Maybe we need a Troubleshooting / Bugs / Problems sub-forum?

I see there's a lot of questions about troubleshooting and other problems.
These ranges from straight out bugs to user errors and everything in between - of course.

What do you think @Gordon? Is it room for a Forum for troubleshooting and bug discussion?

Currently questions related to things not working pop up everywhere, it's easier for people to help if there's a known place to help people having trouble with getting started etc.

Hmm, I'm not sure - I guess most people post here because they've had a problem doing something, so it's more or less just the News and Projects subforums that aren't for that. I guess there might be something to be said for having one for people who're having trouble actually getting their board connected to their computer?

I'm just conscious that the more forums we have, the more intimidating it seems - and also the less likely it is that people post in the right place.

That's true.
The best name for such a sub section (if you decide at some point in time that it's needed or beneficial) would probably be Need Help or some variation that clearly reads as 'post anything that's not working like you think it would.

Though, I completely agree with your stance on the matter. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Well, Need Help does sound like a good plan...

Anyone else have any thoughts?

General
Interfacing
and
Javascript

What goes in general? Let's look at what people are posting there.... Basically, tech support and troubleshooting questions!

So maybe we should just rename general to be a bit more clear that it's the place to go for general help+troubleshooting.

Aktively montoring/apply editorial changes to the blog - or creating a separate tech support db = is tons of work. Today's search capabilities gets you there... may be with a bit more milling through irrelevant stuff - and once in a while confused by seaming and real duplicats.

If 'General' is not tied to 'Javascript', that would already help... When you are new to something, you are also new to the terminology/taxonomy/... sometimes you just have no clue / shoot in the dark. For that an unconspicious Help! category - next to General (JS) - could work. What should happen though after the problem is solved, the whole conversation should be moved to the cattegory the problem was all about. Also, the forum should support a split of a conversation. Very often, a conversations start at one point - may not even be thr right catagory - and then the problems and solutions morph into somethong totally different than the conversation started with. A split would automatically put references - backward/parent and forward/child in place to not lose the context without having to invest in editorial work, but allow to give more accurate conversation titles to the split pieces.

Maybe add a tagging/filter system? A drop down with all the sections/subsections. I've seen this system work extremely well over at http://www.teksyndicate.com. I admit it took some time getting used to the system, but in my opinion it's working quite well. However, implementing this type of system will probably require a overhaul of the current espruino forum, which might be more work than what it's worth.

I do see Espruino becoming more popular in the near future which will require, in my opinion, a different approach to a forum organizational system. Just something to consider for the future :)

@Gordon I have a linode vps sitting idle that you can use if you want to tinker with the idea of updating the espruino forum.

Thanks! Yes, I think if the forum really does take off I'll have to look more seriously at tweaking it to fit with what's needed - hopefully I'll have some more time for it in a month or two.

IMO pretty high on that should be a search function that actually works!

Currently it's being hosted on Microcosm's servers, but my own server's got enough free space/power to host it, so I can fiddle around on that.