I agree that too much complexity is undesirable, especially from a visual perspective. If posting a support request on the forums gets too painful or confusing you may well find newbies throwing their arms in the air and moving to an alternative platform rather than seek support here for their TKL install/config/etc issues.
IMO tagging is a far more efficient and effective way of separating posts (rather than strict forums/sub-forum catagorisation). It also relieves the need for duplication and reduces newbie (and perhaps other's) confusion and anxiety over which forum to post to with a specific problem. Tagging would allow users to post a support question relating to their specific appliance, but the topic could still appear in generic searches. I've got no idea how you'd go about it but I'd imagine that it could even potentially allow for the forums to be viewed by (tag) catagory thus giving users the option view the forums in their current 'basic' view or a catagorised view similar to many other forums.
Perhaps by default new support posts could just show some of the basic dropdown tags with a '+' (another dropdown) to reveal additonal/'advanced' tagging options (perhaps also including the option to include cutom tags). I think that having some default tagging options (such as appliance name and install medium &/or environment) would be a good move (perhaps with the option to set them to generic such as "all appliances" - as with Ubuntu forums).
Another great thing about going that way is that newbie users who aren't sure can do the minimum tags (or none even?) but it would be quick and easy for forum admins to add/change/remove tags thus making future forum searches much more effective at finding the specific info a user is after (especially if an advanced search is available).
Please excuse my rambling! Obviously I understand that regardless of how cool some of my ideas may be - especially to me:)! - that they may be impractical or difficult to implement or just increase underlaying code complexity too much. As a non-programmer I tend to approach these things from a user perspective focusing on what I would like to see as a user rather than what is practical for a programmer. I have a history of over complicating things and have even been known to reinvent the wheel! Still I'd like to think that's it a useful perspective for you guys (who I would guess tend to approach things with a background knowledge of whats practical code wise).
As for forum subscription: When I post, by default the "Notify me when comments are posted" is unchecked. I haven't actually tested it (I always check it) but perhaps its something to do with the fact that in my user settings I am subscribed to all TKL forum/wiki activity? Maybe that overides the forum by forum settings (which for some reason makes it default to unchecked)? Is it checked for you by default Liraz?
KISS is a good thing to keep in mind
I agree that too much complexity is undesirable, especially from a visual perspective. If posting a support request on the forums gets too painful or confusing you may well find newbies throwing their arms in the air and moving to an alternative platform rather than seek support here for their TKL install/config/etc issues.
IMO tagging is a far more efficient and effective way of separating posts (rather than strict forums/sub-forum catagorisation). It also relieves the need for duplication and reduces newbie (and perhaps other's) confusion and anxiety over which forum to post to with a specific problem. Tagging would allow users to post a support question relating to their specific appliance, but the topic could still appear in generic searches. I've got no idea how you'd go about it but I'd imagine that it could even potentially allow for the forums to be viewed by (tag) catagory thus giving users the option view the forums in their current 'basic' view or a catagorised view similar to many other forums.
Perhaps by default new support posts could just show some of the basic dropdown tags with a '+' (another dropdown) to reveal additonal/'advanced' tagging options (perhaps also including the option to include cutom tags). I think that having some default tagging options (such as appliance name and install medium &/or environment) would be a good move (perhaps with the option to set them to generic such as "all appliances" - as with Ubuntu forums).
Another great thing about going that way is that newbie users who aren't sure can do the minimum tags (or none even?) but it would be quick and easy for forum admins to add/change/remove tags thus making future forum searches much more effective at finding the specific info a user is after (especially if an advanced search is available).
Please excuse my rambling! Obviously I understand that regardless of how cool some of my ideas may be - especially to me:)! - that they may be impractical or difficult to implement or just increase underlaying code complexity too much. As a non-programmer I tend to approach these things from a user perspective focusing on what I would like to see as a user rather than what is practical for a programmer. I have a history of over complicating things and have even been known to reinvent the wheel! Still I'd like to think that's it a useful perspective for you guys (who I would guess tend to approach things with a background knowledge of whats practical code wise).
As for forum subscription: When I post, by default the "Notify me when comments are posted" is unchecked. I haven't actually tested it (I always check it) but perhaps its something to do with the fact that in my user settings I am subscribed to all TKL forum/wiki activity? Maybe that overides the forum by forum settings (which for some reason makes it default to unchecked)? Is it checked for you by default Liraz?