May 24, 2018 at 9:21 am
We've got a lot of old forums. We used to try and focus people into certain areas for types of topics. That hasn't scaled well.
What I'd propose is that we move to the 2 forums per version we have now, using the model of
Administration
Development
Does this make sense or is a single one better? Or should we just focus on topics and let someone provide a version?
I'd close all the 2008 and prior forums so no posting. I'd add new admin/dev ones.
Leave Cloud Computing alone.
Move reporting Services to admin/dev for all version.
For Programming, I'd go to
- .NET
- PoSh
- Other
I'm not sure here if we want to break out anything else? I'm torn with even this.
Data Warehousing, move to
- SSIS
- Strategies and design
- SDTS
- General DW
Database Design - leave alone, mostly because I don't know.
Career - Leave alone, maybe add a tributes one for obits. I hate doing that, but I'm also saddened that we've lost some people and it will happen again.
Testing - Leave alone
Access leave alone
Future Versions - remove. Just add new SQL 15, 16, 17, etc.
May 24, 2018 at 10:06 am
Database Design and DW Design and Strategies fit together pretty well.
I feel your pain on version vs. topic.
Some ways to solve an issue are version related.
Almost like part of posting having a combo box to ID a version, and a filter to narrow down the topic would be handy at times.
May 24, 2018 at 10:31 am
I have wanted "tags" easily allowed, with the versions as prominent, easily clicked items. Maybe I'll ask the InstantForum people if they can add this.
May 24, 2018 at 10:48 am
I'm thinking, if it's possible, to eliminate the version forums and have a set of check boxes or drop downs when you create a post. You can pick version, as an example, and maybe some demographic-type info, like area of the world, role, or any number of other criteria.
Maybe then a "search the forums" based upon the various criteria?
This may help alleviate spam also.
Michael L John
If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
To properly post on a forum:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/
May 24, 2018 at 10:54 am
Not possible. At least not short term. Tags would be better, IMHO, but either is a fairly intrusive change to this forum code.
May 24, 2018 at 10:57 am
Feel free to chime in here: http://community.instantasp.co.uk/18923/Add-tags-for-topics
May 24, 2018 at 11:59 am
What I might suggest is, set up one pair of forums for "Previous Versions" for the people coming in still asking questions about SQL2000, etc. But do away with the existing 2008 / 2000 / 7.5 etc forums.
As for tags and such, the only way I could see that working would be to make choosing a version tag mandatory, otherwise you'd have someone posting a question for SQL 2000 (but not mentioning the version anywhere,) getting answers for Azure SQL, then complaining that the answers "don't work."
As for the rest, I do like the current two forum style for the versions, it does make it somewhat easier to decide where to put a question.
May 24, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Maybe moving the "Older" versions to a single forum with the 2 subforums for each makes sense. I'm thinking that anything older than 2014 is "older". So we'd have 2017, 2016, 2014, 2018(?) as their own group, everything else old.
Making tags mandatory is hard. It's a disruption for new users. experienced users like it, but for new ones, we want a low bar.
May 24, 2018 at 12:34 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Thursday, May 24, 2018 12:25 PMMaking tags mandatory is hard. It's a disruption for new users. experienced users like it, but for new ones, we want a low bar.
I can understand that, but I would think the disruption would be less than the disruption (and annoyance level) of getting a technically correct answer, just not for the version you're working on (that you forgot to mention.)
Which, really, this part of the discussion is almost moot as you mentioned adding tags is a fairly intrusive change and thus likely fairly far down the list of things to do (note: That was not, nor has any of my comments, been intended as criticism, I do appreciate everything that you and the other staff do here!)
May 24, 2018 at 1:11 pm
Well, the InstantASP people have said they're adding tags. It's a question of when we upgrade to get them. Hopefully this year.
Mandatory is never something l like. Having watched lots of questions and answers across the year, the vast majority of time the version doesn't matter, especially as so much stuff lives version to version.
Thanks for the kind words. Haven't been able to get much changed over the last few years, but still trying.
May 24, 2018 at 1:37 pm
I don't see SSRS In anyjof this Steve. There's still quite a few questions on the subject. I certainly, however, wouldn't say it needs a different forum for each version. 2008 is a little different to 2012+ but there's not many changes since then. Hopefully (hehe, hopefully) people won't be using 2008 for that much longer.
Thom~
Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk
May 24, 2018 at 4:14 pm
Yep, forgot SSRS, but those are older versions. What I'd propose is closing the old forums, leaving just admin/dev for all vesrions open for new posts. People can note their version in the question (or you can ask).
While the versions are very different, I'm not sure the separation and chastising of people that post in the wrong forum is worth it.
May 24, 2018 at 8:35 pm
Why not go high level as opposed to being specific? This seems a bit silly to me because the reason you end up with dead forums is the fact it's so precise it spreads the data out across many topics. It's almost like you guys are trying to normalize your community! This is not an operation database! 😛
¡DENORMALIZE!
Just my 2 cents.
May 25, 2018 at 7:39 am
I think it would be nice to archive off the older SQL version forums so the threads are still available even if the posting ability is not.
I do like the idea of having a T-SQL forum and a Database Administration forum that aren't version specific, but have a radio button forcing people to choose which version they are posting about which will show up as the first few words of the subject. That way people who ignore the "post your version" stuff, have no choice but to list which version they're talking about.
May 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
xsevensinzx - Thursday, May 24, 2018 8:35 PMWhy not go high level as opposed to being specific? This seems a bit silly to me because the reason you end up with dead forums is the fact it's so precise it spreads the data out across many topics. It's almost like you guys are trying to normalize your community! This is not an operation database! 😛¡DENORMALIZE!
- Programming Languages
- Scripting Languages
- ETL
- Design & Modeling
- Visualization
- Security
- Optimization
- ETC, ETC
Should be able to fit SSRS, SSIS, SSAS, SSMS, DW, PoSH, .NET etc all in there. Push Python with PoSH. Push SSIS with Airflow. Push it together so we are all talking in one forum as opposed to spread out all over hell.Just my 2 cents.
I think that's interesting, but go with the wide spectrum of users here.
- Some newbies to all tech,
- accidental DBAs
- developers
- normal DBAs
- senior full stack people
Would they know where to post a SQL 204 clustering question? What about a T-SQL problem solving question? Is T-sqL programming?
I think there's some value in high level things. I certainly could to
Database Administration
- General
- SQL 2017
- SQL 2016
- SQL 2014
- Azure, AWS, and the Cloud
Database Development
- T-SQL
- Design and architecture
Programming
- Scripting languages (PowerShell, VBScript, CMD, BASH)
- Programming (.NET, Python, R, Java,etc)
I think we need some breakdown, not the least of which is so thsoe that want to answer questions in an area can focus
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