New category suggestions

Meta
22

@dceejay,
I'm just looking for someone give it consideration. I look at the web site often and I get lost trying to filter out to discover topics that I can find. It takes valuable time, thus this suggestion.

There may be some other consideration in order to facilitate filtering for me to get better results from searches. I run across Node-RED updates by looking up "announce", or @knolleary, and still not always get the results .. Perhaps a category could be added for "Updated Software". There should be a reason which anyone posts, there could certainly be a better way to describe your purpose than "General". It may take a bit of time to select the Main topic and subtopics your post will fit. And ask yourself, Don't you want to be found? Otherwise, why post at all?

23

All of the formal announcements are in the #news category. Dave and I are the only people who post to that category.

I have no issue adding one or two more categories, but you have to also consider the fact we quite regularly have to move posts to the right category because the vast majority of new users just post to #general without considering what other categories are already there.

24

I don't think I said that. In fact, I suggested sub-categories as a way to resolve the issue you raised. Clearly, when the General category has more than three times as many posts as all the others combined, there is a lack of specificity. I like @dceejay's idea of an Industrial/Commercial Applications category as starting point.

Obviously, there is nothing that can't be improved...

25

I try to do three things in order to make my posts visible.

  • Construct a title that clearly defines the topic and content of my post.
  • Tag or quote other users or posts that could attract attention from users who might be interested.
  • Post in the most relevant category or sub-category.

Here and in most other forums, the last is probably the least effective.

It might actually be helpful if you posted some of the search terms you have used that failed to get the results you wanted and say whether and how you eventually succeeded. It could give the moderators an idea of how the forum could be improved to better serve your needs.

1 Like
26

@drmibell,
First, and foremost. Thank you for your kind consideration.

Secondly. I need to communicate that it is just what it is. A suggestion. Maybe poor, maybe ill though out. Maybe awesome. I do not know. The forum name is "New Category Suggestions". Therefore, here is one. It absolutely qualifies as a good suggestion... at least to me.

Thirdly, Thank you for the time you spent reading and responding. The list of available categories is apparently too broad. Nick O'leary suggested that everyone puts their posts on "General". I would suggest that is because there is nothing that remotely fits a reasonable category in the first place. You don't even bother with such a general... category such as "industrial", or "hobby", or "home automation", in order to try and give anyone indication other than hardware, News, Dashboard. As you can see, If I wanted to post something on SQL Server, OPC, PLC, or pretty much anything dealing with process, I'd have to go to General. And that's exactly where anyone would end up if they were researching information on how someone hooked up a camera to thier RP for home security...

Look, I'm not meaning to upset the apple cart at all. I would like to be able to filter out the reams of stuff that never applies to me vs. stuff I'm interested in browsing. The problem with search strings, is that one needs to know what's there in order to find it... If I post, I should be able to place my questions into a category which is logical for that purpose.

Look, I understand that this administration can become unwieldy. I would believe that Nick has more important things to do than be bothered with plucking out inappropriately categorized posts and moving them to another folder.

If this suggestion is too difficult to consider, might I suggest that you remove the posting for "new category suggestions"... for I would really like to know, what exactly would be considered a "good" suggestion ?... if the obvious category of industrial vs, (non-industrial) other... is for some reason, too much... :thinking:

27

All feedback is useful. And things change over time. It is always worth us reflecting on what is and isn't working and making changes as necessary.

I think we've already agreed it is worth having a couple more categories to try to separate out the more industrial/commercial usage. We just don't want to get too fine grained with the categories as I suspect it won't be to anyone's benefit.

1 Like
28

@knolleary, Nick,
Thank you for your reply.

For my problem I have introduced, being able to weed through the reams of posts, What would be something that you would suggest in categories? Is there a logical divide for types of usage? I believe that the reason you don't get people to use them properly is because they are too broad in scope for anyone to actually use, unless of course, you have a dashboard, hardware, or otherwise one which fits the categories present.

29

I don't know how others use this site... but I personally I never filter by categories, I just use All Categories whenever I visit the forum.

I can see the reason for categories, and having subject matter in it's own specific folder, but the danger in filtering is that you miss other valued posts elsewhere in the forum.
Also, some issues are cross category - should they be duplicated, or risk being overlooked? and also many posts are not categorised correctly by the poster.

I'm probably out of kilter with other forum members, but this is my personal view

4 Likes
30

I do use it, but often while looking for specific posts that I remember seeing and filtering most of them out. For example the recent industrial use in production topic (General), specific core development/node creation posts when I look into problems I ran into while working on my own node and seeing if anything recent about it has been posted. Same for the forum search.