New forum suggestion: Desktop

A new forum group for desktop-specific questions might be interesting. Say a top level of "Desktop Related" with sub-forums for KDE, GNOME, etc., and a catch-all for "Other."

Perhaps a "sticky" at the top level for "How do I tell which desktop I'm using?" would help.

We don't really get enough problems which are specific to a particular desktop to warrant a aeperate forum. Most of them are to do with the underlying programs, QT and so on. I think that these questions are fine in Linux-Software or Linux-General.

We may be getting to the point that "Linux - Software" needs to be broken into subforums. When that happens, "Desktop" and "Kernel" are the two most likely candidates IMHO. Thoughts?

--jeremy

More subforums? Ughh!!

Jeremy, I concur. If and when the division is made, I would like to see Desktop for sure.

May I also suggest a division for multimedia. I see several xine/xmms/mp3/dvd related threads in software. If we do get multimedia, we can have software for "problems in installing", "error running after upgrade threads".

Originally Posted by XavierP We don't really get enough problems which are specific to a particular desktop to warrant a aeperate forum. Most of them are to do with the underlying programs, QT and so on. I think that these questions are fine in Linux-Software or Linux-General.

Just tried a search for "KDE," and got 600 results. (Some were not questions.)

So, how many results should I expect before there are "enough problems?"

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Jermey, can you "ln -s" forums? Then you could put the "Desktop" sub-forum under more than one "top-level" forum.

In fact, you could probably build a data base that would let each user construct their own forum hierarchy, if you wanted to do so. But, perhaps that thought should go to another thread, eh?

thought- what if there where not subforums, but a "group" button, so people could sort the linux-software forum into most recent and also in groups- just big blocks separated by coloured lines, say desktop would be a group.
Perhaps this could also work in the programing forum, with java, C, etc being groups.

No idea how practical it would be though, it could be a bit complex. Maybe parsing the text for keywords? or an opt-in checkbox?

titanium_geek

why are sub-forums such a hassle? Unless it's something from a moderation stand point, how are they any different from a "full-fledged" forum?

Hey Titanium, how would this work? I'm not sure I fully understand. Would this be something dynamic(somewhat similar to google's customized homepage)where you can move things around to suit the way you want it to look? Or would it be static on the LQ end, where it's just a different organization scheme?

titanium_geek, we're actually looking into something somewhat along these lines, but it's a ways off and I don't think negates the discussion going in this thread.

--jeremy

reading oneandoneis2's blog post kind of got me thinking about it.
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/ind...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

more later.

titanium_geek

Kind of like a system of cards, where the different cards are laid out next to each other, and perhaps being able to rearange them.

The way I see it, there are two major things that must be looked at in the debate about subforums.

1) it nicely groups things that are related
2) it makes it very confusing for people to know where to lodge their question

The first reason is why people keep asking for new subforums- it is believed that it would be easier to find related questions (and answers) and perhaps, since only someone who is a KDE guru would hang out in the KDE (sub)forum, easier/quicker to get an answer, a more complete answer at that.

The second reason is why the mods hate subforums- they have to move threads that are put in the wrong forum, and also, more forums encourages people to double/triple/qudruple/etc post, as a question might belong in more than one forum- which one do you put it in then? They already have to deal with this, and more subforums will just increase their work load. Not that I'm saying that they are lazy, but they work hard on volunteered time, so we should be nice to them.

This debate is very black and white. This is why we need a grey solution, which is giving a way of grouping question, which gives the advantage that a subforum would give, without separating the questions too much and giving the mods a headache.

Sub-forums are still needed however, you don't want C++ questions jostling for position with Tux Racer questions. LQ has a good amount of organization through subforuming. There is also the aspect of community that is fostered through having a separate sub-forum. Though all are welcome in all forums, you get to know and recognise the users who regularly post in the areas you post in such as the slackware sub-forum, which is a great example of this sub-community idea.

There is a balance needed for a community however, too big becomes impersonal, while too small is just not practical to maintain. LQ is huge now, but the subforuming allows for the sense of community to prevail. However constantly trying to pigeon hole each type of question will destroy the sense of community, and community is the driving force behind questions getting answered.

Therefore, I think that there needs to be no more division of the forums, by creating subforums, but that there needs to be a way of grouping questions together with out separating them.

titanium_geek

Kind of like GMail and labels as opposed to say, Yahoo! Mail and folders? Sounds like a good idea. Perhaps there could be check-boxes on the post to "assign" it different labels. We can keep the forum structure. This way, if I had a post about a certain program not compiling in Slackware, I could put it in the Slackware forum, but check boxes for things like "Application", "Programming", "Compiling", etc... the posts could then be sorted/searched this way (and not necessarily for just this sub-forum, for the forum as a whole)... This kinda where you're going, titanium?

Yeah, the label versus folder is a good analogy. I had in mind though, grouping only in the various subforums (linux general, linux software, for example). And Also, the related questions would be grouped together, maybe with the newest question of that topic at the top of the box (each topic gets a box)

There would also be an option to display the questions in traditional order.

titanium_geek

thought: like the LQ bookmarks feature, where you enter in keywords for the post. Then you introduce human error. (and laziness) Then you could go with checkboxes. However there would be a tonne of checkboxes to agonize over, and you have the laziness factor again.

Parsing the thread for relevant keywords would probably be the best way to group questions.

titanium_geek

This indexing-by-keyword measure might actually speed search up some (at the minimal cost of parsing the post and indexing it at post time), too...