[Coco] A New CoCo Forum, just what we need?

[Glen Hewlett]

I like the idea of a place to discuss topics and share coding examples, I’ve heard requests on Facebook for forums a few times over the last six months so it’s nice to see.  Others forums might have died in the past but that could be partially because the number of users was so low.  I think the current number of users we have now that there will be a fair chance at keeping a forum going.  Time will tell.

Another benefit of a forum is for people returning to or who are new to the CoCo.  They will feel comfortable with a forum and be able to search topics that keep coming up for new users.  How many new people ask in Facebook what a CoCoSDC is and how to get one even though it is the first thing we all see when we look at the CoCo Facebook page (maybe with a forum going we can get rid of that sticky item on facebook).  People don’t search for information on facebook they just ask questions.  Those same people can empower themselves by searching and finding the info they need on a dedicated CoCo forum.  New users are the most important thing in the community and if we can make them feel more comfortable then I think it’s a good thing.  In fact that might be a great section to add to the forum, a section on what is new for the CoCo and other topics new users repeated ask about.

I often do write-ups about my projects on my blog and except for Pac Man I usually only write up when the project is complete.  It's a lot of work and it would be easier to just have a discussion about these projects as I work on them.  Hopefully in the future I won’t have to write up any more blogs about a project.  I can just start talking about it and get feedback and ideas from others as the project progresses.  Others can post about their projects and soon the CoCo community could see what everyone else is working on and how far they have progressed.  For example a few months ago I stopped work on my Defender conversion for the CoCo.  I have got some work done, I created all the compiled sprites for the game and I could shared the experience with others including samples of code.  I wouldn’t bother doing that here because a mail list just isn’t the same and the code would just get lost.

I think I’ll go to http://retrofanatic.com/ <http://retrofanatic.com/> and post about my current project now and hopefully someone will like to converse about it with me. 

Cheers,
Glen

> On Oct 16, 2017, at 7:55 PM, Michael Brant <brant.michael.l at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> David, I am in total agreement with you about the long term part and he
> searching part.  And to those talking about the other places to chat.  If
> stevie doesn't have those links on imacoconut,  please email him
> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 7:16 PM, David Ladd <davidwladd at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I am not sure this is a + or -, that is left to each persons opinion.
>> 
>> I am on Facebook, Google+, IRC, Skype, Discord, CoCoLIST, YahooIM, AIM, and
>> a few other services.
>> 
>> There are good points and bad points about every single thing.
>> 
>> The Facebook group yes is good, but for me it is hard to get a category
>> listing especially on older posts easily.  I have not found a easy way to
>> get just topic listings of the posts in Facebook groups.  If there is
>> please correct me and explain how to do this.
>> 
>> The CoCoLIST, yes you can search using the master website for the list, but
>> then you run into some peoples email clients seem to start new threads when
>> they reply which makes it hard to keep track of conversations when in the
>> end you have 10+ threads for the same topic name.
>> 
>> What I was hoping is we could find a easy to use forum for everyone that:
>> 1) would make categorizing topics easier
>> 2) Allow for long term search ability
>> 3) Allow for possible sharing of example code
>> 4) Easily see status of projects of those developers who have posted their
>> projects
>> 
>> It is just something we are all going to have to decide what is right of
>> each of us.  There is a place for each type of information, but I hate to
>> say it there is never going to be one solution that will make everyone
>> happy.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 2:24 PM, Steve Strowbridge <
>> ogsteviestrow at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> ​<cut>
>>> 
>> 
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