Forum Restructuring

[Huntress]

Ok people, I've got two weeks to get this forum setup for discussions in all the areas that are needed.  Please post any ideas, concerns or demands in this thread so I can get to work moving everything out of public view and creating all the new catagories to be used.

[COBOLdinosaur]

When I next update the announcements I will include a link to this thread.  If I forget YELL at me. :-s

[nicholassolutions]

Just a general thought: I think we should set up several different topic areas for the forum, but be careful to not set up any where there is no expertise here (yet!). If we offer too much and are unable to deliver, it will be too easy for people to think this site is just another fraud. I think for every topic area we set up, there should be at least one current Mentor who feels she or he can field pretty much any question that comes up, and for now, direct everything else to very general topic areas that may encompass the more specific ones. For example, to my knowledge, we don't have too many ASP people here yet, and although my Perl is good, I certainly couldn't compete with many of the experts on TOS (especially recently). So, while PHP should probably have its own topic area, ASP and Perl questions might be better directed to 'Serverside scripting' (of which PHP might be considered a 'subtopic') until we get some better expertise here for those areas (if I've mised some ASP or Perl gurus, forgive me -- I'm using this just as an illustration). That way, we will not have empty topics that stagnate, and people will more likely get better help, since lots of people here know a little about many different things that might all fall under one broad category.

OK, I know that's somewhat useless. I suggest the following categories, which may need some additional trimming, addition, or rearrangement:

Serverside technology
  PHP
  Webservers
     Apache

Clientside technology
  HTML
  Javascript
  CSS
  Flash

Hardware (coral help me out  :wink:)

Graphics
   Photoshop

I'm kinda busy and also braindead at the moment, but that should at least be a start.

[nicholassolutions]

BTW, my spacing got mangled cause I didnt use code tags. Apache should be a sub-topic of webservers.....

[coral1]

Hardware (coral help me out)

ME?!?!

Actually, your idea of minimal forums is a good one. Until we get a better idea of is needed, one general forum should work for now. With a notice that it will be subdivided later.

If she wants to set up a few to start with, something like:

General
Video
Storage
Motherboards

should be safe enough.

I'm just hoping someone can help cover my backend on the "bleedingedge" stuff, while I play catch up.     :-$

[nicholassolutions]

coral, pulling his head out of a computer case: "ME?!?! Hardware?!"

 :D

[coral1]

I know we are in trouble when a hardware geek (me) has to add a close slash to a coders post.

 :sad3:

[nicholassolutions]

Im not a coder. I just flail at the keyboard and programs come out.  :D

BTW, one to add to the list:
Networking
>LAN
>Internet

[coral1]

Networking

I thought about it, but the hardware part of networking is the easy part of it.
It can start in Hardware, but it might need it own forum if it gets busy.

[Huntress]

Here's what I've got so far after adding a few of my own.  All main catagories are in bold with subs underneath.

Serverside Technology
PHP

Webservers
Apache

Clienteside Technology
HTML
Javascript
CSS
Flash

Databases
MySQL

Graphics
Photoshop
Paintshop Pro
Animation

Hardware
General
Video
Storage
Sound
Motherboards
Gamers (Advanced including overclocking)

Networking
Home
Office
Internet

I think that's a good start.

[nicholassolutions]

Nice  :thumbup:

[Huntress]

Thanks Matt.  I'd like to start building on that base later today.  All Cats are going to the top of the list so I can easily hide the builders subjects at the bottom.  This way we've got time if anyone wants something added or changed.  Plus we can get used to seeing them.

[nicholassolutions]

Sounds good to me. Keep up the good work  =D>

[Huntress]

Ok.  Preliminary forums have been setup and permissions granted to registered users for posting and anyone can read or view the discussions.

Now all we have to do is decide which Mentor will mod what forum.

[nicholassolutions]

Looks great Sandi. Just a couple suggestions for the captions:

     CSS
Discussions on style sheets in CSS.

I would change it to just Discussions on style sheets, since (as far as I know) CSS (cascading style sheets) is the only standard that exists and it's therefore redundant


   Javascript
Discussions on javascripts.

I would make it just "javascript"


      Flash
Discussions on Flash animation.

I'd add "and ActionScript programming" (flash's scripting language)

It's nice to finally see some topic areas up. I guess that means the site really is going to go live  :D