Aqua-Soft ForumsiLife might seem approriate for those of us who know what are the iLife apps. But for newcomers (we are calling them youngins now, right? 
) it might be confusing, right Stevie.
How about Digital Den? or Digital Creations? something of the likes
New Forum Structure
Originally posted by Seph@May 16 2004, 02:32 PMiLife might seem approriate for those of us who know what are the iLife apps. But for newcomers (we are calling them youngins now, right?
How about Digital Den? or Digital Creations? something of the likes
"Digital Creations" sounds good to me...
Any other offers?
This really is sounding much too over-complicated now. I think you may want to cut down on the number of subforums in all areas
Originally posted by Seph@May 16 2004, 08:32 AMiLife might seem approriate for those of us who know what are the iLife apps. But for newcomers (we are calling them youngins now, right?
How about Digital Den? or Digital Creations? something of the likes
i had always thought iLife was just a "mac-ish" way of just saying this is the forum for discussing anything about music, film, etc (real life things)... not having a mac, i didn't know this was a real piece of software until i read the comment...
anyway, i just wanted to make aware that on the rewrite of the forums, i would still be confused on where to post bugs for the various forums/subforums. shouldn't each release/request have a third sub of bugs?
edit--it would make sense that only certain forums should have a bugs subforum... i don't think you necessarily need a wallpaper bug subforum
I've been speaking with StevieBM over IM and I will be posting a reworked forum structure document in PDF format by tomorrow (maybe even today if possible). Watch this space.
This is just a suggestion but I think that the structure of certain parts is rather complex:
I'd suggest splitting the forum into subforums based on the type of app/custo/whatever... basically broad categories, examples being:
Main:
Same as suggested proposal
Customisation:
Visual Styles (MSStyles & WindowsBlinds)
Desktop Widgets (DesktopX, Samurize, maybe AveDesk...)
Icons (Icon Packager, Icons Cursors...)
Docks (Yz, Object & Moby...)
System Modification (Reg Keys, Files etc...)
Applications:
Explorer/Shell Alternatives (basically, Finder, but I'm not sure if we should say 'Finder')
Web Browsers (Firefox, Opera etc)
Mail Apps (Thunderbird etc..)
Media Players (same as present)
Whatever else... can't think of any presently
You get the idea?
By no means is this definitive, it just seems that it would be easier to navigate and more intuitive than the present proposal (IMHO).
Next, I'd take away the emphasis on subforums for individual developers, rather, as I've suggested before, I'd place their apps into categories e.g. taking the example of existing Finder projects:
I'd propose a Finder forum containing the subforums Felix, Nexplorer, Xplore, Looca etc...
At present, you have to know who Ave/Alilm/Siwu/Tig etc is and what they've been currently working on... again IMHO not as intuitive as my proposition.
Lastly, I don't think we need separate subforums for requests (I mean this would totally negate Seph's existence as tagger extraordinaire 
) that's what tags (whatever the final solution is going to be on that question!) are for.
Just a few thoughts anyway.
Edit: has anyone seen the forum layout at AdvancedPC?
Originally posted by Seph@May 16 2004, 04:13 PMWhat, like just.. crop it and thats it?
What seems unnecessary, why?
I just mean that there are gonna be an awful lot of inactive areas of the site. All these separate request forums.
I personally feel that the requests section needs to be dropped - most threads start with an anouncement of a particular skin/icon/app for os x which always turns into - "whos gonna port it????" or "wow man I want this on my box now".
Also what will the requests areas serve? It will just tell other people what I want for my xp box. We know there are only a few amazing skinners here and they are normally already porting before we hear about the styles.
Originally posted by Stevie BM@May 16 2004, 02:29 PMAlso, graphic design stuff comes under iLife. I'm still not happy with the name "iLife", personally... Any suggestions?
Okay, then move the web design stuff into the iLife section then as Web Design's are part of the description of iLife.
Originally posted by kjwebb@May 17 2004, 04:27 AMOkay, then move the web design stuff into the iLife section then as Web Design's are part of the description of iLife.
The point of the forum that will formerly be known as iLife is for "digital arts" type topics, which is a very distinct subject from that of web design/development.
I, for one, wouldn't want to see discussions of which photoshop filter tastes most like aranea mixed in with discussions of how to completely destroy IE's rendering engine using naught but an empty CSS file (yes, I know this could be considered an art in and of itself, but that's beside the point)...
@DoubleD: That's kinda the point of the requests sections - people will be able to search them for filled requests for whatever it is they're after. It'll make people's searching much more efficient - only have to search in one forum, searching for the word "filled" along with whatever it is you're after. You'll then only get requests for what you're after that have been filled. This may not be as valid in, say, theme sections, but in the icons sections, for example, it's probably 75% of the current forum content.
@Ludge: If it makes things easier to find and categorise, then I say "let them be less active". Which would you rather - somewhere that you can find everything in it's right place, even if those places are a little empty, or somewhere that has everything rammed into a few places, thus making it more difficult to find?
@Tadis: I can completely see your point. The problem with that sort of structure is that, in the "Applications" section, we'd have about 15 "1st level" forums, as it stands... And when the next application type comes along, we'd have to add more, and more, and more. I do, however, like where you're going with the customising forum. That said, I've seen an early example of what Sid's doing, and I like the look of where that's going.
Okay, here is my proposed structure for the Design section:
-General Design Discussion
-Website and Graphic Design Works
-Website and Graphic Design resources (includes Tutorials, Styles etc.)
The new structure looks great... very similar to what I was thinking although maybe changing all the requests sub-forum to Request/Releases ? otherwise as Timan said it seems there is no place for disscusion...
and with regards to the iLife forum maybe making it a sub-forum
Software--General (Cross platform software discussion)
--Windows (Windows software discussion)
--Mac OS (Mac OS software discussion)
----iLife (Discuss multimedia creation)
--*nix/Other (*nix/Other sofware discussion)
I also stick with the suggestion that Sid quoted about needing a standard set of Tags (which are quoted above) as a radio button on the posting screen to tidy up this foum although maybe we dont need the [Release] with it having its own sub-foum
anyway keep up the great work guys, I like what youve done with the place :artist:
I would just to add a vote towards the more "more structured, more inactive" approach.
Unless there is a stigma with posting into forums that are less-active, I can't find a reason to not split things up into larger amounts of more accurately organized information.
Ok, after lots of deliberation, we (Tim, Sid, and I) have come up with the following forum structure:
Forum-- Important Aqua-Soft Information
-- Comments & Suggestions
Main
-- General Discussion
-- Aqua Discussion
-- Digital Hub
---- Rips & Unauthorized Works
-- Developers' Hangout
Applications
-- Community Applications
---- Application Requests
---- Alilm's Apps
---- Ave's Apps
---- Moby's Apps
---- Siwu's Apps
---- Other Application Releases
-- 3rd Party Applications
---- Media Players
------ iTunes
---- Samurize
---- Stardock
------ DesktopX
------ IconPackager
-------- Icons & Cursors*
------ ObjectBar
-------- ObjectBar Releases
------ WindowBlinds
-------- WindowBlinds Requests*
-------- WindowBlinds Releases*
---- Y'z Apps
Customizing
-- Customizing Windows
---- Visual Styles
------ MSStyle Requests
------ MSStyle Releases
------ WindowBlinds Requests*
------ WindowBlinds Releases*
---- System File Modifications
------ System File Modification Requests
------ System File Modification Releases
-- Customizing Other
---- Customizing Other Requests
---- Customizing Other Releases
-- Application Skins
---- Application Skin Requests
---- Application Skin Releases
-- Icons & Cursors*
---- Icon/Cursor Requests
---- Icon/Cursor Releases
-- Wallpapers
---- Wallpaper Requests
---- Wallpaper Releases
Software
-- Cross Platform
-- Windows
-- Mac OS
-- *nix/Other
Hardware
-- General Hardware
-- x86
-- Apple
Web
-- General Web
-- Web Design/Development
-- Community Sites
We think we've covered everything (yes, I know there are no staff forums shown), but post any suggestions you've got and we'll duly ignore them 
Oh, and FYI, the topics with * by them (no, not *nix/Other) signify linkage (e.g. Applications\3rd Party Applications\Stardock\WindowBlinds\WindowBlinds Requests links to Customizing\Customizing Windows\Visual Styles\WindowBlinds Requests).
Any thoughts, questions, or comments?
i'll let my 2 previous posts speak for themselves.
http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/index.php?a...ndpost&p=182685
http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/index.php?a...ndpost&p=181813
Originally posted by wookietv@May 19 2004, 07:50 PMi'll let my 2 previous posts speak for themselves.
http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/index.php?a...ndpost&p=182685
http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/index.php?a...ndpost&p=181813
You'd report them either in the developers' own forum (in the case of Ave, Siwu, et al.) or in the root "Community Applications" forum, in other cases.
Originally posted by Ludge@May 16 2004, 10:11 AMThis really is sounding much too over-complicated now. I think you may want to cut down on the number of subforums in all areas
I agree- this forum structure may be more specific, but fails to address the present forum's main flaw- bloat. Do we have to have a forum for everything? Isn't there any way to condense the proposed structure? My index finger hurts from scrolling so much...
-godpunk
Originally posted by godpunk@May 19 2004, 09:32 PMI agree- this forum structure may be more specific, but fails to address the present forum's main flaw- bloat. Do we have to have a forum for everything? Isn't there any way to condense the proposed structure? My index finger hurts from scrolling so much...
-godpunk
The reason the new structure suffers from "bloat" is primarily because it doesn't have a particularly compact skin - if you compare the number of root and first level forums on A-S now to the number proposed, you'll see that we've dropped about 6 forums.
That said, I agree that the navigation is quite "dense", but I really can't see any way of combatting this without losing some degree of granularity...
If anyone's got any suggestions, please feel free to put them forward...
I actually find this latest revision a lot clearer. Maybe its just displayed neater, but that does look a lot easier to follow.
Under the Customising Forum, should there not be a Docks subforum?
Another suggestion... 
what about a 'Getting Started/Tutorials' type of subforum under the Main Forum?
Basically, I was thinking of a 'knowledge base' type of thing, we just implemented one at work and you'd be surprised at its popularity. I know that technically the wiki is designed for that but I for one haven't figured out the basics (stupid me I guess).
We could put things like Duckie's History series as well as a 'Getting started in aqua' and other tutorials on system modding, samurize, skinning (you get the picture).
Just a suggestion...
There will not be a Docks sub-forum because we have categorised the forums according to what software is being used, not according to what it emulates from OS X.
As far as Duckie's History of Aqua is concerned that's exactly what the first forum is for. Important Aqua-Soft News & Information. Everything important regarding A-S goes in there. Duckie's ran....err I mean his historical findings, Jef's C&D notice, Seph's (not-so) great post about how to post screenshots....etc
Originally posted by Sid@May 20 2004, 03:55 PMSeph's (not-so) great post about how to post screenshots
:6
I actually find (by browsing the proposed structure) that is is very intuitive, a lot clearer than the one we have now here, good job 
Originally posted by Sid@May 20 2004, 12:55 PMThere will not be a Docks sub-forum because we have categorised the forums according to what software is being used, not according to what it emulates from OS X.
As far as Duckie's History of Aqua is concerned that's exactly what the first forum is for. Important Aqua-Soft News & Information. Everything important regarding A-S goes in there. Duckie's ran....err I mean his historical findings, Jef's C&D notice, Seph's (not-so) great post about how to post screenshots....etc
I see what you mean about the docks, I guess it makes sense.
Also are we going to have a getting started with aqua guide?