to all involved with the addition of the new forums.

ethan, etc, etc,

nice job with adding the extra forums.  Here is a fresh pot of coffee for all the hard work and what I would assume is late nights

thanks guys.

Ya I think I like it!

I agree. Great work. I like the reworked descriptions of the original forums too--much clearer.

I'm really happy to see the addition of the higher level forum.
And clearing the lab from never ending clone posts is great.

Thanks for all the hard work!!!

I don't like it. 

I think with this new system the  "Show unread posts since last visit" function will be great for people who want to get around the fragmented forum.

It's a pretty hidden feature, but very useful.

Echo North said:

I think with this new system the  "Show unread posts since last visit" function will be great for people who want to get around the fragmented forum.

It's a pretty hidden feature, but very useful.

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good point. And if the malcontents were really cranky, I wonder if a 'megaboard' view like this http://messageboard.tapeop.com/megaboard.php would be easy to add?

I like the idea of a megaboard feature.  That would probably be what I would use all the time.

wow, nice job!

Gus said:

I don't like it.

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No offense to anyone, but I don't care for the changes either.

When I joined back in 2005, one of the things I really liked about this forum was its simplicity...Drawing Board, Lab, Brewery, Black Market...that was it!

Unfortunately, it seems that GroupDIY is on its way to this, which is not good in my opinion.

Skylar said:

Unfortunately, it seems that GroupDIY is on its way to this, which is not good in my opinion.

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Holy crap that's nuts.  I usually end up at that forum trough a google search so I've never seen the front end.  That is insane and confusing.

It's looking like this has the potential to be an even more useful & productive forum
with any luck & skill ,  fair to all
All the grumpy gus's can can voice their opinions and that experience will help as well [ thank you ]

Echo North said:

Skylar said:

Unfortunately, it seems that GroupDIY is on its way to this, which is not good in my opinion.

Click to expand...

Holy crap that's nuts.  I usually end up at that forum trough a google search so I've never seen the front end.  That is insane and confusing.

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They have more than double the active members than our entire population... (active or not)
That is a beast of a forum, and I can only imagine the kind of chaos they're trying to manage over there.

I like the new additions, maybe not the simple creature it once was...but it's evolve or go the way of the dodo bird.

YAY! A digital forum. Not that I don't love analog, mind you. Ever since taking a digital design class, though, I've really been loving FPGAs and I've been trying to think up new devices ideas to code. My latest idea has to do with building a polyphonic synth using SID chips. I need to design a device that can interpret MIDI and then use it to set the control registers on the chips.

Skylar said:

When I joined back in 2005, one of the things I really liked about this forum was its simplicity...

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Understood. I like simplicity too. But in 2005 we barely had 1000 members (we're now fast approaching 11k).
With member growth, further sub categorization is inevitable or eventually it would become too difficult to follow topics or find information.

We could either close the door to new members and keep the simplicity, or try to be proactive about facilitating the growth.
Those that have trouble following your newsfeed in FaceBook because you have 5000 friends, I'm sure you understand.

Ethan said:

Those that have trouble following your newsfeed in FaceBook because you have 5000 friends, I'm sure you understand.

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I have like 65 friends. 

Any thought on having a megathread?

Like it or not, I am sure there was hard work involved.

Echo North said:

Any thought on having a megathread?

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I will look into it. Thanks.

pucho812 said:

Like it or not, I am sure there was hard work involved.

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With all due respect to Ethan, I seriously doubt there was very much work involved in creating a handful of new boards.
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Boards

I do not think that creating additional sub-categorization of boards is the solution to a growing user base.

I think the biggest issue (with the growing user base) is signal-to-noise ratio. This poor SNR may be due to difficulty in finding (or unwillingness to find) answers to common questions—I don't know—just throwing out ideas.
I honestly don't know what the solution to this SNR problem is—maybe a well-moderated wiki (easier said than done)?
However, I am almost certain that creating further sub-categorization will not improve the SNR.

Seriously, why add all these extra boards? High Order, Machine Shop, Dynamic Processors, Filters/Equalizers, Mics, Preamps, etc., etc.
It only makes it harder to know where to post and where to browse for discussion.

The SEARCH function works great. I've always been able to find what I was looking for via search.
The problem is people who are too lazy to search in the first place.

As the number of members increases, so will the number of members who are not willing to use the search function and request the quick answer to their question that's been answered 100 times. Creating a bunch of new boards is not going to change that. All it will do is make it harder to know where to post and where to read.

Ethan/mods, look forward to spending more time moving posts from board to board.

I hate to say it, but I'm considering selling off my inventory and disappearing into the ether...another one bites the dust.

Skylar said:

I hate to say it, but I'm considering selling off my inventory and disappearing into the ether...another one bites the dust.

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Because you don't agree with the changes?

hmmmm...