Hi,

Right now the forum is divided in the following topics:

Support
- Installation
- Plugin Help
- General Help
- Themes
Extensions
- Plugins
- PHP Blocks
- Cool Hacks
Developers Only
- GL 1.x
- GL 2.x
Sites
- My Geeklog Site
- Sites
Feedback
- Feedback

For the purpose of delivering support it's ok the way it is, well except for the GL 2.x part since from what I understood that never really came off the ground and development is currently focussed on 1.7.1 and 1.8.0.

What I'd like to suggest though is an expansion of the forum towards a model that could be used to create a bit more of a community. With that I mean, having places where people can simply have discussions about whatever they feel like. The purpose being that they keep coming back to have a nice chat, not just to see if there are support calls to answer or to ask questions.

Heres an example of how you could expand the forums:

General Discussions
- General Geeklog Discussions: General discussion about anything related to Geeklog.
- You and your sites: Introduce yourself and/or show off your Geeklog site. (Previously My Geeklog Site)
- Geeklog related sites: Post sites related to Geeklog. (Previously Sites)
- Off-topic: Post anything, news, jokes, anything unrelated to Geeklog allowed.
- Feedback: Give feedback or post suggestions. (same as Feedback)
Support
- General support: (combining General Help and Installation, I personally think they should be in one place since installation trouble is usually something simple)
- Plugin support (Previously Plugin Help)
- Theming support (previously Themes)
- Documentation, Tips & Tricks: Post instructions, tips and tricks for beginners. (non wiki related, or maybe a sticky topic pointing to the wiki for beginners)
Extensions
- Plugins
- PHP Blocks
- Cool Hacks
Development & Coding (previously Developers Only)
- GL 1.x (maybe expand this a little into e.g. Core code, Plugins, Templating, etc. making it a place where everyone can ask development or code related questions?)
- GL 2.x (shouldn't this one be dropped or put into an archive?)
International Support & Translations
- List of a bunch of languages other then English, e.g. Dutch, French, Japanese, Chinese, German, etc.

As a reference, I kinda sneak peaked at this forum:

http://modxcms.com/forums/

I'm familiar with those forums and their project is still small compared to e.g. Wordpress but their community is very solid, mostly because there is a place to post anything you would want, making users come back to interact with each other. I think that something similar would greatly help out Geeklog.

With some feedback I think the above list would be perfected, and hopefully will also be implemented.

So, whats everyones thoughts on this?

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"The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it." - Linus Torvalds

I like your suggestions here. For developers I think maybe would expand and include a forum for each major release (+ the next future one) and drop GL 2 all together since no one has picked up the project.

Developers Only
- GL 1.7
- GL 1.8

We should also add a Google Summer of Code forum, split into each year we participate (as we move forward).

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One of the Geeklog Core Developers.

Geeklog's core problem for years is communication.

I already suggested to change the subforum "Developers Only" to be renamed to "Meet the Developers" sometime ago. The problem is who reads it, who decides on it, who feels responsible to change it?


Developers mostly read their email list, sometimes discuss in the feature request tracker or wiki and hardly ever discuss things on the forum like here: http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=87509.


What it needs is a major turnaround in communication.

I would agree, and the way I see it a good start would be setting up the framework for the communication and in this particular suggestion update the forum ^_~

It wouldn't solve all problems but it would be a step in right direction.

*edit*

Eventually I think the best thing would be to have just one main Geeklog site, namely Geeklog.net in order to get the entire community together. I know all Germans and almost all French (no offense ) know English so it would be great to have them here instead of elsewhere.

I know that the other Geeklog sites (.jp .fr .de and any other language) are doing a great job. But it's confusing, and I think it would help out allot to centralize at this moment sine it's a little too fragmented a.t.m.

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"The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it." - Linus Torvalds

The real problem is the core devs prefer IRC and discussions on IRC are as ethereal as a phone call.

Probably, but the suggestions I've made aren't just for the devs. It's mainly focussed on getting a community going, mostly consisting of users.

The devs part might turn out to be unwanted or unneeded but that\s up to the devs really, they have their own place to work and for some IRC and the mailing-lists + a bug tracker will be enough. Either way make sure it's public so that curious users or new devs can easily join a discussion (an opportunity to drag new devs into the project).

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"The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it." - Linus Torvalds

Yes, but who else do you want to address? Taken the fact that there was a decission on Geeklog's slogan / claim in Feb this year, I'd asume that the devs / coders (who ever that is) feel like deciding everything on their email list. Personally I think this is a desaster. :kickcan:

An e-mail list is the most efficient way to kill a community....

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Dutch Geeklog sites about camping/hiking:
www.kampeerzaken.nl | www.campersite.nl | www.caravans.nl | www.caravans.net

Starting up an old thread again (thanks Markus)

I plan on updating the forum topics and categories soon.

This is based on plans from the Geeklog.net redesign page which we have discussed previously here and on the dev mailing list:

http://wiki.geeklog.net/index.php/Geeklog.net_Redesign

The new forum layout. The sentence after the Category or Forum topic is the description. The information in brackets contains the old topic and other information.

General Discussions - Lets discuss Geeklog.
- General Geeklog Discussions - General discussion about anything related to Geeklog.
- You and your Sites - Introduce yourself and/or show off your Geeklog site. (Previously My Geeklog Site)
- Geeklog Related Sites: Post sites related to Geeklog. (Previously Sites)
- Off-Topic - Post anything, news, jokes, anything unrelated to Geeklog allowed.
- Feedback - Give feedback or post suggestions. (same as Feedback)

Support - Need help?
- General Support - Geeklog and install support. (Combining General Help and Installation)
- Plugin Support - Help and support with any Geeklog plugin. (Previously Plugin Help)
- Theming Support (previously Themes)
- Documentation, Tips & Tricks - Post instructions, tips and tricks for beginners. (non wiki related, or maybe a sticky topic pointing to the wiki for beginners)

Extensions - Information on non-core Geeklog extensions.
- Plugins - Announce your Plugin and talk about it's development and features.
- Themes - Announce your Theme and talk about it's development and features.
- PHP Blocks - Announce your PHP Block and talk about it's development and features.
- Cool Hacks - Announce your Hack and talk about it's development and features.

Development & Coding - Information on developing Geeklog and it's core components
- Geeklog - General discussion for developers on Geeklog. (Combining GL 1.x and GL 2)
- Plugins - General discussion for developers on Geeklog Core Plugins.
- Themes - General discussion for developers on Themes bundled with Geeklog
- GSOC - Google Summer of Code discussions.

International Support & Translations - Support and information for Geeklog in other languages. (List of a bunch of languages other then English, e.g. Dutch, French, Japanese, Chinese, German, etc. Maybe sticky topic in language pointing to support site. Moderator from support site)
- Dutch
- French
- Chinese
- German
- Japanese

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One of the Geeklog Core Developers.

This could become a lenghty discussion. Lets start with "Development & Coding". Seems to be mainly programming for you. In my mind there is marketing, communcation, graphics, design missing. GSOC is rather doubtful as a separate forum, is it?

If you keep the forums Geeklog and Plugins then I`d add

- Themes - discussion on developement of Themes, graphics, design bundled with Geeklog
- Other aspects- discussion on developement of marketing, communcation, maybe GSOC

I`d also keep GL 2 but rename it AptitudeCMS.

Also I`d not say "discussion for developers" but 'discussion on developement'. Keep in mind that those forums even now are open to everybody and "developers only" was by long abolished but the text had not changed.

So far for now

I am open to this idea but I see this more of a general geeklog discussion topic. If we had more forum interaction ... I don't know. It is almost the same issue with GSOC. I probably wouldn't add this right now until/if we get accepted.



AptitudeCMS is defunct. No one is developing it. The only reason I thought to maybe merge them is because people started to post in it about the actual Geeklog 2.0.0. If they hadn't I would probably of suggested to either deleted the forum or mark is as private.

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One of the Geeklog Core Developers.

Are there any thoughts on transfering the German geeklog.de forum to the new subforum or anything like that?

If you are talking about the German forum here on Geeklog. I am looking for someone willing to moderate it. We also need a sticky note posted in the forum pointing to the Geeklog German site as the main source for support in this language.

The languages represented in the International Support & Translations Category are really meant to point users who visit Geeklog.net where they can find more comprehensive support in their own language.

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One of the Geeklog Core Developers.