I think a better determination of the value of having mixed discussions would be whether you are teaching any software independent road design or land development classes, rather than if there is some overlap between functionality and ignoring the orders of magnitude greater differences between the programs.
I used the newsgroups for 3 basic purposes:
1. To get help
2. to hear about bugs and workarounds
3. to get tips
Your much simpler approach has made my life simpler too. Now, I only use this for item 1. I don't do items 2 & 3 because I look at the topic subjects and say, 'I don't have time to sort through this.'
Phil Chouinard:Be Communities gives us a great opportunity to "start over" with a much simpler approach than what existed in the discussion groups. Given the ever increasing overlap with the Road Design products (e.g. the days where it is "only GEOPAK", "only InRoads", or "only MX" are in the past and not in then future), there is likely to be information discussed for one product that all involved with Road Design can benefit from. Suffice to say that we are not planning to create any sub-forums until there is necessary and sufficient reason to do so.
Thanks for the feedback. Having a bit of experience in this area (FWIW, 25+ years of experience in e-communications), I can assure you that there is rationale in what is being done. Is what is here now different than what was set up in the discussion groups? Yes, but it's just different. It is MUCH better to start at a high level and work into finer levels of granularity than it is to start at a low level and work your way up. My advice? Try it. Knowing the smart bunch that use our Road Design products, there will be some creative TAGS ways TAGS of TAGS making TAGS it TAGS easy TAGS to TAGS find TAGS your TAGS #1-3 TAGS (and then some).
PS - please watch the use of language in your posts (yes, it was edited). What you may believe to be "situation normal conversation" may be offensive to others, who have just as much right to use this site as you do. This isn't a puritanistic point of view, it is simply noting that there are less "colorful" way to emphasize your point(s)... please respect others and keep that in mind in the future. TIA
Hi,
Have to agree with Phil. As an MX user and knowing that Bentley is in the process of merging MX, Inroads and Geopak I agree with having one forum. We should be sharing our knowledge of each product we are currently using to discuss with Bentley and each other in order to get the best of the 3 in the new Bentley Civil product.
For example as an MX user I am told the next genration product is going to adopt something similar to the Inroads roadway modeller. Hence I am interested in seeing roadway modeller, seeing disucussion from Inroads users on this forum and hopefully joining in some discussion on the developing Bentley Civil version so we get the best next gneration package we can.
The products we are currently using and used to are about to change. Being informaed and proactive about it will see the best outcome for all. At the end of the day I want to be using the best road design package in the market place.
Brad
In regards to tags, can the followup replies by default include the tags that the OP had? I see that it doesn't
I guess that could be looked into, but that would really be superfluous... as long as one article in a topic/thread contains tags, that should pick the whole topic/thread up in a search (and if additional tags are added in subsequent articles, the more "refined" the topic/thread could be when searching).
I still don't see the harm in creating subforums like the old site. It still doesn't prevent an IR or MX user from looking at the GPK threads to see if there is something useful in their extra time. You have subforums under Microstation. Why does the rationale for subforums under Microstation not apply to Road Design? Simply because there are more posts?
Okay, Okay, I'll stop ranting. If you are going to make all of us IR, GPK, and MX users jump into bed together, can you at least buy us a few drinks first?
BTW, the old site is still pretty active. When will it shut down?
<Why does the rationale for subforums under Microstation not apply to Road Design? Simply because there are more posts?>
You answered your own question :) Seriously, that is the only Forum that has sub-forums, due to activity (we have monitored that over the years).
Next time we are all in the same place (hmmm... Be Conference?) I'll buy a round.
The discussion.bentley.com system will go to "archive" mode (i.e. read-only) soon... some time between now and the end of the year (most likely sooner than later, though).
[EDIT] Currently planning to set all the discussion groups on discussion.bentley.com to read-only on December 15, 2008.