Some time ago somebody advocated shuffling and adding to the forum list.
I want to delete some.
We spend A LOT of time in the General Feedback and Discussion forums wasting time getting the users to tell us which machine they have. If not Windows, Linux or Mac, then what? Amiga? Will Audacity even run on an Amiga?
“I’m having trouble with my Commodore 64, can you help?”
No. We can’t.
Delete the General forums. Make them invisible to new users.
Part two–maybe later on:
Fold the production forums “Techniques, Equipment, Processing” inside the machine forums. The same questions again and again and we have to start asking, "If you’re on a Windows machine…
Windows > Recording Techniques.
Mac > Audio Processing
Or, dare I say it, just delete those forums, too? We have no trouble showing you the same ION Turntable questions posted in all forums, whether or not they’re appropriate.
Normally I’m not a fan of forced message management, but since we’re going to ask you anyway, knowing you’re on a Windows machine should be primary before you even post and press [Enter]. Most of us check all the general forums so as not to lose anybody. Time for all that extra work to go away.
What an awful and elitist idea! This forum exists to help users with things they don’t understand, not so that a select few can flex their alleged superior intellects. Should a person be required to read through the thousands of threads to see if their problem is mentioned somewhere? That’s what you are suggesting. If you grow weary of answering the same questions, by all means don’t. There’s no law that requires you to answer every question that’s been asked. Let someone who cares about the user, especially those who are new to Audacity, do it.
Absolutely correct, but I think that koz is making these suggestions in the hope of making it easier for ALL users.
You might be surprised at the number of questions about (for example) Windows issues that get posted on the Mac board, the Linux board, the “Forum Issues” board or on one of the “General Feedback and Discussion” boards.
For new users, looking for an answer to a specific problem, it would be easier to find relevant information if that information was on the appropriate board.
When someone is trying to help a fellow Audacity user, it is almost always necessary to establish what their set-up is. In particular, Audacity 1.2.x or 1.3.x, Windows, Mac or Linux.
I’m not sure that I agree with koz’s suggestion of reducing the number of boards, but some method of keeping posts on the relevant boards may help everyone.
Sorry to come off All Imperial on you, but Audacity is a very nice free audio program supported entirely by volunteers. It benefits everyone to have the one-on-one information exchange be as quick and efficient as possible. I work with other forums that don’t have The Platform Problem, and it’s a world of difference.
Do we make you fill out a form every time you post a question? Everybody else does that unless you have a support contract. That makes you go looking for serial and model numbers before you ever get around to pressing [enter].
“You failed to enter the unit serial number on line 17”
Here. Here’s a simple one. This was posted in the Audio Processing Forum.
I wouldn’t change a thing, specifically because the most advanced users can mingle with the beginners and everybody stands a chance of learning something. If you feel that a certain posting isn’t worth the effort, ignore it. Just teach the advanced class and let those with more patience deal with the lost and floundering.
straightup, I must speak up for Koz here (though I know he’s quite capable of doing that himself )
Koz is a major contributor to this forum (and also a professional in the recording field) - he gives a lot of his time freely, helping both advanced users and many novice/newbie/floundering users alike. He is one of the two most prolific posters of replies on the site (Stevethefiddle is t’other) - so his views on this deserve some consideration.
I agree that it is tiresome when people post in the wrong section of the forum or when they post with insufficient information. I would probably opt for a form to be filled which would direct the posting automatically to the right section of the forum - but I have my doubts if it could actually be made to work (a lifetime of working in the IT indstry has taught me that users can subvert even the most “fool-proof” systems that analysts/designers/programmers can create )
Personally, in terms of a board re-organization, I would opt for removing the “General Feedback and Discussion” from the 1.2 and 1.3 sections and create a single version of it in the All Things Audio subsection.
<<<If you feel that a certain posting isn’t worth the effort, ignore it.>>>
I don’t think that would be a very good idea. That would create a second class of user and we have no second class users.
The last time I had to stand in line at the California Department of Motor Vehicles (Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter…), there was a nice lady who snagged me and demanded to see my papers. “You belong,” she assured me, “in line 16 over there,” and she went on to snag somebody else.
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