05-14-2022, 12:29 PM
Today I find myself contemplating the relevance of forums. Not because I'm seriously considering shuttering rebeldroids (I like it here) but because I question if it's serving it's members as well as it could.
I know that a lot of droid building activity has moved to social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit and others, but it seems to me that none of these platforms lend themselves to process quite as well as they need to. They're great for someone who wants to quickly show off something they've made or if someone has a quick question that they're not willing to search for an answer to, but I question social media's value as a repository of knowledge.
Droid building is complex endeavor. It consists of many, nearly all critical, chronological details. And that is not even considering the requirements we impose upon ourselves regarding screen accuracy or fidelity to a design (as in the case of, say, concept art). These processes, it seems to me, are not easily recorded in social media type formats, and when they are, they can often be very difficult to find as time passes.
Droid building also has the issues of file sharing. A forum serves as a repository for files, documents, and images. A place to collect and then share the foundations of the very processes being discussed and refined, described and questioned.
I don't feel that the other available methodologies will properly fulfill the requirements of a community as well. At least for now.
Forums might best be described as digital, community built libraries. Repositories of specific and (somewhat) organized information. I can't think of a social media platform that I think that definition would apply to.
However, the scope of my experience is by definition limited. I might be unaware of ways to share what we do that are actually better. So I would love to hear people's thoughts on the topic
Should you happen to wander back by, please let me what know what you think.
I know that a lot of droid building activity has moved to social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit and others, but it seems to me that none of these platforms lend themselves to process quite as well as they need to. They're great for someone who wants to quickly show off something they've made or if someone has a quick question that they're not willing to search for an answer to, but I question social media's value as a repository of knowledge.
Droid building is complex endeavor. It consists of many, nearly all critical, chronological details. And that is not even considering the requirements we impose upon ourselves regarding screen accuracy or fidelity to a design (as in the case of, say, concept art). These processes, it seems to me, are not easily recorded in social media type formats, and when they are, they can often be very difficult to find as time passes.
Droid building also has the issues of file sharing. A forum serves as a repository for files, documents, and images. A place to collect and then share the foundations of the very processes being discussed and refined, described and questioned.
I don't feel that the other available methodologies will properly fulfill the requirements of a community as well. At least for now.
Forums might best be described as digital, community built libraries. Repositories of specific and (somewhat) organized information. I can't think of a social media platform that I think that definition would apply to.
However, the scope of my experience is by definition limited. I might be unaware of ways to share what we do that are actually better. So I would love to hear people's thoughts on the topic
Should you happen to wander back by, please let me what know what you think.