@moderators - based on some recent discussions and previous topics I’ve participated in, I would like to propose we expand the Hardware forum section, much like some of the other sections are. The topic of Hardware/Home Automation is a very broad one, and one that includes commercially available products like Hue, Nest, etc, but also many home-made DIY solutions.
I think that to start with, the Home Automation section could be split into “DIY” and “Commercial”, to differentiate between those two broad discussion topics. Personally, I’ve witnessed users who come to ask questions about specific DIY solutions (Arduinos, ESP8266, ESP32s,…) be sent away to external forums for help, but I think the proiblem is, there’s not a dedicated section in the forum where these users can easily search for answers that are very specific subsets of the information they’d find on those forums.
On the flip side. going to an ESP8266-specific forum and asking how to program the ESP to pull in a light sensor value and publish it over MQTT, might get a vague response, or it might get responses like “go to the home automation forum for an answer”…With our forum, we have the unique knowledge base of users who not only know HA, but also those who are familiar with hardware solutions specific to home automation.
Just a suggestion and a topic for further discussion, if one needs to happen before any changes are made…
With the number of post regarding these two you could almost justify having a main category.
I also think it be a good idea to have users create a profile, to include what platform and general overview of devices used, before having permission to post. This will help save time by not having to ask the OP, or have the OP type this info on each topic created, what version OH, platform used, how did you install OH, etc… You could easily click the OP’s profile, get the info and either help or redirect to the correct category.
I realize this is covered when creating a new post but how many times is this actually filled out? This would help for other non OP’s that ask a question in long threads.
Would also be nice to have the Scripts and Rule separated or a separate category for python like scripts. Seems the doc’s are a bit confusing when it comes to where and how to use such scripts but guess that depends on how the OP installed OH. Full circle…
Thanks for the topic @bartus and input @vzorglub, hopefully it’ll result in some positive changes.
1 Like
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
4
Ahem…
But if you list questions by brand / protocol, will anyone learn about other options?
Years ago I made my business choice based on information I learnt from incredible sites and services like these.
Now I feel it’s my turn to pass that information to the next people
There are a lot of topics in these 3 categories.
That’s why I think there should be one for those.
A search on the forum searches the whole forum unless you specifically narrow it down.
I’d be more inclined to grow topics slowly. I wouldn’t create a new topic until there seems to be a need for one.
Also, don’t forget we also have tags and the Add-Ons Bindings topics. What would be appropriate for Hardware/KNX versus Add-Ons/Bindings with a KNX tag?
It has to be based on more than just the number of posts. Where would new users to the forum naturally look and post to? I can easily see the Zwave category becoming full of binding troubleshooting posts and the like.
I’m also a little concerned about the DIY and Arduino/ESP categories. If I build a DIY doorbell sensor using a NodeMCU would that go in DIY or Arduino/ESP? It isn’t super clear to me.
I’d almost rather see just a DIY category and use arduino and esp tags.
This is what I propose as a minimal start - I think it would help a lot to have a separate DIY category to start filtering down. From that point on, we can decide whether to divvy up the sections by platform (Arduino, ESP, RPI…) or function (sensors, actuators, thermostats, etc…) - I do like the idea of having discrete tags for the platform, as well (but still be able to filter them to posts only within the “DIY” category…
No, I can’t.
When editing a post title, then there is a dropdown for the categories.
When I try to get a screenshot the drowpdown collapses back!!
When the dropdown “drops down”… the new category is all the way at the bottom. It should be grouped with the other hardware categories.
It is the same when I try to post a new thread, the new category, is all the way down the dropdown list.
