A comparison, for a moment. In theory I like the default appearance of https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/ (at a glance; I’m new there) – a sense of order, and prominence to Categories.
Gut feeling (I need to sleep on this): if categories are introduced too soon – and let’s assume that thoughts on categorisation will shift over time – the effect could be counterproductive, maybe disorienting. Rather than begin with categories, maybe instead:
perform (or allow) some seeding of topics, to be the flesh
a reasonable length of time to see how things naturally shape up
then begin categorising.
Flesh-before-skeleton might be not a norm for starting a forum but that’s what’s in my sleepy early-hours head at the moment.
Confession: I did not read the private READ ME FIRST: Getting Started topic – guidance for local staff (administrators and moderators) – until hours after I started.
Ignoring the READ ME was a bad start by me but not entirely bad; there’s this, which strengthens my gut feeling about not rushing any categorisation:
… Don’t create too many initial categories, as you can overwhelm your audience. You can always add more categories, and easily bulk recategorize topics later. It’s better to figure out the organization as you go rather than assuming you’ll get it all right from the beginning. …
I’m tempted to remove the Events, Meetings, Projects and Tools categories, all of which are empty. That’s not to say that they’ll never be useful; I simply don’t see them as immediately useful for seed purposes …
I’ll hide the empty Announcements category. It was present only for a short while, and only with an assumption that an announcement would be required. We can easily bring it back. Thanks.
For any Opensourcedesign related topics we only have the category “Events”. The others are “Site feedback” and the lounge, a “An easy-going place for topics that are not directly related to OSD matters.” Thus we currently have no way of actually categorizing content.
Based on what we discussed on github my experiences with other communities I suggest the following initial categories:
Communicating & Collaborating in design (methods and ideas on communicating design, resolving issues and collaborating across disciplines)
User Research (User Research for and with free projects)
Graphic Design (Graphic Design like Logos, Colorschemes, Fonts… for and with free projects)
UI/Interaction Design (Interaction Design and UI Design for and with free projects)
Tags are my preferred way of categorizing things because so often things don’t fit in one category, but I also understand that they’re not quite as straightforward.
It’s my understanding that it is possible to tag things - though I don’t know if anyone can, and in that case it might be interesting to have subjects that are both User Research and Graphic Design.
There are some things that would make sense as categories though “Your Design Feedback”. I see these most as sub-forums.
On that note, @jan or one of the other admin, can you check whether it’s possible to make the default view one where things are sorted by categories, rather than just a list? That seemed like a sensible request made by @htietze:
Regarding Tags vs. Categories: I have no problem with either.
I read somewhere that Tags can be created by people with Lvl 3, while Categories might be for lvl 4. Not sure where to find the configuration for our instance, or if these are standard.
Since there is no conclusion, let’s see what other think. One solution is to have both and see which one gets more traction.
Also, do we need an “uncatogorized” category? I’m not sure how that works, but it doesn’t look like things get automatically organized as uncategorized?
I wonder if those are partly not better suited for tasks that we keep on github: Events/Finding a location (a task), collecting tools (should go in our resources). Projects may be like design advice (what @evalica suggested here ) (but maybe you intended these to be something different, I’m only guessing from their names)
Help and Exchange may be broadly what I assume discourse to be particularly good at. Thus, my suggestion above of having broadly topic oriented channels:
I’d be happy to refine and/or combine (e.g.Disciplines + Design Advice + org-like category)
And then also a »Local meetups« category where every city should have one topic. We can create sub-categories in the future when it’s more thriving, but initially one topic per city should do the job.
but that’s what’s in my sleepy early-hours head at the moment.
but not entirely bad; there’s this, which strengthens my gut feeling about not rushing any categorisation:
(e.g.Disciplines + Design Advice +