The SF Suggestion Box

[Mercutio]

StorageForum is a real home to many of its visitors. For some, it's a technical reference, for others, a way to pass time.

Regardless, Storageforum can get better.

Some of us have, at various times, suggested ways to improve SF and its content. Among other ideas that have been floated...

1. A solid FAQ about storage topics
2. Hardware reviews
3. Reviewing reviews or review sites
4. How-to guides

etc.

Is there anything out there that seems particularly appealing, or maybe a new idea for what to do with all our web space? Post your ideas! We'd like to hear them.

 

[Mercutio]

Or don't. See if I care.

<sniff sniff>

 

[Handruin]

I'm sorry to say it, but sometimes you get as much feedback as I do...

For example:
http://www.storageforum.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=902

So not to continue this trend here is my feedback:

I agree with #1! I've been looking into a solid FAQ system so that we can manage this material in a clean fashion. The information, which is held in this system, has yet to be determined. My only thoughts are that we don't duplicate the efforts of SR. I'll have to think of some ideas on storage related FAQ items.

#2 I have mixed feelings about. For starters, a hardware review site only draws attention when you look at products as soon, if not before, they become available. One major problem is how we obtain these items without causing anyone to go broke.

If we kept it to an informal review with some pictures and no hardcore data, perhaps it would be beneficial to dedicated site readers. The goal wouldn't be for worldwide acceptance of the review, but rather if you mention a product is good, I might be more inclined to buy it because of your experience along with your history at the site...

#3 I don't know a lot about. This is a new area and maybe that's not such a bad idea. In order to break into this area of the computing world, many discussions will have to take place in order to formulate some type of religion.

#4 I think the how-to guides could be useful and fun to read. I'm not sure of the san overview idea you asked about fits into this category, but if it does, more items like that would be enjoyable.

 

[Buck]

Our consideration to such details is lacking. I'm at fault for not showing enough attention to this site, and apologize. My excuses are endless, but the improvements to this site remain in want. If assigned to a minor task, I would be happy to help. I’ll even solicit the help of our sober friend, the Bartender (if he’s not to busy with the brewery). This requires that someone head the task of updating our site, and delegate assignments in an orderly fashion. I’ll let the executive circle discuss in private how to resolve this chore.

 

[time]

Sorry Doug. I skimmed your ideas when you first posted them, but felt I couldn't contribute anything. The best I could have responded with would have been "Doh!"

Mercutio, I just haven't had a chance to think about it. Maybe next week ...

 

[Fushigi]

I don't think we need a hardware review section. Too many of them out there already. But a similar theme could be something on the order of 'Here's what I buy/use/sell; I installed it with this other stuff; this is what I like & don't like about it.' It would be a place to mention configurations we've tried, liked, disliked, problems we've run into (hopefully with solutions), and the pleasant surprises we've encountered along the way.

I envision it as a forum; not a static FAQ/Review-type post. Comments could be added by the author & others to refine the opinions over time. For instance, Mercutio could detail why the nVidia products he tried worked so poorly for him that he doesn't recommend them. Others could comment that a newer driver solved those problems or reveal that there is a compatibility issue with a certain mobo or somesuch.

If the topic was a hard drive or printer, comments later on could reveal issues with reliability. We all know some products age less gracefully than others.

My inquiry about monitors might have been satisifed by checking what people are using & happy with.

Topic headings should be specific products: Samsung 171V LCD; Epson Stylus xxx; ASUS A7x333; whatever.

Also, since it would be a mix of opinion ("it's great except for those Trinitron lines I can't stand") & fact ("Consumables for this printer cost much less than those for brand X"), readers would be free to take what they need from the reviews. Some people may not care about the cost of consumables as long as print quality is what they need; others may need something that's cheap to operate.

Oh, it would apply to software as well as hardware.

Now, of course we do a fair bit of this already, so this would probably reduce traffic in the main forum. Having a dedicated place to discuss specific products might attract some people who wish to discuss their specific products, especially if the people tend to be tech professionals vs. the anyones you encounter at epinions, cnet, & the like.

- Fushigi

 

[Tea]

This is making good sense to me. I suggest that, in this place and this place only we should be able to, and in fact encouraged to, edit our posts, so that we can improve them over time.

Let's say Tannin starts a thread off by writing a long, thoughtful post about, oh, choosing suitable optical drives in a production enviroment. Mercutio comes along and makes some comments; P5 points out a couple of errors, Sol throws in something that Tannin never thought of.

So far, this is a normal thread.* But in this forum, we want to encourage people to go back and improve their posts, to turn a good post into a semi-permanent guide, something that can function as a resource and a long-term reference. So Tannin now goes back and edits his post to fix his errors, include the angle that Sol pointed out that Tannin never thought of, and so on. Then Sterodude thows up a problem with Tannin's conception of audio quality, and NRG supports him. After a while Tannin is persuaded and edits his post once again. Eventually, we have a really good, useful resource which refects the combined expertise of Storage Forum.

Meanwhile, Coug is working on his guide to selecting P4 boards, Doug is playing Devil's Advocate and in the process building up a really neat set of wisdom on the art of beginning programming, and so on.

* Well, aside from the thought of Tannin making a long, thoughtful post about anything technical these days. Tannin seems to have restricted his more carefully researched and argued posts to SR's Bar and Grille of late, in particular to arguing statistics with the gun nuts - a useless waste of time if ever I saw one.