Forum Consolidation

As Sebastien recently proposed to close one of the sections and this wasn't welcomed by everyone, here's my proposal to consolidate the categories. The idea is to not remove anything (some exceptions), just to merge rarely used topics into similar ones:

#Forums:

- Join "RepRap Without Borders" into "RepRappers".

#Library - projects, parts, arts, docs, and policy:

- Drop "foo-test".
- Drop "jonathans-test".
- Join "Look what I made!" into "Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)"
- Drop "Scans" (it's empty).
- Join "Library Administration, Announcements, and Policy" and "Forum Administration" into "Administration".

#Machines Variations:

- Join "MetalicaRap" and "Extruded Aluminum" into "New RepStraps and Post Mendel".
- Join "Delta Robots and Stewart platform" and "Polar bots and Robot Arms" into "Mechanics".

#Electronics Folder:

- Join "Servo Motors (and theory), DC Motors, Gear Motor" and "Stepper Motors" into "Motors".
- Join "Experimental and Hobby" into "Electronics".

#Software Folder:

- Join "STEP-NC" into "Experimental".

#RepRap Marketplace and Job Shop:

- Join "Plastic Mendel Parts for Sale", "Job Shop: I make stuff!" and "Vitamin Kit for Sale" into "For Sale".
- Join "Job Shop: I need stuff made!" into "Hello. I need a something designed. For money.".


Trying to enforce people to use one communications medium or another (forum vs. mailing list) drives away people, IMHO. It's a good idea to advertise the mailing list here and there, but that's all one can do. A list <-> forum gate won't work either, as a list doesn't have topics and all postings land in the same mailbox, often not even seperated from private stuff.

Ah, and no claim of completeness here, it's just a proposal.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

+1!!

I totally agree with Traumflug's suggestion and definitely has my vote for each of his recommendations. The forum needs this clean up - especially as the reprap project garners more attentions and newcomers.

---

------------------------------------------
garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

Will do, with some tweaks.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Trying to enforce people to use one communications medium or another (forum vs. mailing list) drives away people, IMHO.

Right now, there are machines talked up in the Gada prize forum that reprap-dev does not know about. The developers who did them up aren't getting feedback and commendations from their peers. This situation offends me; it
seems unfair to the Gada prize devs.

Similarly, Stephanie did up a nice board:

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?13,82484,82484#msg-82484
I don't know if reprap-dev knows about it, and I don't know if she knows about reprap-dev.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

I see your discomfort, Sebastien, and I've seen a forum <-> list gateway failing in the Wine community.

How about a (read-only) forum topic which posts a daily summary of the mailing list and posting a daily summary of new forum topics in the list? This whould keep the level of disturbance low, while giving a heads-up to everybody interested.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Have you ever tried to crosspost from a mailing list to a forum thread or vice versa?

I do know that the (misnamed) RUGs need email in order to actually work well.

And the forum administration forum needs to have email so that issues go into my email inbox.

And general-forum needs to be merged with reprap-users mailing list.

I've seen a forum <-> list gateway failing in the Wine community.
Can you tell me what happened?

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Quote

I've seen a forum <-> list gateway failing in the Wine community.
Can you tell me what happened?

People have quite different writing styles when posting in a forum vs. writing to a mailing list.

In a forum most people don't quote anything at all, so you end up with unrelated mail messages on the list.

On a mailing list, many people don't care to reduce the quoting to the essential part and just leave full quotations of all other messages in place. Watching this in a forum hides the actual message pretty well.

Sure, it works from the technical point of view, but it isn't comfortable for either side. That said, if you still think the gateway is a good idea, let's just try it.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

1 on the consolidations.

Also, in an effort to 'spruce up' the Forum, can we finally get the Emerald theme everywhere, including on the top level pages, which STILL have the (Old) white theme? Consistency helps. It also means one less theme to change if someone ever gets around to implementing the 'Ignore Forum' Module, so people can ignore forums they have accidentally read.