Category use for "Tips"?

When reading @DanThomas’s post:

I was thinking it should probably go in the "macros" category, even though it is not technically a macro, but is more a macro than a question which is what the "general" category is.

I doubt it's worth having a Tips category.

Any thoughts?

Peter, if you are now open to adding some forum Categories, then I might suggest the following:

  • Rename “general” to “Help” or “Ask for Help”
  • ADD Category “How To” or “How To & Tips” or “Tutorials & Tips”
  • Rename “macro” to “Macro Library”
  • ADD Category “Script Library”
    • Maybe it is time we have a section for scripts that are not attached to a Macro.
    • I think there are a number of scripts that are useful across many Macros

(if Category name cannot contains blanks, then use underscore)

EDIT: 2016-12-16 12:28 AM CT

If you rename “general”, then that leaves a hole for these two, which I would then suggest also adding as new Categories:

  • Feature Requests
  • Issues
    • Includes possible bug reports, issues with the macOS and other apps
    • Incompatibility with other apps
    • Yes, some might first post in “Help”, but then, if so indicated, a moderator could move to “Issues”

The main point is to make the purpose of each Category clear by its name. I know these may have longer names than you would personally prefer, but think of the users who don’t have a clue as to where to look or post. Most will not see or read the Category description where you provide purpose and instructions.

I would restrict “How To & Tips” and “Macro Library” to users who have earned a minimum level in the Forum. I’m not sure what that should be since I still don’t understand the Discourse level rating system.

To summarize, this would yield these Categories:

  • Help
  • Issues
  • Feature Requests
  • How To & Tips
  • Macro Library
  • Scripts
  • Wiki
  • Meta (I would rename to “Forum Admin”)
  • Plugin
  • statusmenuicon (do we really need this? Merge with “How To”)
  • announce (rename “Announcements”)
  • uncategorized (I would eliminate this)

Thanks for considering this change to forum structure.

EDIT: 2016-12-16 11:07 AM CT
• Added “Scripts” to the Category list, which I overlooked.

4 Likes

Checkout this landing page for another Discourse forum.
i really like it.

Let users quickly see and understand the available Categories, and see a list of the latest posts.

We can see the same here:
https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/categories

I guess it is just a matter of which page to set as the landing page in the Forum Admin.

1 Like

I like all the suggestions, especially the landing page.

Omitted is your suggestion of a Script Library category. I assume by that you didn‘t literally mean “Script Libraries” but rather just standalone scripts that someone could use either as is inside a KM macro or by adding to one of their Script Libraries.

In a Script category it would be very important for everyone to carefully tag posts with the language of the Script.

See also A thought about the site's growing discussions of scripting. I continue to believe that categories serve an important high-level classification function that is difficult to achieve with tags, especially because I think tagging habits vary widely and even if you do tag a post, you don't always add all the tags that might be relevant. Wille everyone t

That was an oversight that has now been corrected. Post revised.

In general, yes, the "Scripts" Category would be for standalone scripts.
However, if someone wanted to actually publish a complete Script Library, I think that would be fine.

Don't think we don't know what you're trying to do there. :wink:

By "Script Library", I meant a single file, of either AppleScript or JXA functions, that can be used as an Apple Script Library.

But I'm not trying to suggest any constraints.

Here is an interesting point/suggestion:

This could even help grow the Keyboard Maestro user base.

Your thoughts?

I didn't think you were. I thought you might be "encouraging" some of us to get off of our butts and make real-life libraries out of our code snippets. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I agree, the landing page shown is nicer than the default. I don’t actually know how you do that with Discourse though - does anyone know how its done? I’m hesitant to start hacking CSS because then it likely ends up failing under different form factors like phones and such, or after an update, or whatever. But if it is well supported by the Discourse folks, that would be fine.

As for categories, I’m, OK with renaming them, but I don’t want confusion about where to post - that just ends up having to educate new users which is an impossible task since there is a continuous stream of them.

The problem with separating Help, Issues, and Feature Requests is that they are often the same thing. Issues tends to just be not understanding something, and Feature Requests are frequently not knowing how to do something. With the exception of a few of you who post a thousand posts, I’d guess 90% of feature requests turn in to “you can do that by…” responses.

Tutorials & Tips is really the missing category I was asking about - there is no good spot to put them currently.

I don’t see any need to separate Scripts from Macros. A script is really just an Execute Macro action without the wrapper. And it’s probably not a good idea to encourage more general script discussion - we already have folks scared by the rampant use of scripts. If it doesn’t make sense as a macro, then it probably shouldn’t be on the forum.

There should not be an uncategorized category, that looks like a stuff up by me not including a category in a post - I’d change it, but ironically it’s probably one that would go in the mythical Tips & Tutorials category.

So that would be something like:

  • Questions & Suggestions
  • Tips & Tutorials
  • Macro Library
  • Wiki
  • Forum Admin
  • Plug Ins
  • Status Menu Icons
  • Announcements

Plus a new landing page if it could be figured out and isn’t going to break (might be worth waiting until 1.7 is released?)

Peter, I could not find specific instructions, but it appears you should find this in the forum admin/setup:

Peter, I think many (most?) user would find having separate Categories helpful and logical, from their point-of-view.

Even if the user is wrong, and posts what he/she believes to be an issue in the "Issues" category, and it then turns out to be solvable, then we can provide the solution, and check the "Solved" checkbox.

Chances are if one user thought it was an issue, then other will also.
So when the user views the "Issues" category, they can more quickly find their "issue", and even see if it has been resolved.

IAC, if a user posts a topic in the wrong Category, it is very each to move it to another category. I do this all the time when users post questions about their macro in the "Macro" Category. Two clicks and I have moved it to "General". NBD.

IMO, "Issues" is also the perfect place to post:

  • Known Keyboard Maestro issues/bugs/limitations
    • When/If they are resolved, then we can make the post, and check the "Solved" checkbox.
  • Issues with a specific macOS version
  • Compatibility issues with other apps

The same thing goes for "Feature Requests".

IMO it would be much better for a user to find an existing "Feature Request" and add his/her input/use case.
Again, when/if the feature is implemented, we can make a post and check the "Solved" box.

I'm in the forum almost every day, and I don't mind moving topics to another Category if it needs to be done. I also usually add tags where needed.

None of us want confusion about where to post. I don't think having separate Categories for Help, Issues, and Feature Requests adds confusion. Actually to the contrary, IMO it adds clarity. If you switch the landing page to Keyboard Maestro Discourse - Discussion forum for Keyboard Maestro, the powerful macro program for macOS, then the user can quickly see the available Categories along with a brief purpose/description:

I’ve adjusted the landing page to be Categories, and the logo click to go to Latest.

Anyone else want to weigh in on category names?

2 Likes

I have renamed the categories and added the Tips & Tutorials category.