New Forums

[mattster]

Hi All,

I was just wondering about an idea that might give Daniweb against other forums, and would suit a lot of us as developers. What about another set of forums including UI/UX design, working with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash etc

As a developer, I am hopeless at design, and maybe this is another branch Daniweb could provide for: graphics and that sort of thing?

Only a random thought - all depends if the community (administrators) would want to add this to the weath of information that is our home ;)

[pritaeas]

http://www.daniweb.com/community-center/daniweb-community-feedback/threads/452623/new-forum-topic-idea#post1962905

[blackmiau]

Personally, I'd love an area dedicated to design, since I'm side-(re)learning Photoshop.

[Dani]

It's always existed :)

http://www.daniweb.com/web-development/web-design-html-and-css/15

[JorgeM]

So the real question is whether adding additional specific categories such as UI/UX design foster/encourage new discussions that you wouldn't normally see in the HTML/Web design category.

Are members interested in starting a discussion about Photoshop but fail to post a question because they aren't able to categorize it?

[Dani]

That's what tags are for.

[happygeek]

What she said. Tags are there for a reason, if only more people used them properly.

To me Jorge's point leads to the user being unsure where to place Photoshop questions as Web Design is bundled in with HTML and CSS, which is under 'web development'. Obviously you have to weigh up the pros and cons of fragmenting subforums even further. The subforum blurb is pretty clear though...

Our Web Design sub-category encompasses everything related to graphics, 3D modeling, web design, and Adobe and Macromedia products. You can ask for constructive criticism on your new designs within the Website Reviews forum of our Business Exchange category.

...but this subforum is the last item in the dropdown (something has to be I suppose). If you peruse the subforum, you will see questions relating to CSS and HTML - very little to do with the 'Adobe/MM products'. Are contributors/users being put off from posting about these? I can't believe that there aren't any posters out there who have these questions, so something must be preventing them from posting. I don't think a glib 'use tags' is working or a solution.

[Reverend Jim]

Several times a day I browse the vb.net forum (and a few others) to see what's new and to check if there are any questions for which I can provide feedback. What happens to those questions that don't fit into an existing forum? If, for example, I had expertise in Photoshop or GIMP, how would I check to see if there are any related questions? I suppose I could type "Photoshop" or "GIMP" into the search box, but that would result in all posts that merely contain those phrases, so if someone replies in the Geek's lounge with "I used GIMP to create my avatar" then that post would appear in the list. Is there a search feature that searches only on tags? If not then perhaps there should be a forum dedicated to photo/video processing.

As much as we'd like tagging to work, the WebDev forum (as of this minute) has less than half of posters using tags (13/30) on the first page of articles.

I don't think I'd use DW to search for 'creating paths in Fireworks'.

http://www.daniweb.com/search/query/15?q=create+paths+in+fireworks+inurl%3Aweb-development+inurl%3Aweb-design-html-and-css#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=create%20paths%20in%20fireworks%20inurl%3Aweb-development%20inurl%3Aweb-design-html-and-css&gsc.page=1

The very lack of posts would argue against creating a (sub)subforum, but either way, topics about graphics are not being posted or not being tagged or not being placed in the right (sub)forum.

BTW - if tagging is the way to go, how is it possible to post an article without tags? Should be mandatory?

[happygeek]

Agreed with diafol on the mandatory tagging front, I think that forcing members into the habit of tagging posts would be beneficial in the long run.

[blackmiau]

-guilty of not using tags-

[Reverend Jim]

Also guilty. I don't see the point in adding tags when posting in a specific forum such as vb.net.

I can see the point if there were no forums - just a front list of the most popular tags - but that's not the way DW was set up (AFAIK) - so there are many thousands of tagless articles out there that would find themselves without any 'categories' to belong to if DW ere to go down this route.

I really don't know what the answer to this would be, but we seem to be missing the graphics crew for some reason. They could be a good potential source of revenue.

[Dani]

I feel like everyone is overthinking this for hypothetical situations. For example, you are saying that there should be a Photoshop forum for PS people, but meanwhile I am sure that Photoshop people will manage to find a way to the Web Design forum, and find not just photoshop-related questions interesting in there.

Fair one Dani, but it seems that they're not finding their way there. I'm not sure whether the numbers of graphics articles is comparable with other similar sites to DW, but I perceive it to be quite small. If you open up the forum and all you see is html and css, then you'd probably think that posting a PS/FW -related graphics question may be a waste of time. I could well be wrong and there is a thriving graphics community on DW - if so, I apologise.

[Dani]

I think you are misjudging how much HTML/CSS/Photoshop all go hand-in-hand. If I were to ask a photoshop question, I would certainly not be turned off by seeing a handful of CSS-related questions on the first page of the forum. The same group of people are typically proficient in both.

That's why I'm saying I think you guys are all speculating from the outside what a particular type of user would want, instead of going to the source and asking that type of user.

I'll concede we don't have a large web design forum, but I hardly think the reason is because of how the forums are categorized. It has to do with the user acquisition costs of converting a web designer versus other cheaper audience demographics that I can make more money off of via advertising right now.

You know your business.

The same group of people are typically proficient in both.

Possibly. It's not just a question for experts of course, it's the visitors who come here to ask questions in the first place. For a beginner wanting to find out how to do something in PS/FW (not necessarily web related, e.g. touching-up facial blemishes), then perhaps it would not be immediately obvious that this would be included in web design. But to be honest, I don't really care that much, just pointing out that if I wanted to ask a question about PS, I wouldn't automatically think of the subforum mentioned.

[Dani]

If you want to use Photoshop to retouch a photo outside the spectrum of web design, then you would most likely belong at a photography forum, as such things are a bit outside the already very broad scope of DaniWeb, which focuses on development and IT.

[<M/>]

as such things are a bit outside the already very broad scope of DaniWeb, which focuses on development and IT.

Isn't it best to be diverse? I mean, look at Google... they are not just a search engine. Or even a competitor of yours, Stackoverflow... they have many different forums that are completely different from each other, though their users who answer your questions abuse the new users and their environment and everything sucks...

Honestly, I would love to see a new forum on daniweb that would contribute to people like designers who use photoshop/illustrator and so on. Though, the con would be that not many people would use it because Daniweb has been established very strongly as an IT and Development forum. Also, i don't see room on the navigation for new forums... unless you create a subdomain.

[mattster]

Well exactly people, because most people that have such questions turn away because there is no immediate place to look for such a specific forum.

Yes I agree, CSS/HTML/PS all go hand in hand, but to the average forum user DaniWeb simply does not provide for PS/Design questions. As a result, DaniWeb looses traffic to other forums :'(

But I can quite understand where you're all coming from on finding somewhere to put it all and how Daniweb is already established as a dev forum (but Google was established as a search engine - what's stopped them branching out)

So I think it's a case of 'do we want to take the chance to accomodate another area of technology (and a wider audience)'? Which is someone else's call to make.

As for tagging I agree, but I've had an idea which I'll post shortly.

I was using the re-touching thing as an example, but I broadly agree with what you say. I won't bother labouring the point about beginners not knowing where to post their question, other than to say noobs and beginners seem to be the lifeblood of many DW forums, and that while, yes contributors and experts, are all important, they wouldn't have much to do, were it not for the 'askers' out there. No argument, just feedback :)

[<M/>]

Well exactly people, because most people that have such questions turn away because there is no immediate place to look for such a specific forum.
Yes I agree, CSS/HTML/PS all go hand in hand, but to the average forum user DaniWeb simply does not provide for PS/Design questions. As a result, DaniWeb looses traffic to other forums :'(
But I can quite understand where you're all coming from on finding somewhere to put it all and how Daniweb is already established as a dev forum (but Google was established as a search engine - what's stopped them branching out)
So I think it's a case of 'do we want to take the chance to accomodate another area of technology (and a wider audience)'? Which is someone else's call to make.
As for tagging I agree, but I've had an idea which I'll post shortly.

Exactly! If only I worded it that way...

[mattster]

Thanks people, have also posted the new tagging idea

Thanks people, have also posted the new tagging idea

Where? Link?

[happygeek]

Here