Create a Grand Central Station Thread?

[jpittack]

I am interested in creating a thread in the beginner forums, that will serve the purpose of linking to other threads, websites, and anything else that may help a beginner, or even an advanced user, find answers to their questions. Many guides can be found in the tutorials and tips forums, but thats not all this thread should link to.

For example. I have been interested in finding out what what distros use what DE. Not very appropriate for the tutorials and tips forums, but something I would like to know. Say a website already has compiled the list. I would start a thread, include the link, and wish everyone well. If such a website did not exist, the thread would have the first page edited, based on what the community posts in that thread.

If someone starts a thread, asking this very question, you would link to either the central station thread, or better yet the link in the thread leading you to the destination.

I will not do this without the support of the community, as well as the admins and moderators. These are not my forums.

Good idea or waste of space? Or am I out of my mind and something like this already exists?

[Lostincyberspace]

it needs to be a little more thought out but it isn't bad.

[jpittack]

I am very open to suggestions. What did you have in mind if anything?

[Nekiruhs]

Like the stickies they never seem to read? Most users don't take the time to even look at the titles of the stickies.

[jpittack]

I see this more as a resolution to the stickies problem. Not all question are answered by the sticky threads. My first question on the threads was dual booting installation with the alternate cd, setting up partitions and in search of a web page that gave images rather than just words.

How the heck do I search for that? I post a thread, someone sees that I have questions about dual booting, redirect to this central station thread, hits control+f (I can see this getting large enough for that need), searches for dual boot, and finds link to web pages that have been found to talk about dual booting.

I don't intend on this being a sticky (almost don't want it to be one), just a place to redirect, or a place to find a good web page or thread to redirect someone to.

I am guilty of not looking at stickies myself, and haven't gotten around to even reading the rules for the backyard, among other important stickies. I didn't look at the stickies because I didn't know what a sticky is. I have never been to forums before. This is the only one that I use at the moment. I know I would have benefit from this idea. I still have twenty questions or so that would be solved by having this in place.

Beginners are not the main target. Rather a place for advanced uses to post new links, redirect the beginners, and post new findings (then edit the first post). I can see more moderate users benefiting from this then beginners.

[jpittack]

I thought I should give a better plan for this thread. This is a rough draft for an outline of the thread. Post any ideas or changes you would like to make, or post the flaws or advantages of the idea as a whole.

Introduction/Purpose

How you can help.

What areas of the thread need help

A version number that serves as a counter. Just a fun do dad to add in. Starts and version .01 and has .01 added with each link and .1 added with each topic.

Index

Main Body.

Ex. of Main Body

Where to find what Linux distributions use what DE.

Link to thread that gives a list.

Link to web pages that give a list.

A thanks to all who have helped.

End

Last I checked 74 people have looked at the thread, five have voted, and we have two people that have commented. Be honest with me. Is this idea a complete dud?

[aysiu]

It sounds as if it would get cluttered quickly to the point of no longer being useful.

I would support this idea (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=579726) instead.

[toupeiro]

Personally, I think a grand central station thread, or even a wiki, can be a little too decentralized of an approach for the level of open source projects that can be found in these forums or linked from these forums. I think it would be cool to see the community get behind a solution like O3 spaces (http://o3spaces.com/Page/sp3/nctrue/index.html), alfresco (http://www.alfresco.com/) or metadot (http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200504/ij_04_29_05a.html) (sharepoint-esque) solutions. These are more business-like in approach, yet sensible and easily searchable. These types of portals are more commonly seen in large corporations, but their focus is certainly not confined to that. It would be an easy way for users and developers to access change management, project material, catagorize data, general documentation and implement documentation versioning.

basically, what I am talking about could be the backend to the what Aysiu linked.

[jpittack]

After looking at the links provided, az's thread is the idea that I was looking at creating, so thanks for telling me that such an idea already exists. After looking at toupeiro's links, I got lost very fast. I have no previous knowledge about any of these links. I only looked at the first pages. The idea that I got was that someone would need to download a program and mantain it. Agreed, it is more business like, but when something becomes more business like, I stop paying attention. Thats the only reason I stick to the forums as my first spot to look for an answer. Sounds more like a conversation that I can go back and look at, rather than someone presenting a ton of information and I need to nit-pick the parts that I need.

Is az's idea yet implemented?

[toupeiro]

After looking at the links provided, az's thread is the idea that I was looking at creating, so thanks for telling me that such an idea already exists. After looking at toupeiro's links, I got lost very fast. I have no previous knowledge about any of these links. I only looked at the first pages. The idea that I got was that someone would need to download a program and mantain it. Agreed, it is more business like, but when something becomes more business like, I stop paying attention. Thats the only reason I stick to the forums as my first spot to look for an answer. Sounds more like a conversation that I can go back and look at, rather than someone presenting a ton of information and I need to nit-pick the parts that I need.

Is az's idea yet implemented?

In alfresco's case, the user would not need to download any programs. What you setup is a backend, with a web based front end. It offers all the things I outlined, and is cataloged, and tagged and relationally linked so you get exactly what you are looking for with your searches with very fast turn-around. It's also tiered better for collaboration than a traditional wiki, which leaves a lot of room for granular information on specific data but less room for relational data queries. A wiki is a great way to manage a project. A portal is a great way to manage thousands of relational projects.

More info behind the front page (http://www.alfresco.com/products/ecm/)

[jpittack]

I would have to say from what I am hearing, that I am very impressed, but I don't understand it. I have no knowledge of any web programs, the inner workings of the web, what a wiki is, a portal, a querie, etc. I didn't know that forums existed until two months ago.

I suppose that why I suggested using the forums, because thats all I know.

[toupeiro]

no worries :) You already have the right concept in mind though: fast easy relative answers to what you want to know. I'm just taking a different approach. I also manage over 20TB of data, wishing I had something like this tied around it all.

If movement behind a solution for alfresco ever got moving for ubuntu documentation and projects, I would be 110% in for the long haul of work it would take, and would be willing to donate hardware to the cause.

[jpittack]

I would like to help out, but as you can tell, I have no idea how to. I don't know much about az's idea, and I really respect ayisu's opinion, so the original idea of having it on the forums is going to be a no go. I've just been very hopefull in helping others while still needing help myself.

I was kind of thinking, if we made it specific to each subforum. That would be a huge hassle to manage, and one person to each subforum would be nessecary. Bah. Nevermind.