[Serious Question] Should older (Intel) Mac users post in here (PowerPC Mac forum)?

[eyoungren]

You could help your cause by providing a list of existing threads you think would be suitable for inclusion in an Old Intel Mac forum. This would help the admins decide if there is enough traffic to justify creating the new forum.

Thanks, I'm not in the Intel forums, but the creators of this thread are so I am sure that they can provide what you suggest.

Hear that guys?

Links!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

You could help your cause by providing a list of existing threads you think would be suitable for inclusion in an Old Intel Mac forum. This would help the admins decide if there is enough traffic to justify creating the new forum.

Actually, I suspect that if there is a separate forum where anyone with an older device can post a question or query or observation about matters that concern them, this will generate its own demand.

At present, those who have old machines and who read the posts of other owners of aged Apples, those who have been receiving dismissive answers, will be less likely to wish to post anything. A separate forum will create its own safe space, and its own demand, not to mention its own (probably quite pleasant) ambience.

I am getting tired of people asking questions about their white plastic iMacs in the same forum where I look for new retina iMac backlight bleed threads. In that sense a separate forum is a good idea.

Yes, two separate forums may well address this matter.

I find the gutting of an Intel Mac to turn it into a Hackintosh an odd thing. Why would you gut something only to replace it with the same parts?

OK sure, a Hackintosh starts out as a 'PC' but to me it's just the same thing.

That kind of admonishment shows the maturity level you guys are dealing with.

Given the huge size of the forum, - and given the condescending, dismissive and sometimes downright unpleasant responses to someone merely seeking advice or possible answers, solutions to issues arising from ownership or possession of older iMacs - a separate sub-forum seems an eminently sensible solution.

Not everyone is an early adopter by choice or circumstance.

 

[Plutonius]

Given the huge size of the forum, - and given the condescending, dismissive and sometimes downright unpleasant responses to someone merely seeking advice or possible answers, solutions to issues arising from ownership or possession of older iMacs - a separate sub-forum seems an eminently sensible solution.

Nice idea but I doubt it would end the unpleasant responses. As others have mentioned, people should check out the iPod Touch forum as an example 🙁.

 

[Jessica Lares]

How about we focus on pre-unibody and the first gen MacBook Air? I think it would be the easiest differentiation instead on focusig on years, 64-bit, and other things.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Nice idea but I doubt it would end the unpleasant responses. As others have mentioned, people should check out the iPod Touch forum as an example 🙁.

Oh, yes. I do indeed well know what you mean as I frequently visit the iPod Touch forums.

Nevertheless, I really don't understand the need to give voice (in the online world) to that perfectly ghastly combination of arrogance, certainty, along with a corrosive contempt for anyone who holds a different perspective; just accept that people have different reasons for buying, and using an Apple product……..

And for people who still use older machines, it would be nice if there was a safe, easy-going space where they could discuss stuff that they would like to raise about their computers that would not give rise to an outburst of derisive and contemptuous responses.

Not nice and not necessary.

 

[RedTomato]

RedTomato approves of this idea.

I suggest a rolling age limit e.g "All intel macs over 5 years old." That would make it easier for new posters to gauge which forum they should use. It also avoids the need to update the criteria every year as macs age.

The suggested criteria of 'unsupported macs' might be more difficult for some people to figure out when they just want to ask a quick question.

Devil's advocate: Currently, a 5 year cutoff has the merit of drawing a reasonably clear line between the Core2 models and the i-series models- but in 2 years time, would you be willing to call a 2012 i7 mac an 'older model'?

 

[grahamperrin]

… Do we annually transition certain macs to the older mac forum?

Things like that sound like unnecessary work. See below.

I suggest a rolling age limit e.g "All intel macs over 5 years old."

Sidelining 2007 vintage Macs that can run the latest operating system (Yosemite) … not ideal.

The suggested criteria of 'unsupported macs' might be more difficult for some people to figure out when they just want to ask a quick question. …

True. Mavericks Support - EOL When? and similar puzzles come to mind.

Incidentally, I frequently see misplaced topics (these might be moved, if I begin reporting them whenever I find them).

Back to the opening post:

… the appropriate computer's forum … responses like 'buy a new one' or 'too old to be worth anything', and frankly, it makes me furious. … long rant, just really tired of bad responses.

If a response is unnecessarily bad (e.g. personally insulting), report it – for moderation.

If the worth of something vintage, the preference for something vintage is not clear within (or easily visible alongside) a question, then I can understand a respondent commenting on worth.

… I have what I have …

Migrating to Xenforo – this might be an opportunity to allow more user-friendly presentation of why each person has what he or she has.

In the examples attached:

• my signature shows my environment, and likely future environments
• a click on the avatar shows my status, which makes clearer that I avoid Yosemite.

(Public/anonymous readers get the status, but not the signatures of posters – that's the third screenshot.)

128keaton, you could word your signature and status in ways that will minimise unwelcome responses.

 

[redheeler]

RedTomato approves of this idea.

I suggest a rolling age limit e.g "All intel macs over 5 years old." That would make it easier for new posters to gauge which forum they should use. It also avoids the need to update the criteria every year as macs age.

The suggested criteria of 'unsupported macs' might be more difficult for some people to figure out when they just want to ask a quick question.

Devil's advocate: Currently, a 5 year cutoff has the merit of drawing a reasonably clear line between the Core2 models and the i-series models- but in 2 years time, would you be willing to call a 2012 i7 mac an 'older model'?

No, I really do think it should be just for Intel Macs not supported by the latest OS X release. Questions like this would get much needed attention:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1840941/

 

[grahamperrin]

Orientation

… just for Intel Macs not supported by the latest OS X release. Questions like this …

For that, a healthy discussion began in August 2014 in the Yosemite sub-forum: OS X Yosemite on Unsupported Macs – I subscribed a while ago. Following it with interest. I don't recall any suggestion that the topic was misplaced.

 

[RedTomato]

Sidelining 2007 vintage Macs that can run the latest operating system (Yosemite) … not ideal.

Mavericks Support - EOL When? and similar puzzles come to mind.

Migrating to Xenforo – this might be an opportunity to allow more user-friendly presentation of why each person has what he or she has.

Suggesting Macrumors migrate their forum software to resolve this minor issue is hardly a rational response 🙂

The five year cutoff has the virtue of being both simple and optional. Questions concerning a 2007 Mac running Yosemite are as you say, best posted to the Yosemite forum or wherever relevant, not in the vintage arena.

Perhaps instead of a 5 year cut-off or solving EOL puzzles, the line could be drawn at: "Does it run a Core series or an i-series CPU?" Simple and clear. Admittedly, most macs look almost identical between the two CPU generations, but it's still easier to work out than the EOL puzzle.

 

[YanniDepp]

I have a number of PPC Macs, and the PPC forum is a useful place to discuss things, find old versions of software for them, etc.

I also have a 2006 Core Duo iMac. It can't run anything newer than Snow Leopard and it has 2GB RAM. Macs of this vintage are starting to become as obsolete as PowerPC Macs were when the PowerPC forum was first created. For example, Safari on Snow Leopard isn't supported by YouTube any more, and you can't download a lot of things from the App Store. (It doesn't prompt you to download an older version of the app that works on Snow Leopard, and neither does Lion. It appears that only Mountain Lion and Mavericks offer this feature).

I'm heavily behind creating a new "Vintage Intel Mac" forum. It would be good to have a place for Macs that can't run Mountain Lion or newer.

 

[grahamperrin]

Suggesting Macrumors migrate their forum software to resolve this minor issue is hardly a rational response 🙂 …

To clarify: I didn't suggest the migration.

 

[lowendlinux]

Suggesting Macrumors migrate their forum software to resolve this minor issue is hardly a rational response 🙂

The five year cutoff has the virtue of being both simple and optional. Questions concerning a 2007 Mac running Yosemite are as you say, best posted to the Yosemite forum or wherever relevant, not in the vintage arena.

Perhaps instead of a 5 year cut-off or solving EOL puzzles, the line could be drawn at: "Does it run a Core series or an i-series CPU?" Simple and clear. Admittedly, most macs look almost identical between the two CPU generations, but it's still easier to work out than the EOL puzzle.

I believe they are in the processes of doing just that.

 

[iModFrenzy]

After joining MacRumors, and primarily staying in the PowerPC forums(Even when I didn't own 1 Mac). I decided to grab my first Mac which was a PowerPC. I then expanded to Intel, but as we all know, the newer Macs are very expensive. Thus I was restricted to older models, no big deal considering I use PowerPC a lot as well 😛.

Now to the point, we all have issues,questions,etc with our Macs, which is why we come here. But I feel the newer forums are way to harsher for the old Intel macs. You can't go further than 1 post without someone saying "Go get a new Mac". I am quite content with my Intel Mac and would rather not upgrade mainly due to budget/New Macs are disgusting.

I know some mods have noticed that we "Old Intels" have brought our problems to the PowerPC forum. If you stayed in the PowerPC forums as much as I do, you would see why. No one tells you to get a new mac. They try to help as much as possible unlike the other forums.

With that said, I think a "Old Intel" forum would be very helpful.

Thanks

 

[iModFrenzy]

I'd really appreciate if the mods/admin would actually say something instead of ignoring this. According to another member, they also made a thread on this that was ignored.

 

[C DM]

Seems like there's a discussion of this at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/classic-retired-intel-mac-section.1897753/ from a few months ago, along with a slightly older one from earlier this year at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...users-post-in-here-powerpc-mac-forum.1839885/

 

[iModFrenzy]

Seems like there's a discussion of this at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/classic-retired-intel-mac-section.1897753/ from a few months ago, along with a slightly older one from earlier this year at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...users-post-in-here-powerpc-mac-forum.1839885/

That's what I was referencing too. As you can see, both threads died. No Admins came in on the matter.

 

[C DM]

That's what I was referencing too. As you can see, both threads died. No Admins came in on the matter.

Seems like a few staff members commented in those threads.

 

[Gamer9430]

Terribly sorry to revive an old thread, but several users, including myself, have brought this topic up on multiple occasions after this. I read through this entire thread and noticed that no one ever posted the links to threads in regards to people posting about older Intel Macs, and I would like to do just that below. I'm sure this topic has just been shoved under the rug, but there still is interest in starting a new subform.

Thread links (ones that I found by quickly skimming through threads from over the course of this year, probably missed a few...)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/problem-with-macbook-08.1939241/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/reviving-older-macbook-pro.1933161/unread
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/my-upcoming-now-completed-macbook-project.1898633/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/i-switched-to-the-dark-side-somewhat.1899540/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/keep-me-afloat-please.1892041/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/trying-to-decide-on-an-intel-laptop.1873918/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-time-finally-has-come….1863905/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/got-a-intel-imac.1861485/

 

[tevion5]

The way I see it is "PowerPC Macs" is an architecture forum and not an age related forum.
If you cannot locate a forum that suits your needs then maybe consider starting one.
"Over the Hill Intels" sounds like it should work.

Yes, while I support the need for an old Intel machines sub-forum, I would personally like to leave the current PPC section intact. As you say it is more an architecture based section, despite the overlap with generic legacy issues. I use my MBP for daily use and my gaming PC for windows related activities. But I love my 8600, Quicksilver and most of all my G5 Quad. These machines are for some reason a unique pleasure to use, and I enjoy making them reach their maximum potential.

 

[keysofanxiety]

What if you had a forum that was simply named "Vintage Macs"? Then within that, there could be two subforums for Intel/PPC. Or maybe a third subforum if some are running Motorolas, but that's a whole 'nother argument 😀

This means that any naming confusion with 2006-2008 Intel Macs, for instance, wouldn't have to be permanently updated every year, or whenever Apple change computers to being vintage. It would just be for any Macs that show up as 'Vintage' when you throw the serial number in Apple's warranty check - hopefully avoid confusion.

 

[grahamperrin]

Vintage

It's a reasonable word – suggested in the opening post and elsewhere – but people will debate the definitions of vintage.

I'm not a fan of taxonomies, but it's downright messy to have an approach to categorisation that causes Intel stuff to be bunged in a PowerPC forum.

 

[MagicBoy]

The PowerPC subforum is the wrong place for older Intel Mac discussion, but I can understand why the active members there are supporting each other as some are migrating towards Intel kit in addition to PowerPC. The PowerPC forum should stay as is. The existing product subforums also contains a wealth of historical posts from when those Macs were in support.

I'm unsure as to what the way forward is, there's no clear cut solution. I tend to agree with grahamperrins points above.

There's a gap in knowledge between new members and the more established ones. A new member with questions about (for example) an older iMac won't have a clue if it's current, or classic/retired/vintage/unsupported therefore won't be able to pick the correct subforum. Make it less specific and add a "General/Any other Macs" subforum and the n00bs and the ignorant will flock to that with everything as it's "easiest".

The flip side is to sort out the moderation in the Intel product forums.