New subforum for pre 2019 Mac Pros?

[JesterJJZ]

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but with the announcement of the mMP, I no longer have any interest in sorting through posts between it, the cMP, or the tcMP. (nor did I ever with the latter)

It’s becoming very cluttered and confusing here between people talking about the new Mac Pro and people asking for help or have questions about the older ones.

Maybe there should be a “Classic MP” section or something along those lines.

Just a thought.

 

[filterdecay]

I agree. There should be a sub forum for cmp and the horrible tube thing.

 

[JesterJJZ]

The classic Mac Pro is still quite popular. I feel like posts pertaining to it are now just getting lost and confused with the new one. It’s not like the iMac or MBP forums where every once in a while someone may ask about an older model. Revisions among those lines are also pretty relevant to each other. New Mac Pro is pretty different and doesn’t share much with previous generations.

 

[MisterAndrew]

This forum needs to be a welcoming and safe place for all Mac Pro users. I always did my best to include the 6,1 in threads I've created even though I was a 5,1 user. As a future 7,1 user I'll continue to do my best to include applicable information for 5,1 and 6,1 users. It's understandable that a new sub-forum for vintage/obsolete models may be desired though since things like hacking macOS to run on unsupported hardware and flashing graphics cards isn't applicable to currently supported models.

 

[StuAff]

It's unlikely to happen- there were requests for an iMac Pro subforum, they got turned down. There's enough crossover between the three gens of MP (in technology, users, and their usage/experience) for pooled knowledge to remain the best option in lots of cases.

 

[frou]

The G5 crew in the PowerPC forum might grant you asylum

 

[willmtaylor]

I suggest prefixes similar to what they’ve done in other sub forums. Separate forums, IMO, would create too much fragmentation, but thread prefixes would make quickly skimming for pertinent threads much easier.

 

[Weaselboy]

I suggest prefixes...

What prefixes would you and others suggest?

 

[willmtaylor]

What prefixes would you and others suggest?

Cheese Grater, Trash Can, & Colander?

1st Gen, 2nd Gen, 3rd Gen?

2006, 2013, 2019?

 

[Weaselboy]

Cheese Grater, Trash Can, & Colander?

These work!

I like the prefix idea, but I'm struggling a little for what the prefixes should be so they make sense to everybody.

 

[tsialex]

These work!

I like the prefix idea, but I'm struggling a little for what the prefixes should be so they make sense to everybody.

I would think that separating the supported Mac Pros from the unsupported ones would work better in the long run, MacRumors will have to do it in the future, maybe it's easier to do it now that we have fewer MP7,1 threads, but anything is better than the confusion that started since last Monday.

There are 3 distinct classic Mac Pros models and the MP6,1:

1. MP1,1 and MP2,1
2. MP3,1
3. MP4,1 and MP5,1
4. MP6,1

MP1,1 and 2,1 are practically the same thing, MP4,1 and MP5,1 almost the same thing too, the odds are MP3,1 and MP6,1. Since Apple use these prefixes, maybe it's easier to use them. Nicknames like cheese grater don't make much sense outside people that are used to them and don't make distinctions between MP1,1/MP2,1, MP3,1 and MP4,1/MP5,1.

You can use years too, but it's worse than MPx,x prefixes.

 

[Weaselboy]

There are 3 distinct classic Mac Pros models and the MP6,1:

1. MP1,1 and MP2,1
2. MP3,1
3. MP4,1 and MP5,1
4. MP6,1

Do you think the average newb would know what those are and understand what we are after here? I'm not familiar enough with Mac Pros to say.

 

[crjackson2134]

Classic Tower (or Original Tower)
Cylindrical
Next Gen Tower
All Models

Perhaps something like this would work

MP 1,1 - 5,1
MP 6,1
MP 7,1
MP All Models

Original Tower...(1,1 - 5,1)
Cylindrical ........(6,1)
Next Gen Tower (7,1)
All Models

Works either way for me - the first List is more in line with the formatting of the other forums, the second list is a little more descriptive for the discerning purists.

 

[tsialex]

Do you think the average newb would know what those are and understand what we are after here? I'm not familiar enough with Mac Pros to say.

I would think so, most Mac Pro owners know the firmware prefix, since we have to do firmware upgrades manually and it's used system wide (MP5,1 or MacPro5,1).

Btw, most people outside the US don't understand the nicknames. I had to look a lot of colander images to make sense of the nickname, I don't have that mental image of a colander.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

Do you think the average newb would know what those are and understand what we are after here? I'm not familiar enough with Mac Pros to say.

Yes, we all know which model we own (or at least we should)...I can't abide nicknames like 'Cheese Grater'. Please don't reduce us to that.

 

[Weaselboy]

I can't abide nicknames like 'Cheese Grater'. Please don't reduce us to that.

Not to worry... that was all in fun.

 

[chown33]

Cheese Grater, Trash Can, & Colander?

To be honest, I like the visual clarity of those names, despite the apparent disparaging implications.

This might be one situation where pictures (icons) would be better than words, since each design is, in fact, so visually distinct. However, I suspect the forum software isn't capable of that. Maybe there's a way to use the private use areas of Unicode to map a Unicode code to a downloadable glyph (technically, a glyph in a downloaded font).

If none of the graphical options are possible, then maybe dates would suffice. Or date ranges.

 

[willmtaylor]

To be honest, I like the visual clarity of those names, despite the apparent disparaging implications.

This might be one situation where pictures (icons) would be better than words, since each design is, in fact, so visually distinct. However, I suspect the forum software isn't capable of that. Maybe there's a way to use the private use areas of Unicode to map a Unicode code to a downloadable glyph (technically, a glyph in a downloaded font).

If none of the graphical options are possible, then maybe dates would suffice. Or date ranges.

To me, the nicknames don’t have negative connotations, though I understand some take offense. They’re simply visual points of reference.

The crux of the matter here is finding a prefix that is technically correct, recognizable, and short.

The more I ponder it, the more simple dates of release get my vote. Heck, even Apple has started referring to products as “The 2018 _____,” or “The 2019 _____.”

 

[cgscotto]

I had two cMPs, 3,1 and 5,1, which are now used by my wife and son respectively. I have a 6,1, Cylinder. While I don't mind the nickname cheese grater since it does not really imply anything derogatory about the machine (I am sure there are many cMP users that disagree, as evidenced by earlier posts), I have to admit that the nickname "Trashcan" has always bothered me since it is intended to have a derogatory connotation. I bought a 6,1 last year in anticipation of exactly what I thought Apple would do pricewise with the 7,1, which they did. I love this machine for audio work, in fact, I can't praise it enough. I know it did not meet everyone expectation, especially for the price point, but it works great for me and audio production, way better than my 5,1 ever was. If it has to have a nickname in a new subforum, then I would vote for Cylinder. I have much more affection for this term since it reminds me of many sci-fi movies I like.

I will upgrade to the mMP eventually, but not on the first iteration. I bought in on the Mac Pro 1,1 the first month it was offered and was upset to learn it was locked out of future OS upgrades because of its 32bit EFI. I would have waited for a later iteration had I known Apple built in that particular dongle. I now only buy new model numbers in the second or third year.

Since the 6,1 and the 7,1 will both run OS 10.15, I think they should be in the same subforum.

 

[JesterJJZ]

cMP, tcMP, mMP

 

[crjackson2134]

cMP, tcMP, mMP

It’s not really descriptive enough for new comers to the Mac ecosystem.

 

[filterdecay]

It’s not really descriptive enough for new comers to the Mac ecosystem.

Im confident in the human races ability to figure things out like that.

 

[crjackson2134]

Im confident in the human races ability to figure things out like that.

IDK, have you seen the threads in the Mac Pro section lately

Instead of forcing them to figure it out, wouldn’t it be better just to give an accurate description instead of a clever nick name alone?

 

[MisterAndrew]

I would think that separating the supported Mac Pros from the unsupported ones would work better in the long run, MacRumors will have to do it in the future, maybe it's easier to do it now that we have fewer MP7,1 threads, but anything is better than the confusion that started since last Monday.

There are 3 distinct classic Mac Pros models and the MP6,1:

1. MP1,1 and MP2,1
2. MP3,1
3. MP4,1 and MP5,1
4. MP6,1

MP1,1 and 2,1 are practically the same thing, MP4,1 and MP5,1 almost the same thing too, the odds are MP3,1 and MP6,1. Since Apple use these prefixes, maybe it's easier to use them. Nicknames like cheese grater don't make much sense outside people that are used to them and don't make distinctions between MP1,1/MP2,1, MP3,1 and MP4,1/MP5,1.

You can use years too, but it's worse than MPx,x prefixes.

I like these prefixes the best. The model identifiers assigned by Apple are the most sure way to know what machine we are referencing. Model year wouldn't work very well because 2010 and 2012 are the same machine. Prefixes such as "nMP" don't make sense because the model "nMP" changes as Apple releases new models. For example, people used the "nMP" prefix for the 6,1 in the past and now they use it for the 7,1. However, using these prefixes could be confusing if you wanted to reference a range of models such as MP3,1 through MP5,1. So perhaps in addition to those listed above, we could have:

5. MP6,1 and MP7,1 (currently supported models)
6. MP7,1
7. MP8,1 (rumors about upcoming model)
8. MP1,1 - MP5,1 (classic models)
9. MP3,1 - MP5,1
10. All Models

 

[Weaselboy]

Mac Pro 1,1 - 5,1 (Original Tower)
Mac Pro 6,1........ (Cylindrical)
Mac Pro 7,1........ (Next Gen Tower)
Mac Pro, All Models

I kinda like this idea.

For the MP experts, is that enough granularity for what we are trying to do here?

How do you think it will look with a longish prefix like that in the forums? Maybe shorten Mac Pro to MP, so have "MP 1,1 - 5,1 (Original Tower)"?