Proposal to link MacOSXHints and forums

[yuriwho]

Link the main MacOSXhints site to the forums. Any hint posted to the main site generates a new thread in the forum appropriate to the category of the hint. Messages posted to that thread in the forums will appear on the macosxhints site.

I realize that this may be difficult to implement with the main site and forum servers not located in the same room/building, but I see that much of the necessary site design is already in place. For example there are already sub-forums that cover the same categories as the main site. This would also allow the creation of new hints with from great forum threads with the addition of a thread summary to the first post in the thread as well as the new hint being created.

I often see forum threads being referenced on the main page of other mac forum sites. This is an opportunity to build the forum into the main site.

I think this could be great. What do you think?

[griffman]

It's an intriguing idea, but for now, the intent is to let the two sites exist separately. I may look to integrate a "What's new on the forums?" box on the Mac OS X Hints site (shouldn't be overly difficult), but that's about the extent of it ... other than integrating the new account creation thing, of course.

As questions here turn into tips, then the answers will be posted as a hint on the main site. That way, there's no confusion of purpose -- if you want to know the answer, start at macosxhints. If you can't find the answer there, pose the question on the forums. If you just want to chat, drop by The Coat Room :-).

The sub-forums were designed to match the categories on the macosxhints site, with some combined to make it easier to navigate. That should make it much easier to match the answers back when they get published on macosxhints.

Down the road, greater integration could certainly occur, but that would probably require more resources (in time, money, and people) than I have available running the two sites as a hobby.

-rob.

[bhines]

Yes, this should be implemented, perhaps as a "Hints" forum. (moderated)

Of course, you'd need coders to implement a bridge from GL->vB, and I understand you aren't a coder. The mods would probably not be small. :)

I'd suggest having the actual forum be on this site, and submitting a hint to GL creates a new thread in the "Hints" forum here. The "comment on this hint" link on GL would point to the vB thread, so GL's is not used. I've seen other sites that do similar things, but I don't know if they use two different web apps or not.

I don't see it requiring more resources for maintenance, other than the initial coding.

-Ben (who IS a coder, but is more interested in working on OSX apps than web apps)

[griffman]

To the new "Forum Feedback" forum!

-rob.