[MTOS-dev] should there be an mtos-general? or (shudder) mtos-help?

[Su]

There's a factor to this discussion I think is being glossed(unless no
longer applicable):
My understanding was that forum-based MTOS discussion was going to be
directed toward the MTCS system at forums.movabletype.org and not the
existing forums.sixapart.com, and I haven't seen anything saying that the
current forum will be ported over simultaneously. That alone has potential
to be a pain.

But let's back out and consider the support /situation/ rather than just
this list and whether to add it or even just MTOS.

We have:
* forums.sixapart: based on Invision
* forums.mtorg: based on MTCS
* Pronet: Not a support channel, but that's not stopping anyone
* mtos-dev: Not a support channel, but it won't stop anyone
* The feedback form, whose submissions will end up in the public bug
tracker(yes?)
* The IRC channel
* Official support tickets (not for MTOS, but MTOS is a subset of MT, so the
info is relevant)

Now:
* The old forum has a powerful search/filtering system
* The MTCS forum has (so far?) only straight search, limited by:
    a. "byrne reese": failed, so doesn't crawl author names
    b. "ballpark": failed[1], so doesn't seem to be crawling comments(this
can't be right)
    c. Seems to be global only, so no filtering for the topic X
    d. No limiting by date
    e. other less important niggly things Invision allows
* Pronet isn't searchable(bar local archive), and the archive isn't publicly
linkable
* mtos-dev isn't searchable(" "), but is linkable
* The bug tracker will be searchable(yes?), linkable, and probably allow
comments(so effectively another forum)
* The IRC chan isn't logged or searchable anywhere other than our own logs
* The support queue is only ever seen by 6A

We will end up with:
* The two forums will be heavily interlinked("See prior thread"), with the
tracker coming into play("Already reported as a bug")
* Pronet can link out, but not easily /be/ linked without forcing the reader
to sign up for it, forcing quotation
* mtos-dev can link and be linked
* IRC can link out, and be quoted externally
* Information from the support queue can be brought up by 6A staff via
reference

(This would probably make a really fun chart of some kind, and we haven't
even added the new list yet.)

Most people unless explicitly directed elsewhere will probably only use one
or two of these channels, the result being a lot of informational pockets
with varying overlap, duplication, levels of knowledge and back matter, not
to mention usability and even access. Worse, search is exactly what
help-list people would need and what the mailing lists don't offer.

While I agree that this additional list probably isn't really necessary, I
think it may actually be /detrimental/. Unless it can be shown that there's
anything "MTOS help" would cover that isn't applicable to MT in general, it
would seem to have no purpose other than further thin out  information and
making it harder for someone to decide where to ask their question.



[1]
http://forums.movabletype.org/2007/11/details-on-mtos-emerging.html#comment-4183
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