All sounds perfectly sensible and very reasonable to me. Gets my vote.
On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 4:39 PM, David Hall <[email protected]> wrote: > I was hoping to start a discussion on the goals of the forums. I > brought these ideas up (in a limited and Llorean-focused manner) on IRC > the other day - but wished to see if I can't get more people involved in > the discussion. > > What are the goals of the forums? If the goals are simply help and > support Rockbox SVN why do we have an "unsupported builds" sub-forum? > Why do we have a "repairing broken hardware" sub-forum? > I'm not arguing against these areas - I'm just not sure why the > current > forum groupthink appears to be against the discussion of other topics > not technically unique to Rockbox. I am, of course, speaking about the > http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=20612.0 "On The Go > Last.fm-like Playlists from Rockbox" thread, but not only about this > project. There are plenty of great programs which work with Rockbox, > and I think we serve Rockbox users by at the minimum acknowledging them, > and possibly "supporting" them by giving the Rockbox user an orderly > one-stop place to learn about them. > The web is full of, frankly, bullshit information about Rockbox and > I > suspect support will be easier if we provide a (limited) clearing house > for many-things Rockbox. In my opinion, Rockbox is better served by > nurturing "helper" software (which might not be specific to Rockbox) > such as this than nurturing "Unsupported Builds". > When I talk about "Unsupported Builds" in this context, I'm drawing, > in > my mind, a strong distinction between those builds designed and > distributed to test specific FlySpray tasks aimed at inclusion in SVN > and those builds which are collections of rejected or abandoned > features. That being said - I think there is a strong argument to be > made for nurturing even the latter type of build. Kugel is a perfect > example of someone who started out making an Unsupported Build of > questionable relevance, and who stuck with it, drank the Rockbox > Kool-Aid, and become a valuable commiter. I would hate to drive people > such as him outside Rockbox.org, and would rather incubate their > explorations in-house. > > Proposals: > 1: > A new top-level subforum is created with a name something like "The > Rockbox Lifestyle" ;) > The current "Hardware" top-level forum is moved here. > The current "Repairing broken players" second-level forum is moved > here, and no longer a sub of "Hardware". > The current "Unsupported Builds" top-level forum is moved here. > > This action alone, IMHO, draws a clear distinction between things > Rockbox.org currently claims to support and things Rockbox.org is > currently simply nurturing. > > 2: > A new second-level subforum is created under "The Rockbox Lifestyle", > titled "Rockbox Helper Software" > Aforementioned Last.FM software goes here. > The excellent QTScrobber can go here, obo willing why not give him a > home on Rockbox.org if he wants it? > WinFF gets its own sub-forum here. > etc > My thoughts were that all helper software could start as a thread under > "Rockbox Helper Software" and be given its own third-level subforum if > activity warrants it. > > 3: > Now that "Unsupported Builds" are moved into the clearly distinctive > non-supported-stuff sub-forum create a "FlySpray Testing Builds" > top-level subforum for just that. Lets draw a clear and distinct line > between the sandbox given for people to play in and the testing lab > which needs guinea pigs. > > 4: > Give RBUtil its own top-level forum, likely under "Getting Started..." > > > New Layout: > > Rockbox General > Administration / Forum business > Announcements > Rockbox General Discussion > Feature Ideas > WPS and Appearance Customization > Recording > Plugins / Viewers > User Interface and Voice > Getting Started: Installation / Removal > RBUtil > Archos > Iriver > Apple > Cowon > Toshiba > Sandisk > Olympus > Rockbox Development > Getting Started and Compiling > FlySpray Testing Builds > New Ports > The Rockbox Lifestyle > Hardware > Repairing Broken Players > Rockbox Helper Software > WinFF > QTScrobbler > Rockbox Font Converter > etc. > etc. > Unsupported Builds > > > > --Soap >
