It was suggested by @ActionAbe in the thread: [Does BoingBoing still boing, or just thud][1] to have additional categories:
Similar points were raised by a few others in the same thread, but the discussion mostly headed elsewhere: How to handle new and clueless users(hey!). In earlier threads on the same topic* it seems that the main opposition has been the difficulty in adding categories before you know what content will be there. However I think the problem goes both ways, because at least as a new user it’s very hard to know what sort of content is appropriate.
I’m sorry if i’m rehashing an endlessly beaten discussion and that’s why the point was largely ignored.
Small edits work fine. Whitespace only edits may be problematic.
As for categorization, I agree completely @ActionAbe and @adament. Please do suggest some categories, I think BBS is overdue for something more nuanced (and as you noted, more helpful to people attempting to actually create new topics) than “Boing Boing” and “Everything Else”.
(technically there is meta but meta to me is a default category that should apply to every Discourse forum, forever, like the air you breathe, it is just there.)
So, maybe a good starting point is to browse the existing topics in uncategorized and take a stab at roughly grouping them into maybe 4 or 5 broad buckets by name?
I nominate tech news, crafting, tabloidesque, fandom, and soc-pol (sociopolitical). Sauce it up as necessary. I’ve had the requisite booze and judgment is duly impaired.
Cute (There has to be a place for cat pictures.
Media (books and movies etc.)
Advice? Maybe?
Gaming
Look ma! (As in “Look ma! I did/made a thing.”)
I kind of envisioned fandom as a place for media discussions and crafting for the “look ma” sort of things. Not sold on my names, was just throwing ideas out. XD In fact, we could call the fandom section “media” and the crafting section “look ma” (look ma is an epic name for a crafting section).
I’d just feel bad if we ended up with redundant sections because I was too drunk to make much sense.
Note that the first post in the topic category is used for the description of the category, so the first para of that first post is significant in helping others understand what the category is for.
And “what the category is for” can be discussed by replying to the category definition topic.
(we do not, sadly, have a group “take this action on all these topics” function yet so recategorizing is a one by one affair at the moment, my apologies @beschizza)
Huh. That’s weird. I see posts in it (though no description). Can’t create posts directly to it. Doesn’t seem to be related to any metrics I can see, doesn’t seem to have any Boing Boing posts … by process of elimination, I think it’s otherwise uncategorized posts.
I take it discussions can still be in only one topic at a time… Oh well, we also don’t get to tag indivdual comments, and no fixed system deals well with fractal reality.
The subcategory support (and the category having its own new and latest) is relatively new, so I am not sure. The rest of the team decided on that. I will have to ask.
I understand having something that shows all posts (which seems to be what the “all categories” entry in the category drop down list does), but it would be nice to have easy access to the link I just posted. That way you can look to see which categories have new stuff posted, and then decide which category you want to go to (or ignore).
Dizzy is the “everything-else” one. Probably “Stuff” would be a better title. Or maybe “Sloth”. But now I kind of like having a Dizzy forum. Boing Boing has a long, proud history of advocating intoxication.
“Meta” should probably stay meta, but I would like a 5-character word that fits. “Forum” (geddit?) would be entirely too clever and confusing. So I’m thinking “House”
