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Forums overlap?

post #1 of 12
9/19/09 at 4:25pm
Thread Starter 
Is it just me, or is the "mission" of the Genius Bar forum overlapping with that of the Mac OS and Applications forums? I see "help" threads in all three (ok, five with the sub-forums).
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post #2 of 12
9/19/09 at 4:48pm
The forums don't overlap. "Mac OS" and "Applications" are for discussion of those topics. Help with trouble-shooting should go in Genius Bar. So, if you want advice on the best application to use for a particular purpose, that goes in "Applications", but if you're having problems making your Mac behave, that belongs in Genius Bar.

The problem lies in people posting threads in the wrong place; if I have time, I move stuff if I see it misplaced in the former forums.
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post #3 of 12
9/21/09 at 6:14am
Thread Starter 
Yes, I know that's the problem. Perhaps it's the result of that being such a fine line distinguishing Mac OS and Applications from troubleshooting either. It may also be the result of people who visit other forums, none of which I've seen present this dilemma. In other forums "Applications" or "OSX" is where you go to ask for help or to discuss other aspects of same. This forum is unique in that regard, from what I see.

I see the same confusion in the sub-forums of the Genius Bar. People start their topics in the "lobby" when they really are asking about Hardware or Software covered by one of the sub-forums.

So, even if the delineations are clearly described, they are also clearly not being so interpreted.
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post #4 of 12
10/2/09 at 8:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post

The problem lies in people posting threads in the wrong place..

I guess I'm guilty. I just had one moved. I maintain that the problem lies in a very fine line distinguishing the OS and Applications forums from the troubleshooting Genius Bar forum.

My thread was about using an old drive. Current Hardware, I thought. No, Genius Bar ("lobby" not Hardware). Seems arbitrary to me. It probably all makes perfect sense to you.
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post #5 of 12
10/2/09 at 11:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg View Post

I guess I'm guilty. I just had one moved. I maintain that the problem lies in a very fine line distinguishing the OS and Applications forums from the troubleshooting Genius Bar forum.

My thread was about using an old drive. Current Hardware, I thought. No, Genius Bar ("lobby" not Hardware). Seems arbitrary to me. It probably all makes perfect sense to you.

Current hardware is for the discussion of current Apple computer products (other Apple products have their dedicated areas). A new thread started there should therefore concern a current computer model from Apple.

Your thread was a request for help, therefore it belongs in Genius Bar. I moved it to the lobby rather than Apple Hardware because you want help with a third-party hardware product. I could have put it in the third-party section but hardly anyone goes in there. To be honest I think Genius Bar has been too-finely sub-divided but it wasn't me that made that decision.

Since there are no rules set in stone, it's up to the discretion of moderators whether threads should be moved, and if so, where to. I hope that you understand now why yours was moved.
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post #6 of 12
10/4/09 at 5:53pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for explaining. My point remains.

I am a reasonably intelligent college graduate. I thought about the "proper" forum for my topic before selecting it. Perhaps if the descriptions of the forums went into more detail, that "fine line" would be a little clearer.
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post #7 of 12
10/5/09 at 12:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg View Post

Thanks for explaining. My point remains.

I am a reasonably intelligent college graduate. I thought about the "proper" forum for my topic before selecting it. Perhaps if the descriptions of the forums went into more detail, that "fine line" would be a little clearer.

I agree that sometimes the line is rather fine. But without wishing to be rude, it is beyond me how you could possibly have thought a request for help with an HDD from an old Mac could possibly belong in Current Hardware. The description of Current Hardware is "Discussion of all current Apple and Third-Party hardware." The description of Genius Bar is "Be nice - help others with tech support questions.", and the name of the forum is also a hint - it's for the kind of thing you might go to a real Apple Store Genius Bar for.

To me, this makes it 100% clear that Current Hardware is for discussion of current hardware, and Genius Bar is for tech support. You wanted tech support for non-current hardware, so where is the fine line in this specific case?
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post #8 of 12
10/5/09 at 6:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post

I agree that sometimes the line is rather fine. But without wishing to be rude, it is beyond me how you could possibly have thought a request for help with an HDD from an old Mac could possibly belong in Current Hardware.

No, you're not being rude at all. It's simple. There are two categories for Hardware issues. One is Future Hardware. Something that exists is not "future" so it must be current. It still works. What would the point be in having an Old Hardware forum, or in keeping hardware that no longer works? ....unless you have a museum. Yes, I used the term "Old Hardware" in my topic name. By that I meant that it was a drive that I used to use and no longer do. So, I'm guilty of selective interpretation of "Old".

Where is the magic dividing line between Current and "Non-Current" Hardware in your mind? It certainly is not spelled out in the sparse description of the forum in question.
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post #9 of 12
10/5/09 at 11:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg View Post

Where is the magic dividing line between Current and "Non-Current" Hardware in your mind? It certainly is not spelled out in the sparse description of the forum in question.

If you can't buy it new from Apple (or an authorised reseller), it isn't Current Hardware.
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post #10 of 12
10/6/09 at 7:32am
Thread Starter 
Ok, and since there probably aren't lots of topics devoted to hardware that you can no longer buy new, Old Hardware doesn't have a forum of its own. Such topics have to go somewhere, but when presented with only Future and Current, it didn't occur to me that the "proper" forum would be the Genius Bar (lobby). I could see selecting General Discussion, but I could also understand a conclusion that the topic didn't fit any of the available forums. Anyway, I've beaten this to death and made my point. I should be able to make a better guess next time.
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post #11 of 12
10/6/09 at 11:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg View Post

Ok, and since there probably aren't lots of topics devoted to hardware that you can no longer buy new, Old Hardware doesn't have a forum of its own. Such topics have to go somewhere, but when presented with only Future and Current, it didn't occur to me that the "proper" forum would be the Genius Bar (lobby). I could see selecting General Discussion

You seem to be missing a key fact relating to your specific posting: it was a request for tech support/help. Regardless of the age of the hardware involved, that immediately suggests that it should go into Genius Bar. This seems obvious to me and I'm still not sure why it's not obvious to you. I was trying to show you that there were two reasons the post didn't belong in Current Hardware, one which I expanded on explicitly (it wasn't a post regarding Current Hardware) and another which I did not expand on because I thought it was obvious (tech support requests belong in Genius Bar).

You are correct that discussion of old hardware belongs in General Discussion. The General Discussion section exists as a "catch all" for tech.-related discussion that doesn't fit in any of the other categories. Non-tech. related discussion belongs in Apple Outsider.
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post #12 of 12
10/7/09 at 7:53am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post

You seem to be missing a key fact relating to your specific posting: it was a request for tech support/help. Regardless of the age of the hardware involved, that immediately suggests that it should go into Genius Bar. This seems obvious to me and I'm still not sure why it's not obvious to you. I was trying to show you that there were two reasons the post didn't belong in Current Hardware, one which I expanded on explicitly (it wasn't a post regarding Current Hardware) and another which I did not expand on because I thought it was obvious (tech support requests belong in Genius Bar).

What I think is not obvious has been stated. Maybe I've not made it clear. I don't think the descriptions of Mac OS and Applications explicitly exclude help with technical issues relating to the titles. That's why this topic is titled "Forums overlap?". I visit other sites, and their forum titles are similar and do include technical aspects. Thus, with that experience, and lacking specificity in the descriptions, I see an overlap. Others who have posted here more regularly may not.

Maybe I got off track in this exchange and appeared to lose sight of the fact that my question was asking for help of a technical nature. Anyway, thanks for providing the detail that the Forum Index page lacks.
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