One forum per version

[DenDen60]

This is a suggestion to help in the management of the boards, subjects and search.

I think you should create a new instance of SMF for each new major version of SMF with of course only one user DB.

Denis

[Dannii]

Why? Most issues apply to more than one version. It would just confuse people I think.

[Thantos]

This is a suggestion to help in the management of the boards, subjects and search.

I think you should create a new instance of SMF for each new major version of SMF with of course only one user DB.

Denis

There is no way to have the same member table used for 1.0 and 1.1.  I don't see the benefit to this suggestion.

[DenDen60]

There is no way to have the same member table used for 1.0 and 1.1.

Thantos

I don't understand why you say that. I have differences instances of SMF and I only have one user DB.

Why? Most issues apply to more than one version. It would just confuse people I think.

eldʌkaː

I am looking at this as through the lens of site usability and knowledge management. I feel that there might be a better way to structure the board to facilitate disucssions ans search.

IMHO of course.

Denis

[Thantos]

Denis, I understood you to mean installing separate versions (ie 1.0, 1.1, DE) of SMF for support, not just have separate instances of the same version.

From an administrative point of view separating the forum into multiple forums isn't a feasible solution.  Also the majority of the questions either apply to multiple versions or simply would be posted in the wrong forum.

[DenDen60]

This forum as 796,599 Posts in 104,348 Topics

That is a lot of information. Is there a better way to manage all this information ?

How big will this forum be when the software will be at version 1.5, 2 or 3?

Again IMHO of course.

Denis

[DenDen60]

From an administrative point of view separating the forum into multiple forums isn't a feasible solution.  Also the majority of the questions either apply to multiple versions or simply would be posted in the wrong forum.

Is there a group of subjects that are version specific that could benefit from being attach to this version. i think of themes, mod, support etc.

Again just trying to give ideas on how to facilitate discussions and search considering the size of the forum and the growth that it will see as versions keeps accumulating.

Denis

[Krysia]

IA with Denis.

Unless SMF is no longer going to provide support to those who use a version less than 1.1, I agree that it would make sense to break down the support discussion forums into major version releases. It would make it much easier for members to search for solutions. And yes, while a lot of issues are probably criss-crossed between version releases, I would the majority of questions would apply to the specific version. I also think it would be easier for support to address the concerns.

[Fiery]

From an administrative point of view separating the forum into multiple forums isn't a feasible solution.  Also the majority of the questions either apply to multiple versions or simply would be posted in the wrong forum.

Is there a group of subjects that are version specific that could benefit from being attach to this version. i think of themes, mod, support etc.

Again just trying to give ideas on how to facilitate discussions and search considering the size of the forum and the growth that it will see as versions keeps accumulating.

Denis

It would be nice if old, invalid mods/themes were moved to a separate area.  I hate searching, finding a great mod then realizing that it was last updated for 1.0.2.

Just a thought

[JayBachatero]

From an administrative point of view separating the forum into multiple forums isn't a feasible solution.  Also the majority of the questions either apply to multiple versions or simply would be posted in the wrong forum.

Is there a group of subjects that are version specific that could benefit from being attach to this version. i think of themes, mod, support etc.

Again just trying to give ideas on how to facilitate discussions and search considering the size of the forum and the growth that it will see as versions keeps accumulating.

Denis

It would be nice if old, invalid mods/themes were moved to a separate area.  I hate searching, finding a great mod then realizing that it was last updated for 1.0.2.

Just a thought

Actually I added an archive area to the mod site.  I think that will help sort those mods out of the list.

[Fiery]

From an administrative point of view separating the forum into multiple forums isn't a feasible solution.  Also the majority of the questions either apply to multiple versions or simply would be posted in the wrong forum.

Is there a group of subjects that are version specific that could benefit from being attach to this version. i think of themes, mod, support etc.

Again just trying to give ideas on how to facilitate discussions and search considering the size of the forum and the growth that it will see as versions keeps accumulating.

Denis

It would be nice if old, invalid mods/themes were moved to a separate area.  I hate searching, finding a great mod then realizing that it was last updated for 1.0.2.

Just a thought

Actually I added an archive area to the mod site.  I think that will help sort those mods out of the list.

Sounds good, now hopefully some will move there.

thanks

[JayBachatero]

Yea sooner or later we will move the old mods there.

[DenDen60]

Good to see that there is some interest in this. Not only is it a usability issue it's also a knowledge management issue.

In this knowledge society, the better the knowledge is organized, the easier it is to find.

Denis

[Jacen]

Try the search function if you want to manage the posts.

I think that someone should mod this forum to take advantage of that version thing on the post screen, to sort the posts by version.


... Okay, that idea sounded better in my head.

[Grudge]

I don't really see this as an issue going forward. 1.0.x is now legacy and although we offer support for existing users we're not realistically going to see support requests for installing, converting or general admin of these boards (By now admins of 1.0.x are likely to know how to use the software). Also much of the time there is a huge amount of cross-over between versions (Themes, mods, coding etc) and it doesn't make sense to duplicate.

A potential idea might be to create a new board off support called "Legacy Support" and put all 1.0 related topics in there so people can ignore them during a search.