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Proposal of new Tagging System & integration of C4D - Blender - Houdini


Guest Igor

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@Igor

I know the subforum titles are only a work-in-progress, but I would suggest not to include any number or names of DCC's in the title itself.

As this title might soon become obsolete as soon as a new DCC is added to the list.

So while "The beauty of 4 ..." might sound nice and to the point NOW, it might be already obsolete by tomorrow.

Just a suggestion.

 

Also, I am a bit afraid that the need to move requests to the appropriate sub-section might soon become a bottle-neck. Since you already mention that you don't have enough hours in a day, I feel that the need to move topics manually is a big no-no.

 

Can you provide a tag for each of the DCC to be discussed? This would require the user who creates a request to select the appropriate DCC-tag. This could help manage the different topics. And it would also avoid the need to include the DCC in the title (as your example illustrated).

On the other hand, when does one decide to move the topic? When does one tag the request as being "solved/done"? Who does this tagging?

I have more than once seen people ask question in the forum, with members providing one or more answers ... but no further actions or response from the original poster.

There needs to be some discipline from the requestor to tag the request, but there is no guarantee. Which will soon lead to a cluttered subforum.

And I don't think moderators have so much free time at their disposal to clean up after everyone lacking discipline, right?

 

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27 minutes ago, dast said:

I know the subforum titles are only a work-in-progress, but I would suggest not to include any number or names of DCC's in the title itself.

As this title might soon become obsolete as soon as a new DCC is added to the list.

So while "The beauty of 4 ..." might sound nice and to the point NOW, it might be already obsolete by tomorrow.

Just a suggestion.

Indeed, I agreed...makes sense, Ill change it to something else.

 

28 minutes ago, dast said:

Also, I am a bit afraid that the need to move requests to the appropriate sub-section might soon become a bottle-neck. Since you already mention that you don't have enough hours in a day, I feel that the need to move topics manually is a big no-no.

I think we gonna be ok here, becaue I have 3 moderators and 2 more will join to help me with Houdini section. So I think it will be ok and managable. I dont expect much topics per day.

 

29 minutes ago, dast said:

Can you provide a tag for each of the DCC to be discussed? This would require the user who creates a request to select the appropriate DCC-tag. This could help manage the different topics. And it would also avoid the need to include the DCC in the title (as your example illustrated).

Yes I can, of course, Ill do that...

 

30 minutes ago, dast said:

On the other hand, when does one decide to move the topic? When does one tag the request as being "solved/done"? Who does this tagging?

I have more than once seen people ask question in the forum, with members providing one or more answers ... but no further actions or response from the original poster.

Moderators will do that once we have enough info on the topic or request, or we can take a request and make separate topic in DCC subforum and then mark request later as Done. SO in that case we would not move requests anywhere but simply marked them done once we fulfilled what is requested.

 

When I better think about it, its seems that it would be better if we simply have tags as statuses and make separate topics in corresponding DCC subforms . So no one would have to move requests, but as soon as request is fulfilled, request can be marked as Solved. 

 

35 minutes ago, dast said:

There needs to be some discipline from the requestor to tag the request, but there is no guarantee. Which will soon lead to a cluttered subforum.

And I don't think moderators have so much free time at their disposal to clean up after everyone lacking discipline, right?

Its hard to say, but we can try and see how it goes and adjust in the meantime. 

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Don't have time to review/critique tonight, but I'll briefly add one concern

 

UX designers talk about the importance of discoverability. Sometimes when forums try to add all kinds of separate rooms/sections...it breaks discoverability, forcing people to fish around for active discussions. It can also make navigation more tedious.

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6 hours ago, Icecaveman said:

Don't have time to review/critique tonight, but I'll briefly add one concern

 

UX designers talk about the importance of discoverability. Sometimes when forums try to add all kinds of separate rooms/sections...it breaks discoverability, forcing people to fish around for active discussions. It can also make navigation more tedious.

Well that why I am asking for help and feedback. What we want to do here is to create a place where we could talk and discover workflows from DCCs like Blender or Houdini etc. 

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Igor - the first thing to say is thank you for your efforts in thinking how best to set this up and your proposals : )

 

However - for me the whole thing is too complex and too rigid. Personally I'd just have one forum. However I would make it essential that the original poster tags the post to make it searchable. Maybe you could set up tags for 'Home DCC' - eg: I'm doing this in 'C4D' and 'Target DCC(s) eg; I'm interested in how to do this in 'Blender' or 'Houdini' or 'Any'. And tags of course for the 'Topic area'

 

I think having all the subforums just makes it too complex, too hard work for moderators and too hard to discover for occasional users.

It also makes it difficult when a topic area falls outside of easily identifiable categories. For example, one area I would like to discuss is C4D 'Takes' - ie, does Blender or Houdini have something eqivalent to that functionality?  Where would that go?  It wouldn't fit anywhere and would therefore be easily lost.

 

As Dast suggests - I'd also drop any idea of a specific number of DCC's - there's lots of related tools and techniques that might come into play. For example a modelling request might best be solved with something like Zbrush, or MOI3d or something else that is not necessarily a full blown DCC.

 

So, in summary: I'd keep it simple. Very simple.

 

 

 

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32 minutes ago, Mike A said:

So, in summary: I'd keep it simple. Very simple.

 

 

 

Agree 100%. Keeping it simple will allow it to be more flexible, fluid, discoverable. Great idea w/the tags. One forum for any comparisons of processes/different app....that's plenty. 

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I think having sub-forums is useful to future viewers who will appreciate the categorization, but are cumbersome for more active/live viewers who just want to see anything that's new without digging any deeper. 

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Ok, guy’s, thanks for the inputs, lets then keep it simple. I’ll modify the subforums and unlock for everyone else. Just need to figure out where to fit it and how to call it. 😊

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Whether there need to be subforums will depend mostly on how many posts will accumulate. I somehow doubt there will be hundreds per month.

 

Subforums are also difficult because there are three different criteria, which are all valid: "target" system, "source" system, and "functional area". As a thread poster, I can easily determine all three (but if there are static subforums, not necessarily decide by what to order); if I am a reader of the forum, I may want to look at any of these criteria depending on my motivation. Am I primarily interested in seeing how other DCCs are doing things I know already from my DCC? - then I am looking for one source and disregard the target. Am I more interested in seeing how I can do things in my DCC that others and excelling in? - then I am looking for one target and disregard the source. Am I generally interested in the field and want to compare any source/target? Then I would look for a functional area. Am I just idly browsing? Then I don't need any subforums.

 

A tagging system seems to be most useful here.

 

Also, long term it should be good practice to mention source and target version. C4D R15 and R23 are far apart in functionality, so are Blender 2.79 and 2.93... any tip or specific workflow may become invalid in time.

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Good points, @Cairyn, like I said, setting up something like this just sounds easy, but in that's really not the case. I will implement the tags and then open the forums and we can try using it and polish if something is not clear.

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I pretty much agree with all the comments here.  Let the tag system and the search capability do all the work rather than the moderators trying to organize things.  Maybe we should have a more discussion on requiring tags and tag categories when creating a new topic.  Right now, when you create a new topic, you just select through two forum levels (eg. Modeling --> Organic) but I am thinking it might be a better to start with NOT having any pre-defined sub-forum directories...initially

Rather, start with only one forum category for each DCC app as proposed, but should you want to create a new topic in that forum (eg. Blender, modo, Houdini, etc), you are "required" to select a number of tags to help define that post.  So when you want to create a post in the Houdini forum, there are no sub-forums but there are requirements on the selecting main "task" subject area tags (modeling, texturing, rigging, etc) and then another tag for workflow categories (viewport manipulation, object handling, UI, import/export), and then a third tag on tools and techniques (splines, topology, instances, xrefs).  Finally, you are asked if this topic involves cross-platform navigation and if yes, it then asks for a target app.  Again, these are just examples of tag categories and not a complete list but I think Task,  Workflow, and Tools are pretty logical tag major categories to get the discussion going.

 

If you don't work through these tag selections, the member is warned that their post will go to general category under each DCC forum and therefore runs the risk of NOT being seen or addressed as all moderators have different skills but limited time and therefore need guidance as to which questions they can answer quickly.  Whether this is true or not, the user should realize that some effort is required on their part if they want to get the help they need.  

 

Not sure if this can be done or not, but I think as these other DCC forums get rolling, it is hard to define what the structure will be or which structure works best as the content will be pretty low.  So focus more on the classification piece first before you focus on the forum structure and then let the tags guide you at a later date  on what structure to follow once things get busy.  Not sure if you have tools for moving and grouping entire threads based on tag groupings or not, but if you do then that should make creating a structure at a later date much easier.

 

There is another reason for this suggestion.....I think coming across a number of empty forum categories is a bit off-putting to new posters particularly if they are looking for help.  You look at an empty forum and you may come to the wrong conclusion that this is a dead site and not worth your time.  At least the "general" section will have some posts if all the forum members fail to use the tag system.  And of course, once a subject is marked "solved" by the moderator, they can add the missing tags.

 

Just a thought.

Dave

Sorry...but I simply do not have enough faith to be an atheist.

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