think there is a place for solar.   Isn't that the future? RE sites have very sketchy sections for electronics.  Though, I have seen very little interest here in solar.

Interesting Idea.
Perhaps a catch-all Renewable Energy section?

[nctnico]

Beginner
Design
- Projects, PCB, KiCad/gEDA, DIPtrace, Eagle, Altium Designer, DesignSpark
Hardware
- Open source, Crowd Funding, Micros & FPGA, Manufacturing & Assembly
Equipment
- Oscilloscopes, Multimeters, Soldering, Other (open more if required)
Repair
Buy/Sell/Wanted
EEVblog
- EEVBlab, Amphour, News, Suggestions, Contests 
General Chat
- Supporters, Blogs, Jobs, Work Wanted

Not a radical change just tidy up the child forums move some and shorten the length of the front page (descriptions for each forum could be shortened).

+1 

I wouldn't change too much though. People are used to the way it is now.

[zapta]

I always use the "show unread posts" link at the top of the page to see what's new - so I don't see (or care) what categories threads have been posted in.

Same here, including Tapatalk. The categories don't matter.

[rrinker]

 I'm new here, so I don't really have a horse in the race. If things stayed the same, it would be fine with me, but the proposed changes at the top of the thread make perfectly logical sense. I'm on enough different fora, each with their own quirks, that I guess I never even noticed one of the biggest ones here - that the "General Chat" subsection is under the EEVBlog main heading.

[Stonent]

While you're tweaking the forum will you be able to fix the inconsistent capitalization of "EEVblog" and "EEVBlog"?  Just something that sticks out to me every time I'm on the forum. 

I do see that "FPGA's" became "FPGAs" a little while back.

[EEVblog]

I don't pay any attention to the "disorganised" look. I just goto unread posts. Do you really think many on the forum are at all concerned? Since I tend to ignore categories most of the time I don't think it will affect me good or bad.

Probably the majority would do it like that.

Your proposed changes seem reasonable even if the work involved seems unjustified.

There are benefits in appearance to beginners, less confusion over having a suitable category, ability to follow and block etc.
Quite worthwhile.

[tautech]

There's quite a bit of reorg you could do Dave, there's been several great ideas, a regrouping of the sub-boards to a more logical flow does hold some merit.
Shock pretty much nailed it IMO.

Forum work/browsing flow will be affected depending on just how one uses the forum. Many it seems look at unreads's and yet some go for new replies so neither should be affected. General browsing on the other hand will be impacted and some wise thought should minimise any short term hardship.

The Repair board has been a great success and if any changes are to made I'd suggest it be further enhanced with TE repair and say consumer goods repair.
Techniques has been suggested, but shortly after the Repair board was established a few members, myself included, thought it might be an idea to draft up some trouble shooting documents. It's a massive task to draft a "fit all" that anybody could follow and it be safe advice. Much has already been included in all manner of threads but to have a general guide IMO is fraught with danger. Hence private discussions came to nought.
Is it best Techniques stay thread context specific and also guided by your many vids?

Further direction for newbies might be an idea so their threads be placed in the appropriate board. Shit, we all make mistakes and the switched on ones quickly realise what they've done and often ask for threads to be shifted or start new ones in the correct board and ask for deletion.

You've done a great job thus far Dave, carry on. 

[tggzzz]

BTW, that would be a huge amount of work figuring out where all those posts go, and it would have to be done manually.
Any new categories also have to be populated manually with moving posts from other sections.

"Manually moving" implies the URL of individual topics and posts would change.

That would be a great shame since bookmarks and external links (and possibly internal links) would be broken. And, as we all know, broken links are one of the curses of the web!

[tggzzz]

Having too many categories brings just as many problems as too few categories.

The major issue is that many posts span several categories, in which case it is difficult to decide where to put a post.

A trivial example: if I, as an RF beginner, think there might be something wrong with my spectrum analyser, should I post a question in "RF/Ham", "test equipment", "repair", "beginner". All that categories do is enable you to know where something isn't, e.g. Jobs or PCB etc.

[Karel]

BTW, that would be a huge amount of work figuring out where all those posts go, and it would have to be done manually.
Any new categories also have to be populated manually with moving posts from other sections.

"Manually moving" implies the URL of individual topics and posts would change.

That would be a great shame since bookmarks and external links (and possibly internal links) would be broken. And, as we all know, broken links are one of the curses of the web!

+1

[Psi]

Personally i would like custom control in the show unread posts system over changes to categories. And i imagine others who use it would probably agree.

Like
-The ability to disable entire forum categories so they're not included in it.
-Only shows threads by users with more than x posts.
-Easily remove a thread if i decide i'm not interested in it.
 
But it would probably require significant coding.
I'm not too fussed really, it would just be a nice feature.

[ion]

Can we get more "recent posts" at the bottom of the mian page - this his how I tend to randomly browse.

I vote for this one

Same here, I do this far more often than browsing in categories.


Also, is it possible to add a way to bookmark a specific post?  Sometimes I come across a post I'd like to keep for future reference, and the closest option I've found is topic notifications which isn't ideal for the longer threads.

[T3sl4co1l]

Also, is it possible to add a way to bookmark a specific post?  Sometimes I come across a post I'd like to keep for future reference, and the closest option I've found is topic notifications which isn't ideal for the longer threads.

Click on the subject line of an individual post, save that URL.

If you meant, from within the forum (a list of user favorites or bookmarks?), I've seen some that do that, but I don't think it's available (or at least enabled) here.

Tim

[Radio Tech]

I always use the new post link as soon as I get on the board. Then I select the topics that I am interested in. The problem after that is going back to find them again. Never where you think they should be. Specially RF related stuff.

[ion]

Also, is it possible to add a way to bookmark a specific post?  Sometimes I come across a post I'd like to keep for future reference, and the closest option I've found is topic notifications which isn't ideal for the longer threads.

Click on the subject line of an individual post, save that URL.

If you meant, from within the forum (a list of user favorites or bookmarks?), I've seen some that do that, but I don't think it's available (or at least enabled) here.

Tim

Yes, I meant from within the forum.  It would be nice to have the bookmarks linked to the account rather than the browser, but I guess that depends on the forum software.

[cdev]

Could I throw in a vote for a new "RF related" sub category?

[C]

I do not like the idea of Dave or someone else having to move things around and in the process breaking links and other things that could point to the site.
Does not look good when you follow a link from some site for a GREAT ____ and get a busted link. A lot of sites do not add the simple database redirect for links to old content.

Tags:
   Some will use these and some will not.

What if a category became a tag or set of tags? 

If site op's were to add a tag(s) to everything on site of "Before 2016" & a second tag of it's current category. This should not break any links.

The new categories could then be a selected group of tags.

Using this idea, you could then have an area where you could browse using older categories.

With some thought this should make future changes easer.
A sub category could then be set to show or not in the higher category.
Some sets of tags could then show in a second place.
When the number of posts increases to a level then it might not show in many places.

Could I throw in a vote for a new "RF related" sub category?

+1 

Dave & Site op's
   Thank you for the Site!

C

[tggzzz]

I do not like the idea of Dave or someone else having to move things around and in the process breaking links and other things that could point to the site.
Does not look good when you follow a link from some site for a GREAT ____ and get a busted link. A lot of sites do not add the simple database redirect for links to old content.

+1, as I asked above. Don't want this point overlooked

Could I throw in a vote for a new "RF related" sub category?

+1 

+1 for an RF section; it is sufficiently different to the existing sections, and a sufficiently different engineering topic.

[AF6LJ]

I do not like the idea of Dave or someone else having to move things around and in the process breaking links and other things that could point to the site.
Does not look good when you follow a link from some site for a GREAT ____ and get a busted link. A lot of sites do not add the simple database redirect for links to old content.

+1, as I asked above. Don't want this point overlooked

Could I throw in a vote for a new "RF related" sub category?

+1 

+1 for an RF section; it is sufficiently different to the existing sections, and a sufficiently different engineering topic.

+1 for an RF section also....

[Halcyon]

Definitely need a Computer related section as it's one of the more popular topics. As is vintage computing/electronics.

[EEVblog]

BTW, that would be a huge amount of work figuring out where all those posts go, and it would have to be done manually.
Any new categories also have to be populated manually with moving posts from other sections.

"Manually moving" implies the URL of individual topics and posts would change.
That would be a great shame since bookmarks and external links (and possibly internal links) would be broken. And, as we all know, broken links are one of the curses of the web!

No, no links get broken when things are moved around in SMF, it's very very good at that. Old linked are still valid and get redirected etc.
The problem comes in efficiency of moving things around.
It's fairly easy to create a new category and then search for stuff that belongs there using keywords and then move them. You don't even have to do it all at once.
It's much more difficult however to actually remove a category and then figure out where every single thread has to go. It would be incredibly tedious.

[EEVblog]

Having too many categories brings just as many problems as too few categories.
The major issue is that many posts span several categories, in which case it is difficult to decide where to put a post.
A trivial example: if I, as an RF beginner, think there might be something wrong with my spectrum analyser, should I post a question in "RF/Ham", "test equipment", "repair", "beginner". All that categories do is enable you to know where something isn't, e.g. Jobs or PCB etc.

The answer is there is no no answer, it's impossible to cater for every scenario.
What seems to be the consensus is that a few more categories would be helpful, as would a reorg.

[Rick Law]

It is almost like yesterday when I first join this forum, but in less than two month, it will be my fourth year.  While hard to claim being a new visitor, but I do recall the most problem I had as a new visitor to this forum:

It was not the organization.  I manage to find the categories just fine.  The biggest trouble I got was some threads were so long it appears a daunting tasks to read just the thread - just one thread.

(Since I use a UT61E, I am more familiar with that thread and hence that as an example)

I can understand why there is the UT61E tear down thread that if printed would probably circle the earth.  Everyone has something to say about it and the thread just grow and grow.

Put yourself in the shoes of the new visitor.  Ok, I got a new DingDongPeterPan DMM Meter, I come here and see 300 replies (just using a random high number as example, and just using random topic names as example).  I want to ask a question, but it is probably in one of those replies.  Half of the 300 post is about enhancing the silly dial which I am not interested in, another third is why the display blinks...

Same for other popular equipment such as the Owen scope, Rigol scope...  Those threads are in the same shoes: Long, orbital length magnitude long.

What would improve the new visitors' visiting experience, and encourage new visitors' re-visit would probably be an ability to have sub-threads.  Under the UT61E thread, there may be a sub-thread on back-light mod, another sub-thread on the UT61E calibration, another sub-thread on external voltage reference...

For the Rigol model 1234, a sub-thread on the "hacking", one on USB connectivity...

Any forum member who visits the the Rigol model 1234 thread may, upon no seeing the topic, create a new topic (subthread) applicable to that specific main thread.

The ability of forum-members fine-gaining a main topic will allow new visitors to find relevant post without reading all 300 some odd replies.  Frankly, without that, I think most new visitors probably would just say "ah, forget it, I am not reading 300 some replies with topic switching every 1/2 page...  I will just ask" and that makes reading a thread into something repetitive and less interesting.

That was my newbie experience.

[EEVblog]

What happens to threads people have bookmarks for in their browser? Do those links get disconnected?

No, nothing gets broken. Post or threads etc.

[EEVblog]

What would improve the new visitors' visiting experience, and encourage new visitors' re-visit would probably be an ability to have sub-threads.  Under the UT61E thread, there may be a sub-thread on back-light mod, another sub-thread on the UT61E calibration, another sub-thread on external voltage reference...

Not possible with this forum software.
And it would be a dog to maintain, and people would have to vigilant about sticking to it. That won't ever happen.

Forums are not wikipedia information resourses, they are as their name suggests, forum where people discus stuff.