Create a new iWeb Development Forum

[SrWebDeveloper]

Please be sure to VOTE on this before you reply.

We've informally discussed this before and most of us seemed to support the notion for MacRumors to create a separate forum for iWeb design and development. Meaning, either a split with a sub-forum or two parallel forums, whatever they felt would work the best.

However, nothing ever became of it.

I've always felt that answering proprietary questions about iWeb, usually the same ones over and over, is a poor use of forum resources. Also, there are many key limitations in iWeb for development purposes and the product has it's own unique way of doing things which means alot of the advice from the regular contributors doesn't apply to iWeb questions and users often find this confusing. We all know the iWeb target audience is different than that for sites produced via other commercial products or if very advanced server side coding/setup is involved.

Maybe it's time to split the forums, post a few sticky messages in the iWeb forum with the most common questions/answers (FAQ's) if worthwhile.

Please vote then add your reply. If the powers who run MacForums looked at the poll and saw a real majority, they might do this. Of course I also expect a few folks to possibly feel things are fine as they are, so no opinions will be constrained.

Consider this "testing the waters" for a possible change.

-jim

 

[Blue Velvet]

I understand the impulse, but it's a slippery slope. I'm a regular in the Design and Graphics forum and we have a mix of forum members and topics in there, with all levels of skill and experience.

If we split Web Development into two sections, then you could equally argue that Digital Audio should be split to accommodate Garageband users, Digital Photography for point and shoot camera users, Digital Video for home video use.

I suggest that iWeb threads — if they're that frequent and onerous — are reported by forum members and that mods move them into Mac Applications; it only takes a couple of seconds.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

@Blue Velvet

Thank you for your valued opinion and time to respond. As there are numerous iWeb topics, so for "mods [to] move them into Mac Applications; it only takes a couple of seconds" might combine enough time to justify separation:

A quick scan searching the existing forum for the instance of "iWeb" in just the thread subject reveals 295 topics in the last year alone. That's not including responses where conversation may have changed to include the word iWeb, that's 997 replies in 1900 topics posted in the last year. Looks like 15-20% on average per month. Not massive, but more work for the mods such as yourself than you might have anticipated. But I'll leave that up to you, of course.

FYI

-jim

 

[angelwatt]

While I understand the suggestion, I don't feel it's necessary. If the forum were busier I would, but this one is one of the less populous ones and the iWeb questions at least keep new topics coming in. I also like wouldn't take the time to visit a secondary forum for it since I don't like or use iWeb, but have been known to contribute to the threads at times when I have some advice to give. An iWeb focused forum may keep the more web knowledgeable away from that forum, leaving the newbs to fend for themselves at times. Most people using iWeb wouldn't understand a distinction between and iWeb web forum and just the web forum.

That's my thoughts.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

I'd hope an iWeb user with little to no experience who is seeking help and saw or found in a search one forum named "iWeb" in the Mac Applications category plus one called "Web Design and Development" they'd hit the former first since its more closely related to what they do know - the app name. Simple naming conventions in forum titles and categories can resolve said issue.

Maybe MacRumors needs to address the bigger picture Blue Velvet hit upon - in the long run, of course - to re-organize the apps section with it's mind numbing 48,952 combined topics and break it down listing only the major apps that ship with the OS, combine all the rest in a few simply named forums such as "Open Source" and others, for example. So the total number of forums in the apps section is limited. Obviously I recognize even doing this is a ton of work and requires careful planning that far, far exceeds the boundaries of my request.

As that won't happen any time soon, I am satisfied with the responses so far and I dutifully read them all. I welcome any further opinions or suggestions that could accomplish my request without a complete re-design. Thanks to all.

-jim