How about a "currently available hardware" forum?

[Fujiyama]

I'm very interested in add-on hardware for the Atari ST, but unfortunately it's hard to keep track of what's really available.

To separate "maybe ready some day", "I'm almost done", dreamware, vaporware, cancelled projects and so on from hardware that people can actually buy right now, how about creating a new forum for announcing stuff like that?

Developers of hardware could then announce their products with all the technical details, price, ordering info etc.

[alexh]

Sounds more like a WiKi function with updates posted via news?

[RetroGamerUK]

I agree with fujiyama, seperate hardware sections would make it easier to find out about what new addons such as PeST, satandisk etc are available, and would make it easier to ask questions and discuss things (something not possible in th wiki really).

I mean, just have a look in the hardware forum, the first page is full of sticky topics, the place is a mess alright
For games we have separate requests and general sections.
I would suggest that for hardware we have a section for say "hardware support" containing topics covering repairs and fault FAQs etc, then maybe a section covering upgrades and mods, perhaps topics relating to such add ons as PeST and Satandisk could live in this new section as well?
Would help if topics covering things in development or on going discussions in general included an up to date summary on the first post of the topic to outline where the project stands, saving us weeks of reading to answer one question...

Of course to put this into effect would take some work indeed, but I think it would be worth it

[nativ]

How's about a software news and a software development page aswell,
or is this covered under programming?

Cheers

[Mug UK]

Silver Surfer is the main admin who can create this kind of stuff (I think).

Sort out a proper list of what new sections are required and which topics belong in which section - I can move articles around no problem.

[RetroGamerUK]

Well since you asked nicely....

Presently we have:

Atari ST Professionals
¦-- Applications
¦-- Hardware
`-- Coding

To accommodate the ideas of both fujiyama and Nativ, how about changing to something like:

Atari ST Professionals
¦-- Application Support
¦-- Application Projects
¦-- Hardware Support
¦-- Hardware Projects
`-- Coding

(Please note the lack of apostrophes Mug )

Of course there will always be topics that belong in more than one of the sections, but I think most topics would be easier to find if the above was implemented....

Just an idea though, if anyone has any better suggestions??

[Fujiyama]

The names could cause confusion and thereby have a lot of postings in the wrong sections.
I suggest the following:

Atari ST Professionals
¦-- Applications
¦-- Application announcements
¦-- Hardware
¦-- Hardware announcements
`-- Coding

By using the word "announcements" I think most people will understand that those forums aren't for normal discussions, but rather for alerting people about a new release or update of something they've made available, thus keeping traffic low for those groups (which is good, because it'll make it a lot easier to see exactly what is available instead of lots of postings which leads people to ask if something is available instead of searching).

[RetroGamerUK]

Yeah, that does seem a better idea

[Fujiyama]

Thanks.
And by keeping the same names for the existing groups we can virtually eliminate any postings to the wrong groups because the existing structure hasn't changed, just new stuff added.