I agree. As I said in the other thread, it is a good idea to have an Arc-powered Arc forum.
Before contacting pg or rtm, I think it is a good idea that we talk about what we want to change around here, so that we can give them a clear idea of what we want.
1) Grant admin access to arclanguage.org to a high karma ranking Arc Forum member to update that painfully outdated home page OR update the home page appropriately, with added links to other Arc focused sites such as https://sites.google.com/site/arclanguagewiki/
2) Regarding modifying the current HN based forum:
a. A built in search utility, of course
b. Add 'popular' and 'sticky' tabs to the existing new | threads | comments, etc tabs.
- The 'popular' tab could be a pure karma based collection of the heaviest threads (sum of plus votes, in descending order).
- The 'sticky' tab should be threads created or selected by the admin, usually a collection of how tos, work arounds and frequently sought help. Order should be admin settable, and there should be an area above each thread where the admin can clearly highlight the purpose of the thread.
- if possible, the sticky threads should remain commentable unlike normal threads that become uncommentable after a certain period. I'm not sure how this would affect the site from a performance standpoint as I understand HN currently uses this strategy to optimize performance.
If performance is not a factor, then I would suggest that all threads remain permanently open to commenting. That way an inactive thread could become active and show up under the 'comments' tab, and be of use long after the original contributors have left it.
Guys, these are all great comments, but there are no signs that PG has even visited this forum in a long time, let alone made any changes to it. I want to set expectations.
I know. Last time he posted was 470+ days ago.
He probably would've said it if he had made any change.
So we are left with the following choices, if we want to improve the arc forum : bug pg for changes by sending him emails, or deciding as a community to move discussion about Arc somewhere else.
What are the odds of getting pg's attention? We should do all we can to get it, and only if all else fails should we look into the option of moving elsewhere.
Should we file a petition with pg and rtm, and if we do, where would the best place be to present it? I figure something along these lines might be necessary.
