So what's the point in having a "News" forum category that ordinary users can't start topics on, and official Arduino types don't start topics on ? (For instance, nothing about the Und SMD there...)
good point...
i just saw that there have been two new software versions since i last checked the main page since i always expect some note here...
yep, very good point.
What i hope (not demand) for is a bit more communication.
For example, plans for new forum software, plans for the playground, development of the Uno.
Especially as "The Uno and version 1.0 will be the reference versions of Arduino". Wouldn't it be a good idea to actually use the forum members while developing something new instead of a 'surprise'.
One thing i would have voted for is braking out all pins from both controllers. Not necessarily to nice headers, solder pads randomly placed would be good enough for me.
Hope i was constructive instead of only negative,
Jeroen
"For example, plans for new forum software, plans for the playground, development of the Uno."
You dont need communication for that:
"new forum software": Never.
"Plans for the playground": Never touch a running wiki.
"development of Uno": Watch the blog
"Especially as "The Uno and version 1.0 will be the reference versions of Arduino". Wouldn't it be a good idea to actually use the forum members while developing something new instead of a 'surprise'."
For that we have the Una punta Zero forum... for ages ok, and full of uncommented stuff, ok.. but its basically what you want
"One thing i would have voted for is braking out all pins from both controllers. Not necessarily to nice headers, solder pads randomly placed would be good enough for me."
Such a demonic thing shall never be called for! Such is the deed of evildoers like Seeedstudio!
Wouldn't it be a good idea to actually use the forum members while developing something new instead of a 'surprise'.
How do you know they haven't contacted some of them.
Hmmm...it used to be open. I know there's still a product announcement I put there. Probably should be a separate Arduino-related news category and then an official news category for software releases, Arduino events, speaking dates, etc.
If you think you have a problem with spam registrations and postings, you may have more with regular users posting news.
How do you know they haven't contacted some of them. Wink
Tell us your secrets Grumpy_Mike! >:(
How do you know they haven't contacted some of them.
Ok, so the "continuous feedback of the community" (documentary) is in reality asking a select number of users what they think.
I do realize that not all feedback is equal in value. I personally would value Grumpy_mike's info more than my own but does that mean my feedback should not be heard? Even if it's tossed out after hearing. Obviously this is an example with 2 users but i think this also apply's to the whole community.
Just to make it very clear; I still love arduino and the issues i have aren't in any way showstoppers for me. But as almost always things could be even 'better'.
About the News board. Is it weird to think that for example the documentary would have been announced there?
Still a very happy and grateful arduino user,
Jeroen
Fresh news:
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Wiki and Playground will remain as they are with PmWiki, but Playground will be editable with forum credentials.
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Forum: in about two weeks it will be replaced with SMF1.1 (don't know if they realized that 2.0 is around the corner). This one will be freezed and we will use the blank new.
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Blog: people would be able to send their projects to be starred
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Ethernet board: in about two weeks!!
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Arduino Shop
There are going to be lots of changes as you can see
- Forum: in around two weeks it will be replaced with SMF1.1 (don't know if they realized that 2.0 is around the corner). This one will be freezed and we will use the blank new.
Any word on user stats? Will they be kept or must we all start anew?
No word about it, just that there would be report buttons and karma (hope it doesn't backfire)
Sounds like some good news after all... yet one thing still bothers me a bit..
Though i was a proud user of SMF Forums for years i turned my back on that software a few months ago as of the following reasons which might be interestering for the forum staff here as well..
- There is no support for the 2.0 Versions yet (ok, thats understandable) as it is not yet final
- There are no ETA dates whatsoever for 2.0, its ghosting arround for more than one and a half year
- With the community split early last year some stuff came up that i would rather loved not to have seen going on there
- No WIKI built in
- 1.1.x support runs out some day
Though these are not really big problems once a board runs i would still recommend a different software. For the purpose of this board here the best available option would beOCPortal ( http://ocportal.com) which includes a Forum, Wiki and Website - even with Shop and everything one wants in a single software. You can link from the wiki to the forum, from forum to the wiki everything is just one piece, so the maintainance and user friendlyness would be maximized.. Also OCP is highly active supported. I have found, so far, in a beta release two bugs and they both got fixed within one day of giving note to their forum...
I know this will start a war again, but hey, thats a good reason to fight after all ,0)
Though these are not really big problems once a board runs i would still recommend a different software. For the purpose of this board here the best available option would beOCPortal ( http://ocportal.com) which includes a Forum, Wiki and Website - even with Shop and everything one wants in a single software. You can link from the wiki to the forum, from forum to the wiki everything is just one piece, so the maintainance and user friendlyness would be maximized.. Also OCP is highly active supported. I have found, so far, in a beta release two bugs and they both got fixed within one day of giving note to their forum...
I know this will start a war again, but hey, thats a good reason to fight after all ,0)
They aren't going to change the playground though, and their website is brand new also. I'd just suggest phpBB for the forum and leave the rest as is, I've run it on many sites with good stability and it has a large community behind it as well (so lots of plugins and help)
You know, we could start a fight here on what is better.. ,0)
But i guess youre right. The main page is new (no problem to port it into OCP though ,0)) but the playground always was kind of a joke.. (imho) they might think of changing it..
Although, like this forum, the playground is outdated, it would be a massive ton of work to port it all over to a new CMS. But your right, this argument has been brought up too often (remember the 404 freakout the servers experienced some time back and everyone blamed the forum software? boy, that was a fun month) - I'm just excited to see big changes on the horizon.
It is just that some time ago about ten members with high posting numbers were contacted and asked to try two new forums and give feedback on what they thought. The thinking was that as high posting members spend a lot of time on the forum they would be in a position to give feedback and in manageable proportions. Personally I didn't think there is too much wrong with this one. Most of the spam gets cut out quickly and people are generally well behaved. I seldom go on the News sections and when I did thought it was being abused with people trying to push or sell something.
My one gripe is that the tutorials that show wiring an LED directly to the arduino and the shift out that shows a capacitor connected to one of the outputs are still on, and will not be changed. These two do confuse beginners and can permanently damage your arduino if you carry them out.
My one gripe is that the tutorials that show wiring an LED directly to the arduino and the shift out that shows a capacitor connected to one of the outputs are still on, and will not be changed. These two do confuse beginners and can permanently damage your arduino if you carry them out.
But it helps sell more boards.
(I kid.)
The problem is that there really needs to be a "News" section for non-core-team "News" to get posted. (The core team can have a separate section, or they can stick to their blog.)
For example, both Instructables and Element14 are running contests that might be interesting to Arduino users (Instructables is having a general "Microcontroller" contest, Element14 is having a specifically "Arduino" contest.)
Possibly make it so that any "news" has to be approved by a member of moderation/admin before it appears in the news forum
Or only "approved" people can post news, kind of like Twitter's Verified accounts (though verified accounts can't really do anything different on Twitter except get massive followers)
As for how you'd implement the approved system... groups would work...