Guide to the forum?

[tgreer]

Can someone please explain the differences between:

General Modification Discussion
vBulletin Programming
Programming Discussions
Coders Discussion

It seems there are four separate forums for the same topic: vBulletin programming. The "Styles and Graphics" side is similarly fragmented.

I'm asking for clarification, and would hope that someone in an actual position of responsibility respond, whoever that may be. I'd also like to request that this thread not be hijacked by staff for frivolous chit-chat.

[Brad]

General Modification Discussion - Should be used for discussing existing released modifications and/or how to install/upgrade these modifications. This forum is mainly for people that install modifications, but do not write them.

vBulletin Programming - This is a 'how to' forum, here you can find threads related to creating modifications. General questions should not be posted here, only tutorials and tips.

Programming Discussions - If you want to ask a question about programming with vBulletin this is where it should go. This forum is for people witting their own modifications who may have run into trouble and need a hand.

Coder's Discussion - This is a private forum for anyone that has released their work here and has the coder user title.

You're not the only one that is having trouble with this new forum layout. I will be making some more changes to it tonight (minor ones compared to the ones I did the other day), hopefully it will clear up the confusion a bit. I won't be doing them in the middle of the day this time, most likely I'll close the forum tonight for a short period of time around 3am EDT.

[tgreer]

Thank you. After your explanation, I like the idea of one forum to discuss the use/installation of existing plugins, and feedback on them, and another forum to discuss the programming of new plugins.

I'm ambivalent about an article repository, as I think that could be folded nicely into the "new plugin development" forum. The "Coders Discussion" is completely superfluous and only serves as a point of contention, so should be closed. Any discussion that occurs there should occur in one of the other forums.

So 2 forums (possibly 3, if you really want an article repository). I'd call them:

Plugin Development (for vbulletin coding/plugin development discussion).
Plugin Repository (or something similar, so it's obvious that this is where you get plugins).

[Freesteyelz]

I like the Modifications page as the categories and forum descriptions are simple and clean. As for the main Forum Home, well ...

vBulletin Discussions and General Discussions seem a bit redundant as it is displayed now. The majority of the discussions are vBulletin related. Anything General to me would fall under vB non-specific (e.g., HTML, PHP, CSS/JS, Perl...In which these discussions have nothing to do with vB) or community forums such as the "Lounge", "Big Boards", "Forum Commenting".

The word "Discussion" is also vague and it doesn't grab the user who's in need of help. Suggested words/phrases for forum descriptions and/or categories are "Help", "Questions" and "How Do I?". They could be grouped into several forums (which are easy to relate and to find):

Coding (anything vB code-related)
Designing (anything vB template/layout-related)
Graphics (anything graphics-related for the purpose of vB enhancement)

Articles/Tutorials (could also fall in this category)

Service Requests (coding/designing/graphic requests that may require a service fee)

[Ohiosweetheart]

Originally Posted by Brad

You're not the only one that is having trouble with this new forum layout. I will be making some more changes to it tonight (minor ones compared to the ones I did the other day), hopefully it will clear up the confusion a bit. I won't be doing them in the middle of the day this time, most likely I'll close the forum tonight for a short period of time around 3am EDT.

THANK YOU Brad. I truly do hope, as so many of us do, that you'll put EVERYTHING having to do with styles and graphics, including articles, releases, discussions, requests, all together. Please? I feel, as alot of others do, that Styles should also be with the graphics rather than in the modification forum. I know when I was a new member, I came in looking for a style and went right to the graphics section. From talking to others, most do.

Looking forward to seeing the "new" .org in the morning!