How about a hardware forum

[yagni01]

Would anyone else like a hardware sub-forum for those of us building flight decks? Couldn't get any interest on M6, and its tough to find answers there. A place for those keyboard and joystick interfacing issues, multiple monitors, etc. Not just for Phidgets and Xxx-Wiz, IOCards, EPIC, and such.

 

[Tex]

To avoid cluttering the site with too many forums I think we should leave this up to the membership. If enough people express interest in it so that we know it'll be actively used, then I think it's a good idea. However, if only a few posts/threads are posted occasionally I think one of the many forums we currently have should work fine. Possibly the addon dev forum or just the orbiter forum itself?

 

[yagni01]

That's why I'm asking, to test the level of interest. Probably should have posted this on the main thread. But if there's not, there's not.

 

[dbeachy1]

IMHO I think there are already too many subforums -- what do you think about consolidating some of the subforums into their parent forums? That way it would be easier to browse topics instead of looking all over the place. To me the forum just feels "too spread out." It's not a huge deal, but I perfer a larger subforum with 400 posts over multiple subforums with 20 posts each. For example, we currently have six Orbiter forums, eight add-on forums, and four off-topic forums -- that's a total of 18 subforums. Perhaps we could consolidate some of the subforums until we have a larger member base and a given subforum gets too "crowded?"

Of course this is just my opinion, and it's not all that big a deal...

 

[Tex]

Well, for the Orbiter forum itself we could merge the screen shot and video forum with the Orbiter forum or have one subforum for screen shots and videos. That would get rid of one forum at least. I think having a tutorials forum seperate is good for new people though making it easier to find tutorials.

As for the addon forums, all of them except the general addons and new releases forum are for individual addon developers support. They're using them for their addons providing support for the community. Maybe if I moved them all into a Addon Dev Support Forum so they aren't all listed on the main index?

The off-topic forums are the same as M6 with the addition of a Forum Help Center.

 

[dbeachy1]

Well, for the Orbiter forum itself we could merge the screen shot and video forum with the Orbiter forum or have one subforum for screen shots and videos. That would get rid of one forum at least.

I like the idea of merging the screenshot and video forum with the main Orbiter forum; that would eliminate two subforums, and I like viewing screenshots in a single thread rather than a separate forum.

I think having a tutorials forum seperate is good for new people though making it easier to find tutorials.

I agree that a separate tutorial subforum is a good idea.

As for the addon forums, all of them except the general addons and new releases forum are for individual addon developers support. They're using them for their addons providing support for the community. Maybe if I moved them all into a Addon Dev Support Forum so they aren't all listed on the main index?

I like that idea; I would love to see the main forum index "de-cluttered" to make it easier to scan. Also, while I do understand the idea behind each add-on developer having a separate subforum, that can get very cluttered as more add-on developers come on board, so I do think that having those subforums under a single 'Addon Dev Support' forum is a good idea. In fact, M6 goes one step further and has a single "Addon Support and Bugs" forum, which works well. For example, some users won't know (or bother to look up) which add-on developer wrote "Add-on X", and so they would probably just post their question in the main add-on forum anyway. Just my two cents...

 

[yagni01]

If we're removing forums, how about the off-topic forum. I never understood a non-orbiter orbiter forum.

 

[Tex]

Ok.. I've moved all topics from the screen shot and video forums into the general Orbiter forum and I've deleted those 2 subforums. I'll also make a sticky thread for screen shots and videos in the Orbiter forum. It does look alot better on the main forum index now.

I've created a subforum under Addons called "Developers Support Forums". All of the addon dev's who have their own forum hosted here were moved into this forum. If your forum was moved here the link to your individual forums is still the same, it's just not accessible from the main index. You need to click on the Developers Support Forum first to find your forum or use the direct link to your individual forums.

If we're removing forums, how about the off-topic forum. I never understood a non-orbiter orbiter forum.

I disagree with this. An off-topic forum is a common forum on just about any board. Alot of great topics are discussed there that can be interesting for the Orbiter community even though it's not about Orbiter itself. We do enjoy discussing other things besides Orbiter 24/7.

 

[dbeachy1]

Great job, Tex! The top-level forum page looks much better now! :speakcool:

 

[yagni01]

I disagree with this. An off-topic forum is a common forum on just about any board. Alot of great topics are discussed there that can be interesting for the Orbiter community even though it's not about Orbiter itself. We do enjoy discussing other things besides Orbiter 24/7.

You talk about subjects other than Orbiter?? Who knew!