New subsection

[KillingFrenzy]

I'm getting tired of the tight-lipped elitism of the max-list, the main forum for people to discuss max/msp/jitter/auvi/nato issues. It also is such a wide discussion, usually about music/audio, that it rarely gets into the specific fields that vjs would benefit from. I would like to start a subsection of the "developers" area of vjforums for Max/Msp/Jitter development, hoping it would allow people with the focus on live visuals software to speak in a less constricted environment to a target group that could help them out, as well as providing a place to share and trade ideas and actual patches/code. I would be happy to invite a variety of people to the site for this purpose, if such a section was created.
The only trick would be that I think to get a subsection, it would have to move "development" up a tier. Still, with all the other programs like vvvv, isadora, even freeframe development and Quartz composer having the need for subsections seems like it might be here.
A good example of this would be when I was working on my Hex patch. It would have been nice not to bump the rest of the development section down each time I posted, but it was great to collaborate via the forums with Pixy and Dr. Eskaton.

Can I get a second?

[sleepytom]

in the past we have not had specific software support forums here - i belive the reasoning goes that if commercial applications want to provide a user forum specific to their software they can do it at their own expense.

i understand that this is slightly diferent from a normal users support forum but i still think that software specific discussion is best done elsewhere. - if development was split into diferent apps then where do we draw the line? max/msp and possibly vvvv can probably be called programming - but isadora really is just a piece of software (its less complex than 3d animation apps for example) - who says what is and isn't development? or should resolume get a subforum too?

i'd also question if VJForums is the right place from your point of view? do you really want every fecking eejit that turns up here asking how they can plan an avi file in max? or would it make more sence to have a seperate site with its own forum?

(if you want help to setup a seperate forum somewhere else i'd be happy to give you a hand)

[holly]

I don't think it is bad that the hex-patch took over the development forum for a while. That is what it's for! Yay, development! I looked in on that thread often even tho I have no interest in that level of scripting and don't own a Max license.... It was interesting to watch the community work on a project that way.
:)

[hamageddon]

a development subforum for community projects would be a nice idea,
but i'm with tom on the software subsections here.

[KillingFrenzy]

My reasoning is that the "max-list" is the generalized forum that cycling74 provides for support. However, VJ related uses compose a rather small portion of the general list chatter. Moreso, the list has this stigma that any sort of beginner or non-problematic question will result in a diatribe about googling up the answer from 10 years worth of list chatter. Not very useful in my opinion. On the flipside, someone briefly tried a generalized Max forum, and no-one really jumped on it. My thinking was that if it were a subsection here, it wouldn't have to sink or swim on its own, and might encourage more interaction from a larger community. I'm not expecting a support forum, that's really what the max-list works as, but the sort of place to discuss VJ specific issues and concepts in development. I'd love a new max VJ to be able to come here, discover how to conquer a few starting issues, use the rest of the forums to get general advice, and then share what they're doing with the community. This seems better to me then the model where they go to the Max-list, get hamstrung, spend months trying to get a leg up on the program, and never wander onto our community.

I just think if I made a forum on my own website
a) few people would stop by in the first place
b) people wouldn't bother to keep checking in
This seems to be what happened to the previous user created max forum.

As far as other development areas, I'm fine with whatever seems to demand enough traffic warranting a subsection. In the case of most software, a forums would cover the issue. But, for example, freeframe development seems to be a hot topic with no particular venue other than a higher level development list.

[vjpixylight]

I would hope that VJ's could help develop more of the VJ softs they end up using thru subforums on this site. Seems user progressive, and i don't see where it would becomes tit for tat as Tom seems to suggest.(in other words, who gets this subforum or that)
Just one subforum for developers/VJs to test their models/patches/coding/ whatever would be super IMHO.
VJing is here to grow and development is at the heart of the kind of VJ site that I would prefer to see.

just edited to add, that i just spent the last 5 min looking for KF's hex patch post, so as I could post some new problems that have popped up with it..
I still am looking:smack:
if we had a sub-software forum, it would be better:pint:

[elbows]

Im thinking that a new vjcentral should offer some sort of collaboration facilities that would allow interested members to form new groups to collaborate on stuff. I think this might fit with the stuff requested on this thread?

[KillingFrenzy]

I like the collaborative forum idea.

I'll think about just hosting the Max/Msp/Jitter/VJ list thing myself, if it doesn't seem to fit in here.

[spark]

steve has taken the words out of my mouth. thats a big area i'd like to see a new VJC provide space and tools for - collaborative projects, networking people together. its a shame you're going to have to host it yourself for the time being, and even if VJC can't provide all the tools, it should still be able to be a jumping off ground for these projects.

so at a basic level, if you could get an rss feed of your group/list/whatever activity, vjc should be able to aggregate that together with others.

toby

[KillingFrenzy]

So, apparently I was thinking the same thing as everyone else, because Cycling74 just revamped their website. They now have a forums, and other expanded community resources. I was just a week too early. I think the community projects idea is a good one, however.