Discourse Categories - A Review

#1

Continuing the discussion from Proposed Category Consolidation:

I think the category list is getting a bit untidy. Now that we’ve been really using it in anger for a year, I think a review of how Discourse is organised is worthwhile.

Issues with the current categories at first glance:

  • What’s the difference between posting in #members and #discussion?
  • Why is the #members:emf category not under #events?
  • What is the root of #space for?
  • Why are the subcategories of #space a mixture of discussion and documentation?
  • The public/private parts are all jumbled up (might be unavoidable though)

The default view of Categories page has got to be pretty intimidating to newbies at this point. “Where do I go?!”

Personally, I always use Latest, which is just a date-ordered stream of topics. Sometimes I wonder if this would actually be more welcoming, as it gives you a flavour for what’s actually happening in the space.

Thoughts?

#2

Hi Tom

I agree that it’s difficult to find things, and that working on the categories is good.

A question about the software: are we able to make wiki-like pages which also have a parallel discussion page? (In the manner of Wikipedia). I’ve used this kind of thing in a number of places with good results, particularly in keeping discussion out of the main pages.

It might also be nice to have something much more in the manner of IRC/Slack/Chatroom for all the Are you in / Anybody there / How about 6pm type of pages, which tend to derail and hide more useful pages like Shall We Fix X today.

It might be nice to see a reduction in the amount of banter in many of the pages.

Kind regards,
Jonathan.

#3

I completely disagree, categories are best, it’s a forum not a google group…

I did however bring this up before, that we should change categories around as there aren’t enough deliniations.

#4

I didn’t say categories were bad, just that their current arrangement isn’t ideal.

#5

Categorise by the way people think - "I want to …"
I want reminded how to use the laser cutter
I want to know if the laser cutter is in action
I want to discuss getting a bigger laser cutter
I want to have my say about the decision of buying a bigger laser cutter.

So I’d have four root categories

  • Documentation
  • Notices
  • Discussion
  • Votes

All Documentation posts should be Wikis, probably only amendable by the relevant @roles, all notices locked threads, also only editable by @roles, and then all discussion posts as open threads, and votes similar to docs and notices, TBC pending governance brief.

The sub categories for each could be:

  • People (might need a better title, basically rules / governance / community)
  • Infrastructure
  • Tools
  • Events
    With a couple more added under discussion:
  • Projects
  • Anything Else

I doubt you need more categories beyond this point as it will become self explanatory in the heading, but the @roles titles might work if you felt it need split but I would suggest not, keep it simple, based on function. Don’t forget we have search (find ‘Pillar Drill’ in ‘Documentation’, done.)

in Documentation / People would find wiki docs, headed with something along these lines - :
“Organisational / Governance structure”
“Rules about behaviour etc - about People in general sense”

in Notices / People
When a @role position comes up / changes etc

in Discussion / People
Chat about roles, governance, etc.

in Documentation / Infrastructure:
Space Access
Toilets
etc

In Notices / Infrastructure:
The laser cutter is broken
etc

In Discussion / Infrastructure
Yeah you guessed it, discussion about infrastructure! It’ll be clear about which bit from the post title.

And so on, I hope you see the pattern - function based not information based. A heavily categorised system is for libraries of books, static info, for finding a needle in a haystack. And we’re not reddit (a dynamic cataloguing of the internet-as-library). Discourse is a multi-functional dynamic online community tool and needs a different approach - it has search and it emails (different groups of) people, we don’t need lots of categories, they can be minimal, easy to use and understand. Make Discourse more functional / less discursive :slight_smile:

#6

Looks sensible

#7

I meant on the front page categories not latest posts.

#8

That’s exactly what I meant. This

Pasted image509×869 28.6 KB

Is not great.

#9

It’s better than latest

#10

Looks fine

#11

Maybe “notices” as well.
But this could possible lead to admin overhead

#12

As a little experiment I’ve moved existing categories around, it seems like we need some better ways to categories the contents of Discussion and Members.

Also the private @roles thing isn’t working so well.

#13

Tom this sounds a little hostile, especially as it cross-posted with someone else.

A general request: please can we all try to be nice to each other?

1 Like
#14

I would like the first three sub-categories of members to be:

New members start here
Introductions
Projects

I’m drafting content for a “new members start here” page at the moment.

2 Likes
#15

This sounds good. A few members have said, and when I started, theres no obvious way for simple questions to be answered - where / how / who / what. Discourse present s a dense wall of words pretty much on every page of it, apart from maybe the ‘latest’ page. Unless you’ve got loads of time to keep pace with the discussions, it’s a bit of a wall.

I think fundamentally we should try and find a way of presenting key information to people so they can find it easily, that’s my main complaint with discourse as it is at the moment, but the restructure @unknowndomain has done looks good.

#16

I’ve been thinking about this s while.

I would like to see latest as the default page.
With categories very easy to get to or somewhere on the same page.

Or maybe as we have now but latest as the top box on top of discussions in the main page rather than off the ment bar.

I spent about three weeks not scrolling down and only getting involved in conversations in the “discussions” catagory because it’s at the top of the page. Now I just go straight to “new” and “latest” from the submenu and ignore categories (sometimes going there when I want to find out about something specific-but that’s rare). At least when I’m on my phone which most of the time S appears to occasionally on a desktop.

#17

In that basis we should use unread.

My thoughts are that having latest and unread is convenient for regulars but if you are new seeing the structure of the forum helps to navigate.

In reality I think the categories are in need of improvement.

Also remember that there are a lot of sections most people can’t see. Even as a member.

#18

The Discourse shortcut on my desktop / home screen leads straight to ‘latest’.

Make the homepage friendly for new members, old members can sort out shortcuts for themselves!

#19

Thats what I was thinking, for me I use the Unread thing pretty much exclusively and I just click it.

However I think they are suggesting that the latest is easier to access.

#20

What we can do is make Categories the default landing view, but then have subsequent clicksof the M take you to Latest. (Unread doesn’t include any new topics, just ones you’ve replied to or read a lot.)