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Some changes to the forum structure

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Jubadub:
IMO, these latest changes also look good and serve us well.

At first, I was a bit reluctant about putting "Running Mac OS 9 on unsupported hardware" as a child board instead of it being a main board, but when I browsed the main forum page, it did work very nicely, because we see a link in there anyway that mentions it, and even takes us straight to that board if necessary. Plus, it makes sense for it to belong to that main board you moved it to.

Now, I do have a suggestion...

I think the board name "Mac OS 9, Hacks, Upgrades & General Discussion" can probably be improved. I think the merge itself is fine. Just the name can probably be better. How about simply "System and Hacks"? It is as clear as "Hacking the System" was, if not even clearer, and also makes it clear that it is a board to discuss the System itself, meaning Mac OS 9, without us having to spell out "Mac OS 9" outright, which otherwise feels a bit repetitive, since the whole forum is already about Mac OS 9, so "System" keeps it short, sweet and to the point.

"System AND Hacks" implies we will always be talking about the System, be it in a general way, or with regards to hacking it to get it to do things beyond it originally could.

The name also makes it clear, in as brief a manner as possible, that, by saying "System", we are talking of the OS itself, rather than any other software, so it contrasts nicely with the "Software" board, which is meant to address every other software being run under Mac OS 9.

And, again, if the board name uses the term "Mac OS 9" instead of "System", it is not as instantaneously clear what it may mean, because each board of that section is already addressing something of Mac OS 9. By calling it just "System [and Hacks]", there's immediately no doubt what it is about.

One more thing, the name of the "group" of those boards is currently set as "Classic Mac OS Discussions". I think it should be "Mac OS 9 Discussions". I don't see why we should use the term "Classic" there, and even if we want to address OS versions that predate 9 in a given topic/thread, that should be fine, since everything here is OS-9-centric anyway: when discussing older systems, it normally will be by comparing it to 9, such as when we talk briefly about OS 8.6 and whatnot, or when we discuss the nanokernel of Mac OS 9, which is also used in 8.6, and so on. People also have both System 7 Today and the Macintosh Garden if they really want to insist, they can very well participate in multiple forums, while we keep the focus on what matters to us here.

The term "Classic" applies best to the emulator of same name used to run Mac OS 9 and earlier. While the expression is colloquially used "out there", it is nonetheless confusing, and I think it is detrimental when we adopt it when we simply want to refer to an OS that has a proper name, that being "Mac OS 9", no more, no less.

And that's it! Hopefully I could convey my thoughts clearly and reasonably?

Knezzen:
I hear ya, but I'm not that sure that "System" equals "Mac OS 9" for everyone and I think because of the possibility to interpret it wrong it's better to be perhaps on the extremely obvious side of things. The idea is to talk about Mac OS 9 as a operating system in general as well and not just "hacks". I see that many posts that should go to a "Mac OS 9" or "Operating System" board just gets posted in the general help board.

I agree about the Classic thing, more or less at least. I will change the description :)

On the topic of the help board, btw. In the not so distant future I see the general help board topics being locked up so no new posts can be made there and the topics being moved to their "correct" place instead. Right now I feel like the Help board is just a dumping ground for more or less anything. Any thoughts?

Jubadub:

--- Quote from: Knezzen on March 31, 2024, 11:57:37 AM ---On the topic of the help board, btw. In the not so distant future I see the general help board topics being locked up so no new posts can be made there and the topics being moved to their "correct" place instead. Right now I feel like the Help board is just a dumping ground for more or less anything. Any thoughts?

--- End quote ---

I agree, because every board category here is most often about "help" with something already. For example: "Software" for software help. Help with unsupported OS 9 hardware will also go precisely to that category. Help with DAWs too. In the end, it is a redundant board, now that I think about it.

I guess one point of it was to provide also non-English topics / support, which clearly wasn't very much used at all. But IMO people can make their own threads in whatever language they want in any of the appropriate boards, although English is our lingua franca and thus preferred for more seamless communication, but I don't see any issues with having exceptions. Language-specific boards IMO only make sense if, say, suddenly we start getting 27 Thai topics a day, case in which we should consider making a "Thai Topics" board or so.

DieHard:
Looking good Knez :)

It's always a good idea to re-structure.  The only issue I see (which has always been a problem) is when I allowed posts under a topic that also included child boards... like
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?board=129.0

This leads to 15 pages of "lost" stuff under the main board and this info will literally never be looked at unless a member is specifically searching for something, so my only suggestion would be to include a "catch all" child board (like you did for "off topic") for all main boards that have child boards; in other words do NOT allow any posts under a main board that has child boards.

You can then decide as things are posted into the "catch-all off topic" board whether to make a new child board and move it or just leave it there.  Just a suggestion :)

smilesdavis:
#tags?

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