Shouldn't there be a cars/vehicles forum?

[poochyena]

On the front page, there is a "cars" category (which should really be renamed to "vehicles", imo, since it includes bicycles), but not car/vehicle category on the forums, which seems odd. The forum and front page categories line up otherwise, just that one omission. There is certainly enough interest in cars and bikes to justify a new forum category for them.

If the argument against it is it would be too many categories, well.. does "Microsoft OS & Software Colloquium" and "Windows Technical Mojo" really need to be separate? I'm not sure much would be lost from those 2 being merged into one.
There is also "Distributed Computing Arcana" which looks like a dead category other than for 2 or 3 active threads.

 

[Ardax]

The current forum list is a historical artifact, no doubt about that. The computing landscape has changed... significantly in the intervening years.

There have been many discussions over the years about switching up the available forums.

I'm not sure there's quite enough interest for a cars/vehicle forum. Don't try to use front page activity as any sort of guide -- the front page discussions and the forums are very distinct entities (even if they might share some technological pieces).

 

[poochyena]

I'm not sure there's quite enough interest for a cars/vehicle forum. Don't try to use front page activity as any sort of guide -- the front page discussions and the forums are very distinct entities (even if they might share some technological pieces).

I don't entirely agree with that, but regardless, here are some recently active forum threads that would fit better in a vehicle subforum

Point A to B: The Future of Transportation in the United States

The last major transit thread was setup specifically as contention for High Speed Rail versus Self-Driving Cars. I'm setting this thread up to cast a wider net. Transportation affects us psychologically, economically, and ecologically. This should capture the lively discussion of mass transit...

arstechnica.com

Self Driving Car thread

Since we have taken over the last couple pages of the Tesla thread I figured we could use a thread about it. I don't want to copy all the posts from the Tesla thread into here so summarize. Self driving cars are going to come out but the first (few) generations will most likely require a...

arstechnica.com

The Electric Bike thread

BionX is in receivership. Tesla can’t keep executives around for very long and is likely to have cash flow issues if they have to keep humans in the production loop. No other auto maker has pulled off heavily robotic factories despite large investment into the concept, and the concept can be...

arstechnica.com

The Electric Car Thread

For the sake of simplicity and by popular request, here is the catch-all thread for general discussion of electric cars. From a report to the mods: a: the majority of the discussion isn't about tesla or its cars. b: the majority of the discussion of tesla cars that does happen is lounge...

arstechnica.com

a bicycle thread

Links!Repair and maintenance info:Park Tool - repair how-to guidesSheldon Brown - guides and technical infoBicycle Tutor - Videos! GPS/Route info:Garmin Connect - tracking past rides with a gps.Garmin MotionBased - Garmin's deprecated tracking site.SportTracks - desktop activity tracker.Ascent -...

arstechnica.com

 

[continuum]

I personally think The Lounge and The Observatory handles the current number of vehicle-related topics just fine. If anything I think we need few/more consolidated forums, not more.

 

[SunRaven01]

I personally think The Lounge and The Observatory handles the current number of vehicle-related topics just fine. If anything I think we need few/more consolidated forums, not more.

I strongly agree with continuum on this: we need fewer forums, not more fragmentation.

 

[papadage]

Agreed.

The Lounge got the EV Car thread after it was moved from the Observatory because it evolved over time into a discussion of preferences and the marketplace. Some of the more technical points, like the current discussion in that thread about charging systems, might be a good fit for an Observatory thread. There are persistent threads with car pictures and motorcycles. People also post individual threads to get feedback on individual buying decisions.

The Maker/Crafting subform can be used for anything other than basic repairs, such as engine rebuilds, swaps, and EV conversions.

If anything, I would combine the two Windows fora and eliminate the BF. The two or three active threads cannot support a whole subforum, and Apple and its market power can fit better in the SB. Toss the Distributed Computing discussions into the Server Room or Programming forum as well.

 

[Ishkabibbel]

Yes, please, lets spread the car threads around the anachronistic forum structure. I love having to think about where the appropriate place for a specific type of conversation is.

/s

 

[poochyena]

Yes, please, lets spread the car threads around the anachronistic forum structure. I love having to think about where the appropriate place for a specific type of conversation is.

/s

Thats what I hope a vehicle subforum would help. Its currently kinda confusing where car threads are suppose to go since there is car discussions in at least 3 different subforums.

I personally think The Lounge and The Observatory handles the current number of vehicle-related topics just fine. If anything I think we need few/more consolidated forums, not more.

I agree, which is why I made my suggestion of merging other forums with the addition of a car forum.

 

[Aurich]

I don't disagree that there is a very clear logic to "the front page topics and the forum should align better".

But I also don't believe that there's an 'if you built it they will come' effect, having a car forum won't create new car content and participation in any meaningful way.

I don't know what the solution is right now, but without some kind of holistic plan I don't think adding new sub forums is really the answer. It 100% could be part of a good idea, it just needs more pieces.

 

[papadage]

@Aurich , does the forum software allow the use of tags so users can tag a thread with "car" or "EV" or another descriptive label so people can build their own smart views of car threads (among others) themselves? This would help with other ambiguous and dispersed topics, like security.

 

[Aurich]

@Aurich , does the forum software allow the use of tags so users can tag a thread with "car" or "EV" or another descriptive label so people can build their own smart views of car threads (among others) themselves? This would help with other ambiguous and dispersed topics, like security.

Not that I'm aware of.

 

[pasorrijer]

does the forum software allow the use of tags so users can tag a thread with "car" or "EV" or another descriptive label so people can build their own smart views of car threads (among others) themselves?

Not that I'm aware of.

Xenforo right? Seems like some sort of an option... https://xenforo.com/docs/xf2/tags/

 

[papadage]

Xenforo right? Seems like some sort of an option... https://xenforo.com/docs/xf2/tags/

Please look into enabling it, @Aurich . I'd love to have a second-order organization of threads and posts here based on tags.

• Tag threads and posts that feature friends
• Tag interesting content I want to read or follow up on later
• Tag hobby posts irrespective of their subforum
• Cars and motorcycles
• Technical posts that could have been posted in multiple subfora

I could probably think of another several.

 

[Aurich]

I think I might have turned it on, it's not actually clear if users can add tags. Do you see this now?

 

[papadage]

Test

#Test

 

[papadage]

There seem to be some permissions you need to enable.

But looking at it, it seems we would all be contributing to a communal tag cloud and not a personal one, so it would not do what I want. And it does not seem there is a way to restrict it to specific groups, so given the front page and the forum share the back end, you would probably not want a new system that could encourage gamifying shit-posting.

Too bad.

 

[pauli]

Regarding permissions - I see the tags button in all A/V threads, and in GESC and Soapbox threads that I started (presumably elsewhere as well). This is an interesting combination.

 

[Aurich]

There seem to be some permissions you need to enable.

But looking at it, it seems we would all be contributing to a communal tag cloud and not a personal one, so it would not do what I want. And it does not seem there is a way to restrict it to specific groups, so given the front page and the forum share the back end, you would probably not want a new system that could encourage gamifying shit-posting.

Too bad.

It's not personal, no.

I honestly don't know if it has enough value to mess with, but I'm down to try. I might need to poke at permissions more.

 

[continuum]

Also a 10 tag per topic max if that helps anyone.

 

[SunRaven01]

Regarding permissions - I see the tags button in all A/V threads, and in GESC and Soapbox threads that I started (presumably elsewhere as well). This is an interesting combination.

I might be looking in the wrong place, but I don't see tags on all Soap Box threads, only ones I've started. Where should I be looking?

This thread was started by Dr Nno, and does not have a little tags thingie:



And this thread was started by me, and does have the little tags thingie:



There are absolutely people posting in the Soap Box who will use this to tag content with forum inappropriate tags, or even just inappropriate tags in general, because ThE rUlEs DoN'T aPpLy To ThEm.

 

[Dr Nno]

I can see tags on my own thread indeed.



I added some tags as a test.



And now my tags are present in the Search interface as "Popular", and can searched.


Edit: And I can see tags on threads I did not start, if some are set.

 

[diabol1k]

I might be looking in the wrong place, but I don't see tags on all Soap Box threads, only ones I've started.

Same for me/Agora.

I don't love tags unless there's a fixed set of tags to pick from. Cars, autos, automobiles/CPU, CPUs, processor, processors... I can't think of a time where I've had a net positive experience with user defined tags.

 

[SunRaven01]

The tags @Dr Nno added to his thread are not editable by me, Aurich. Gonna wanna poke at this lol.

 

[papadage]

I can see the tags marker in the thread I started in the Mac Achaia, but I can't see how to add any, even when I open up the edit interface for the first post.

 

[Dr Nno]

I can see the tags marker in the thread I started in the Mac Achaia, but I can't see how to add any, even when I open up the edit interface for the first post.

Can't you click on the Tags icon on the first page of the thread (right to the date), and add some tags?

 

[papadage]

Nope. It's an inactive graphic for me.

Can it be turned on for subscriptors once Aurich decides if he wants to try it out for a limited time?

 

[SunRaven01]

Nope. It's an inactive graphic for me.

Can it be turned on for subscriptors once Aurich decides if he wants to try it out for a limited time?

But Dr Nno is a subscriptor, just like you? Are you using an ad blocker?

 

[papadage]

I do use uBlock Origin, but I turned it off when I tested.

 

[Aurich]

I'll be honest and say that I think this is probably not super useful. Just because I feel like it needs to be widely used and understood to really get any traction, and I don't see that happening.

But I'm happy to let it play out for a bit so we can see.

Here's how it seems to be set up right now, only thread creators can add tags to a thread.

I can make it so subs can add tags to threads, does that feel worth trying? I just don't want this to turn into a moderator headache or something.

 

[Sogarth]

I can make it so subs can add tags to threads, does that feel worth trying? I just don't want this to turn into a moderator headache or something.

I'd argue that makes sense. Not everybody knows about tags, and there should be enough subscribers reading this thread (notes responders so far) to start spreading that knowledge.

 

[Aurich]

Okay, I'm trying this. Everyone who starts a thread should be able to tag it. And then do this:



So any thread, started by any user, can have some self management. That could lead to abuse, or it could be helpful. I'm going to lean towards helpful, since I think the "worst case" is some tags are removed. That is annoying at worst, but doesn't strike me as a serious issue.

I've also turned this option on for only the Pro++ members for the moment:



So feel free to experiment with it.

 

[papadage]

Weird. Tags are still inactive for me in both Chrome and Edge. I disabled all my plugins and still can't get it to work.

 

[Dr Nno]

Weird. Tags are still inactive for me in both Chrome and Edge. I disabled all my plugins and still can't get it to work.

Very strange, as I could add tags on one of your threads.

Linux newb questions: Best way to set up Plex on 12th Gen mini-PC with Proxmox - build and setup log.

I recently bought a new Synology NAS and am still transitioning my data from my previous two units to it. It's about 30TB used on a 62TB volume. It's running on 1 GB Ethernet for now, but I'll eventually add a faster interface card. I have a Cisco SG-300 20-port managed switch set up into two...

arstechnica.com

 

[papadage]

I see the tags and can click on them. I can't use the tagging function though.

Edit:

I can add tags to a new thread I create but can't edit tags in existing threads I did not create. Nor can I edit the tags that Dr Nno created in my thread above.

Further Edit:

Now I can. I see the prompts to edit tags.

Thanks @Aurich! I am looking forward to trying it out.

 

[papadage]

Tagged a few threads and have my first tag-based view:

 

[SunRaven01]

So any thread, started by any user, can have some self management. That could lead to abuse, or it could be helpful. I'm going to lean towards helpful, since I think the "worst case" is some tags are removed. That is annoying at worst, but doesn't strike me as a serious issue.

So, the only problem I can see is that as far as I can tell, you're still the only person who can edit other people's tags, so I guess we get to poke you when there's a problem.

 

[rain shadow]

Place to see I dunno top 50 tags and search for specific tag

 

[Aurich]

So, the only problem I can see is that as far as I can tell, you're still the only person who can edit other people's tags, so I guess we get to poke you when there's a problem.

View attachment 84109

Yeah, we'll see. If people really abuse it I will moderate them for it. I'd rather not, and I hope it's a non issue.

 

[VirtualWolf]

I just came across this thread, and it took me ages to figure out where that tag cloud view even was. Would it make sense to have a link to https://arstechnica.com/civis/tags/ somewhere a bit more obvious than buried under Search > Advanced > Search Tags?

 

[Aurich]

I just came across this thread, and it took me ages to figure out where that tag cloud view even was. Would it make sense to have a link to https://arstechnica.com/civis/tags/ somewhere a bit more obvious than buried under Search > Advanced > Search Tags?

Probably!

This is obviously very obscure and soft launched at the moment just to see what a few people poking at it does.