Thread: "Newbie" forum?
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Posts: 1,513 | Thanked: 2,248 times | Joined on Mar 2006 @ US
#22
Originally Posted by TrueJournals View Post
First of all, qgil is right. I'm not a maemo.org guy, or ITt guy... just a guy I see that the forum's making a lot of changes, so I just like to throw my two cents in here and there.

The problem with the Newbie forum, as I see it, is, as GeneralAntilles said, that it's WAY too vague. However, I have a different reason for having this problem with it. This leads to posts that could contain some useful information, but get lost, locked away forever in the "Newbie" forum. It's just too much of an "anything goes" forum, and that makes it more difficult for people to get into the forum, and get involved.

I've already come up with my own solution: change it to pre-purchase/pre-device. This keeps a place open for questions that may seem silly to those who already have a tablet, and opens up a new place for people wondering "Will a tablet do what I need it to?" Hopefully, this would end up being a useful forum, and not just a "OMG N8X0 IS BETTAH THAN TEH IPOD TOUCH!!!11!!one!!!", but I have no doubt that those threads would show up.

I'm not saying I have the best solution. I think there are problems with all solutions, and you end up just picking the one with the best side-effects, and least number of downsides. Perhaps changing the name of the forum to "Beginner" would help, even. I still just think that the term "Newbie" has a negative connotation, and it's hard to get away from using for some people. Instead of having a place where it's OK to ask simple questions and not get flamed, the whole forum should be this way.
I never thought of you as a maemo guy (not that that's bad btw). And it seems you've seen the same increase in changes that I have.

I agree about the negative connotation with "newbie". The pre-purchase/beginner forum is more an attempt to categorize threads, than to constrain the conduct in the forum. (All forums should be nice to newbies.) the exact scope of the forum is not easy, but I don't see it as possibly being any more vague than the "general" forum. (A beginner/advanced justaposition makes more sense). My preference would be to say no command line stuff or anything that necessitates root access, but that's me. And there should not be reference material in there that other people (besides other beginners) would want to know about it. And of course this may all be moot...
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