Wondering about categories on the forum. ‘Repairs’ seems like it could quickly get busy with many different conversations. perhaps have other key categories (sorry if I’m using the wrong terminology) such as tools & equipment, best practice, today I repaired, H&S, suppliers, manuals, volunteering, software, etc. And for the wide range of repair types in the share n repair network how does the forum support textile, woodwork, and other types of repairs. All under the same headings or split out?
would be good to understand how you see the platform operating and evolving. Sorry I won’t be at the launch event.
You’re not wrong - the current structure is partly the way it is because I originally set it up for Remake. It was only after discussions with @JaneOwens that I realised we had a better use for it. So, yes, I think you’re probably right.
However, I’m torn on the right structure. In forum lore, we often say “categories are like walls, 6 makes a nice house, 30 makes a maze”. If you have too many, people sometimes lose track of what to follow and where to post - not to mention that you have to pick, and if you have a repair that covers two categories, which do you use?
The alternative is to use tags, such as electrical or textiles - topics can have multiple tags, and you can follow a tag just like a category, so you can get notified of, say, new electrical repair topics. However, this isn’t risk free either, as it requires people to remember to add tags (mods can add them after the fact, but that’s not ideal either).
In addition, I’ll add a point you raised with me elsewhere, that we want a good spot to place repair guides, safety info, and so on. The twotopics from @Robin fit well into this.
Bearing in mind that we can always elvolve this later, I’m leaning towards something like:
Repairs (with tags)
Safety guides
Tools and equipment
Brand info (good & bad)
Then we use the same tags for the sub categories, so you can reference, eg, all the woodworking repairs/guides/tools/brands together. How would that feel to folks?
Not hearing any pushback on this idea, which means I’m either right or being too loud. Lets make use of a nice forum feature:
Should we use tags for types of repair?
Yes, tags seem good
No, a category for each seems better
Other, I’ll outline below
0voters
Interested to hear from other repair groups on this. @Robin@martyn do you have thoughts? I’ll give it a bit, but I could do with making the change by Thursday morning (tight, I know)
Tags seem fine for now and once launched and others join then a wider vote can take place if more categories needed. There’s merit I. Separating stories to be told about repairs, and calls for help which have a bit more urgency. That’s my main suggestion tags for textiles, toys, electronic, electrical, ceramics, mechanical, etc.
I would agree with you about the stories. I will move the 13 amp topic to Water Cooler for now, since it feels more social than anything. Battle stories are fun.
Ok. Water cooler category seems very American terminology. I felt that was a space for chatting about non repair stuff. But if you think it’s for repair chat then that’s fine but a bit unclear to me.
OK, fair point about the Americanism (I work for a US company in the dayjob so it creeps in). I’ll rename it.
I’m torn if the “war stories” talk is social talk or not - for now it’s not “active repairs” which is all we have. Perhaps these stories belong in the “Safety guides” subcategory proposed above, as cautionary tales
I know the discussion software we use at work calls the general channel “town hall”, though that might also seem a bit American or maybe formal. “Off topic” or “general discussion”?
