Forum category organization

General Feedback
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One of my goals is to make this forum as informative and easy to use as possible, and I would like to extend the opportunity for the community to provide feedback prior to me making significant structural changes. I will not make any changes until early-December to allow ample time for review and discussion.

Current categories

  • Librem
    • Librem Key
    • Librem 11
    • Other OSes
    • Phones (Librem 5)
  • PureOS
  • General security & privacy chat
  • :lock: Round Table
  • Infrastructure
  • Site Feedback
  • Dev Kits
  • Librem One

Proposed categories

I would personally like to see an unofficial “Marketplace” sub-category (as I expressed in this post), but I would need to have internal discussions with the team, as the decision currently stands to not have one. Unless this changes, these topics will reside in the respective hardware sub-category for this design proposal.

Guidelines:

  • Place topics in the appropriate parent category if there is not a listed subcategory.
    • Ex: “Other OS” would be placed in “Software”
    • Ex: Future hardware would be placed in “Hardware”
  • When there’s ambiguity:
    • If a software issue was discovered on specific hardware but could potentially impact anyone using PureOS, place the topic in the “PureOS” sub-category
    • Does peripheral A work on Librem device B? Place in “Peripherals”
  • v2: Accept the proposal as-is
  • v2: Reject the proposal (specify why in thread)
0 voters
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The Round table I think is important. Often when things are a bit more controversial they go there, and I believe is out of the public eye (you have to be a member of the forums to see it).

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Are there topics you feel would be more appropriate for “Round Table” than, say, “Off-topic” or “Feedback?” Or could you recommend a different title for these to capture the same intention?

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I think Feedback is pretty self-explanatory :grinning: Off-topic probably fits for a lot of random discussions. But I picture both of those being “public-facing”.

Examples of “round-table” might be, for discussions moved to non-public facing (examples currently in that category):
Russia takes next step in domestic surveillance (political)
Alexei Navalny split topic (political)
Cancel culture - words (could get fairly heated)

Especially ones like the last one, as the discussion over “cancel culture” could get somewhat heated.

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Here is what I propose:

  • Development
  • Feedback
  • Firmware
    • Coreboot
    • PureBoot
  • General
  • Hardware
    • Accessories
    • Librem 5
    • Librem 11
    • Librem 13/15
    • Librem 14/16
    • Librem Mini
    • Librem Server
  • Marketplace
  • Off-Topic
  • Services
    • Librem One
    • Librem SIM
  • Software
    • PureOS
    • Qubes OS

Treat Off-Topic like the Round Table category currently.

The Librem SIM sub-category represents the Librem AweSIM, SIMple, and SIMple Plus.

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@leetaur @FranklyFlawless Thanks for the suggestions so far! My thoughts:

Yea

  • Add /Services/Librem Data Plans
    • Either “Librem SIM” or something else, pending feedback from Purism
  • Add /Firmware
    • Unsure about having individual /Firmware/Coreboot and /Firmware/PureBoot sub-categories; do you think it would be too noisy or confusing to include them both in the same category?
  • Add /Hardware/Librem 16
    • Was planning to add it closer to launch
    • May be helpful to have in its own sub-category as to not overwhelm Librem 14 users?

Pass

  • “Accessories” vs “Peripherals” (I’m happy either way)

Nay

  • Add /Development
    • There could be “development” aspects to numerous other categories, right?
  • Add /Marketplace
    • Not unless I get the green light from the team, because I don’t want to step on toes
    • I’d recommend it be at the /Hardware/Marketplace level, anyway, because isn’t that what would be sold there?

What if /General is a placeholder for all things off-topic, and /Round Table → /General/Round Table? So the category would be:

  • General
    • Privacy & Security
    • Round Table
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Actually I don’t think it is.

There is a difference between feedback on the web forum itself and feedback to Purism about products, services or other random matters (for which a dedicated email address also exists).

I would just as soon keep the title of Feedback as Site Feedback - but I guess it depends on the intention i.e. to combine those two types of feedback, or not. @JCS

The key point about Round Table, regardless of what it’s called, is that it is not accessible to the public internet. So with the proposed change you would need to know whether
a) that is still possible under the changed structure
b) you intend to apply that accessibility (or lack thereof) to all of General i.e. both to Off-Topic and Privacy & Security - which I sometimes think would be a good idea.
c) you are not restricting access any more (which is far from ideal due to all the existing discussion).

One thing that has always bugged me is that randoms show up in the forum saying that they are installing PureOS on <insert name of unsuitable non-Purism hardware> and then ask what is going wrong and how to fix it. I would therefore have a liking for splitting PureOS into PureOS on Librem hardware and PureOS on random hardware.

What is covered by that?

Does that include Librem Key? Given that it is a product that Purism specifically sells, it might be nice to give it its own category. However because of the nature of the device, it isn’t a clean split between hardware and software.

Not sure that that is a good idea. Doesn’t that undermine the idea that someone has carefully designed a hierarchy of categories?

Since they behave rather differently, two different categories might force the poster to make an implicit answer to the question as to which firmware is being used. I would favour two categories.

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No, they are very different, but I am using the official Purism naming behind them. If you prefer, consider Coreboot and Heads as separate sub-categories instead. Use the main category for all other firmware within all Purism products, including the Librem 5 and Key.

I am okay with either or. I hardly know anything about the Librem 16 to make an informed decision, but it is easier for me to see the relationship between first-generation laptops (Librem 13/15) against the second-generation laptops (14/16).

Accessories include other items such as the SLNT Faraday bags/sleeves, and whatever else Purism ends up announcing in the future that does not interface with devices. I am not privy to that information, so the least I can do is think ahead.

Sure can, but development-related threads tend to be highly technical in nature. I do not mind the category being rejected myself, but I would think the Purism community would benefit from it.

Sure, discuss clear rules everyone agrees on. My interpretation is that any physical products or credits offered by Purism themselves can be traded second-hand in the category by the community. That should tidy up the forums quite nicely.

A dedicated section is important for special cases such as Purism store credit.

No, my thinking is that General is for all discussion relevant to Purism that does not fit in any of the other main categories, and that Off-Topic is outside of that and does not need to be viewed by the public. Due to this, I suggest having Privacy & Security as a separate category, or merged into Off-Topic.

Retire the Round Table and rename it to Off-Topic. Remove the silly category banner for it as well.

https://forums.puri.sm/uploads/default/original/1X/4e329db25dc8da43275e5936b8c38f10ce984b50.gif

The General privacy & security chat category banner is also not very relevant.

https://forums.puri.sm/uploads/default/original/1X/5f8603b08d6dd01efc523a9bff01c7cadb913e83.jpg

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This looks good to me. One minor thing could be a “Hello newcomers” category so people completely new have a landing point they can post to (and then get a helping hand for a more on-topic channel).

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The banner works for me - but it’s not the biggest deal either way. :wink:

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Is there so much difference that people need more categories for laptops? It looks kinda redundant, but I may wrong (don’t need and own laptops so far, so I may miss some information). It also could be called Librem Phones, Librem Tablets and Librem Laptops.

The point is: Librem Phone would also include all next gen devices with 4" or 6" or v2, same with tablets and laptops. And who knows if Purism creates a new Librem 15 in some years? Than we have the very old and very new ones in same category anyway.

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I like this, but would also add Phosh under software.
Since Phosh in now default on two devices (L5+L11), it may make sense to have threads solely on Phosh and not speciofifc to any hardware. (Ex. the thread on Firefox mobile customizations, perhaps)

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I would really like a category that broke out what things have been changed, bugs fixed, new features, etc. that Purism has released for the Librem 5.

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Category adjustments

Part of my duties involve both browsing the forum and bringing up important issues to the team. I have no problem having the two in the same spot, since both cases require some sort of action from me, anyway.

Noted. This is important to several members so far, so I’ll make sure to include a private category, whatever we end up calling it. I’d personally like to nest it under General, assuming that Discourse software allows mixed-visibility nesting.

I would find it important to keep General public, as it could be a placeholder still helpful for non-members. I would like to remain as publicly transparent as possible while providing a safe place for members to communicate.

Yes. But do you find that we have enough activity related to the Librem Key that would constitute its own category? I just want to avoid having an exhaustive list of categories where it would be intimidating. However, I did include “Librem Server” and that doesn’t get much foot traffic. How about omitting both “Librem Key” and “Librem Server” and including a category of “Librem - Other?”

I think at that point, we could create a sub-category for “Older Librem Hardware” or something similar.

Agreed. IMO, the subject has enough traffic to warrant a dedicated sub-category.

I agree that this is very important and should be public documentation. It’s probably on my shoulders to do this now. I would rather create a section in official documentation or, better yet, create release notes in the GitLab repos and have the documentation link to those. It would take longer to set up but would reduce maintenance costs this way.

Tags

This is a case where use of tags are handy, as all of the threads would still pertain to PureOS yet you could filter topics based on system tags. See Admin guide to tags in Discourse - admins - Discourse Meta. I just enabled tags on this forum; it requires TL3 to create tags and TL0 to add existing tags to topics.

New proposed categories

  • Announcements
  • Feedback
  • Firmware
    • Coreboot
    • PureBoot/Heads
  • General
    • Introductions
    • Privacy & Security
    • :lock: Round Table
  • Hardware
    • Accessories
    • Librem 5
    • Librem 11
    • Librem 13/15
    • Librem 14
    • Librem 16
    • Librem Mini
    • Librem (Other)
  • Services
    • Librem One
    • Librem SIM
  • Software
    • Phosh
    • PureOS
    • Qubes OS

If these are satisfactory, I will update the original post. Then I’ll have to reset the poll. Polls on dynamic content is awkward, but this seems too subjective to make into a wiki.

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Added feedback, forum

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Please Remove the Bottom Bar from Phosh because it is Unmobile, also add a quick option to unlock Phosh without passcode.

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This is not relevant to this conversation…

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I agree sorry, however bottom bar is a critical bug that need to be fixed IMHO.
Also i want to say you that THANKS for you work and you are Hero!.. keep going, keep librem 5. :wink:

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With a now more active moderator, this may not be such a big deal. The new poster could make a best effort to post in the right category and if the poster makes the wrong choice then @JCS can move it.

Yes, you can do it the way that you are suggesting (“landing”, aka “New Here”?) but then @JCS will likely end up having to move the post to the right category anyway.

Did you consider whether this should also be :lock:?

Sometimes I notice things that may be better to discuss without full public gaze - or other security discussion that is better in semi-private. Of course, sometimes things are already public e.g. when the topic starts with a link to a public web page anyway (and the discussion stays on topic :wink:).

One thing to clarify … is the intention that discussion in this category is limited to hardware discussion i.e. hardware that is specific to the Librem 5? Or is the intention of the Hardware master category that it is just a way of segmenting the discussion and hence this category can contain any discussion about the Librem 5?

If the former then I am not completely sold on the split between hardware and software. The average punter may not even know whether a problem / question is a manifestation of hardware or software or some interaction between the two. The average punter may only own one Librem device and hence be quite unable to say whether the problem / question is specific to the model that the poster owns, or not.

For what it’s worth, I would support having a dedicated Marketplace category - but I understand that you are going softly softly on that one.

Not to go too over the top but with the advent of the Librem 14, there is now also the EC firmware - and then the Librem 5 also has a bunch of firmware that is independent of the operating system software that you flash onto the disk.

I think you already covered this with:

Place topics in the appropriate parent category if there is not a listed subcategory.

I guess the main thing is that each category gives clear but concise guidelines as to what it covers.

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I will keep further proposed changes brief and concise.

Fine, then I will refer to you for deleting redundant or unnecessary tags, and assume TL4 has those capabilities.

Change it to Introductions.

I agree, the Qubes OS forum has a similar category for TL2: All Around Qubes, but the forum team treat it as off-topic. I am also okay with Privacy & Security being public, since it has already worked so well on the Purism community forums.

The latter: if we revert Hardware to Librem as it is currrently, then it cannot accomodate Accessories.

I agree. Maybe Librem (Other), or Other Librem Products, etc.

Hopefully Purism allows that, or else they will need to rebrand their plan names.

Fine by me: it has been gaining lots of traction lately due to Crimson.

Another proposed category is Announcements, where blog posts and whatever else official from Purism can be placed there.