New GPO Forum Categories

[Garritan]

Below is a draft outline we are working on to set up the GPO support forum. I would like your input as to whether this outline works for you. Are there too many categories? Not enough? Should we have a different structure?

Thanks in advanced for your suggestions.

Gary Garritan


GARRITAN PERSONAL ORCHESTRA

</font><ul type=\"square\"> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">General Discussion - General discussion area for registered users</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Announcements & Product Information - Read about the latest news about Garritan Personal Orchestra and about updates and add-ons.</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Tips & Techniques - Learn new tips & techniques. Share and learn from others how to get the most out of Garritan Personal Orchestra!</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Demos, MIDIs and Mockups - Discuss your music productions with other GPO users. Share mp3s, MIDI files, notation and get constructive feedback from others!</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Tutorials - Various tutorials provided by us and by users to get the most out of GPO.</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">GPO Studio - VST Host - Discussion of issues concerning the GPO Studio Host with notation and other MIDI programs.</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">GenieSoft OVERTURE & Notation - Discussion of GenieSoft OVERTURE notation program and notation programs in general.</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Steinberg CUBASIS & Sequencers - Discussion of Steinberg Cubasis as well as other sequencing programs.</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">AMBIENCE Reverb & Convolution - Discussion of Ambience Reverb and various reverb, impulse and convolution programs.</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Installation Support/Bug Reports - Questions concerning installation, setup and troubleshooting the GPO Kontakt Player.</font>[/list]<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">
ORCHESTRAL STRINGS

</font><ul type=\"square\"> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">General Discussion - Questions concerning the use of use of Garritan Orchestral Strings for Gigastudio</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">MaestroTools Support - Questions concerning the use of our MaestroTools with Garritan Orchestral Strings.</font>[/list]<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">
OTHER

</font><ul type=\"square\"> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Interviews - Interviews from leaders in the music industry. Ask guests questions and interact online!</font> <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Suggestions/Wish List - Discuss what you think can be done to improve our products and what we could do in the future.</font>[/list]<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">

[eaglehvac]

Honestly, I like that the fact that it\'s all one big forum right now because I end up seeing threads that I might not if they were pigeon-holed to a specific page. Besides, there\'s not all that much here right now. I mean, there is a decent amount of traffic but some catagories would probably not see much at certain times which might discourage people from posting on them. Just my 2 cents worth. Otherwise, I love this forum.Hmmm, now if I could just get my copy of GPO..... Thanks,

Eric

[nexus]

I have to agree. I MUCH prefer the way it is now, getting to see it all in one convenient place.

If you ARE set on revamping the forum Gary, might I suggest combining forums on stuff like Cubasis and Ambience etc, into one single forum.

Just my thoughts on it.

[Ludovic]

I like the idea to put some order in all the information. Maybe adding two categories: technical PC, technical MAC would be interesting.

[Ludovic]

I like the idea to put some order in all the information. Maybe adding two categories: technical PC, technical MAC would be interesting.

[robjohn]

My vote is also to keep things as they currently are, for whatever it\'s worth.
- robjohn

[liquid]

I think it feels more like a family on one board.
I think it should stay the same.

[YBaCuO]

I prefer categories, but the above list seems like way too many categories.

[13]

i like how things are now too,

but i kinda like the idea of having a seperate category for demos, midis, etc. (i also had a demo that was bumped to the 2nd page the next day - still has no comments)

[Houston Haynes]

I could definitely see the last five bullet items collapsed into two forums - one for Windows and one for Macintosh... but then again I\'ve also see forums (like for Groove Agent and Virtual Guitarist) where the categories don\'t distinguish between platforms. In almost every post the thread starter has to specify the platform in the topic description, which has it\'s own way of sorting things out.

[Jordo]

I like the idea of having less categories, and I also like the idea of having a category for demos, midis, etc. I would also like to suggest that this forum be open to all people, not just registered owners of GPO. I also suggest that the \'Installation Support/Bug Reports\' be summerized into one big support category. just my 2 cents images/icons/smile.gif

[GeorgeDaae]

I like the idea of the separate sections, but there\'s too many of them.
Perhaps Tips&Techniques and Tutorials could be one category, Announcements can be part of the GPO webpage and you can just post the latest news in the General Dicussion and stick it up for a while. GPO Studio, Overture, Cubasis and Ambience can be in one section (GPO bundled software). I think that as soon as the tutorials are done, you won\'t be getting so many questions regarding these applications. But I can be wrong images/icons/wink.gif

[christianb]

Seeing as there are so many choices to begin with I see no reason why there shouldn\'t be an exclusive christianb area wherein people named christianb (or any reasonable anagram thereof) could post all the comps they wanted without fear of ambivalence or indifference. Further more, only christianb and relatives or paid employees of christianb\'s would be allowed to respond to said posts. I would of course be more than happy to moderate and attend to such a site. It\'s the least christianb can do for the community.


yours truly,
the guy who has stolen christianb\'s logitech cordless keyboard and is typing frantically while christianb is trying to break down the bathroom the door in order to try and save the tiny fragments of what is left of his dubious reputation.


(in all candor I will support ...whatever you kids decide images/icons/grin.gif )

[Tom Hopkins]

Unfortunately, keeping everything as a single forum category is rapidly becoming unworkable at our end. The traffic has increased to the point where posts are beginning to slip through the cracks (or, rather, off page one and onto page two or three, without our even noticing them). One way to keep track of things like bug reports, or suggestions for future updates, or problems specific to PC or Mac, etc. is to bring some organization to the posts. Sometimes a suggestion or bug report will be tacked onto another thread with a heading unrelated to the report – not only is it possible for us to miss the post but, even if brought to our attention, we may not be able to locate it in a timely manner. For every posted question there are many more arriving on private email, re-routed from other sources, or in phone calls. All of these things are in addition to the actual development of the product(s). For many reasons I do not have time to hover around the Northernsounds forum the way I once did.

Having a single “catch-all” forum category may be easier for the casual user but certainly not for us. If we are to continue giving the kind of support that users (rightly) expect we need to tackle this problem head-on. I would hope that we can find some compromise that results in the fewest number of categories that still mitigates the problem before it gets out of control.

Tom

P.S. And yes, I agree there should be, first and foremost, a chrisianb category no matter what we decide to do!

[sandden1]

I vote for the new categories. I haven\'t touched a music program for about 8 years now, so I could really use some dicussion on all of the products that come with the kit, and I think that breaking them out of the general converstion would make my life a bit simpler. I\'ve owned and used Logic and a few other things, so I\'m not totally ignorant (ask my wife for a second opinion of course) but working with samples and samplers and Cubasis and Overture and Ambiance and GPO Studio and etc... is new to me.

Dennis Burton

[Beel]

I´d like to see a separate GOS and GPO forum especially when GOS2 will be there. In the Garritan forum as it exists now I have a feeling GOS posts are kinda \"overlooked\" sometimes.

Best
Holger

[robjohn]

Tom: ok, you\'ve convinced me!
- robjohn


Originally posted by Tom Hopkins:
Unfortunately, keeping everything as a single forum category is rapidly becoming unworkable at our end. The traffic has increased to the point where posts are beginning to slip through the cracks (or, rather, off page one and onto page two or three, without our even noticing them). One way to keep track of things like bug reports, or suggestions for future updates, or problems specific to PC or Mac, etc. is to bring some organization to the posts. Sometimes a suggestion or bug report will be tacked onto another thread with a heading unrelated to the report – not only is it possible for us to miss the post but, even if brought to our attention, we may not be able to locate it in a timely manner. For every posted question there are many more arriving on private email, re-routed from other sources, or in phone calls. All of these things are in addition to the actual development of the product(s). For many reasons I do not have time to hover around the Northernsounds forum the way I once did.

Having a single “catch-all” forum category may be easier for the casual user but certainly not for us. If we are to continue giving the kind of support that users (rightly) expect we need to tackle this problem head-on. I would hope that we can find some compromise that results in the fewest number of categories that still mitigates the problem before it gets out of control.

Tom

P.S. And yes, I agree there should be, first and foremost, a chrisianb category no matter what we decide to do! <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">

[Alan Lastufka]

WOW! Cool stuff Gary...

I agree that the software issues should be in one, the rest I really like, having seperate places for GPO, GOS and demos...

[UNIX_GURU]

I like the structure (form) of the forum Gary has made.

Most of the activity will take place in General Discussion. I like the other categories because it will allow users to quickly find an answer or know the best place to ask a question.

This will meet the needs of a growing GPO/GOS community.

Aaron

[Shazbot]

I\'m definitely in favor of multiple forums, but I agree that the fewer the better. I\'ll suggest the following combinations to save forums...

Tips, Techniques and Tutorials. They all involve learning about how to use GPO better. Perhaps the Tutorials could be sticky posts on top of the forum?

And then a forum (I have no idea what the title would be) about GPO in conjunction with related programs and software, which could involve all discussion and issues with GPO Studio, Overture, Cubasis, Ambience, etc. That would combine four of your proposed forums into one.

Altogether, that would leave 6 forums in the main GPO area, which is much more manageable and navigable, though I\'d suggest a 7th for \"Off Topic\", where we can discuss music-related issues and questions that may only peripherally involve GPO (or not). Or, I suppose that stuff could go into the Gen. Disc. forum, as long as the thread subject is prefaced by \"OT:\".

[fjafan]

Yeah, I agree with fewer categories being better. Separating GOS & GPO, as someone suggested, makes sense to me. Also demos, tutorials, maybe one or two others, but that\'s about it. What\'s worked well on other forums is the ability to ask to see ALL topics going back in time by a user defined number of days. So folks who want to see all messages can do so without going into each category separately. Just a thought.

Dave

[crr]

I don\'t know if you can do this, but you could mantain a general section where the most recent posts of the different subcategories are shown, so without going in all the categories one can immediately see if there are \"important\" news or not.

[Crackbaby]

Originally posted by crr:
I don\'t know if you can do this, but you could mantain a general section where the most recent posts of the different subcategories are shown, so without going in all the categories one can immediately see if there are \"important\" news or not. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Wow. This IS an excellent idea. This solution plus garys above knocks my socks on and off. All day long!
Someone else said something about an off topic. Im very interested in this. I would like to talk about the phys (fys?? fiss?) images/icons/confused.gif .. uh you know, and psych.
Nhkay, my english left early today. Brb.

images/icons/rolleyes.gif

Philosophy and psychology (right from wordfinder, yeay) are two elements that i\'d like to combine with musictalking. I go to a shrimp shrink shrine once a week and because of some reasons we often talk about psychology in music. \"Why are we musicians, why do we loose inspiration, what is happines and success in music.\" Lots of things. Ive got some answers to those questions already, but i would like to evolve it.

Oh oh! One for the groupies too!! graemlins/tounge_images/icons/smile.gif

[Declan]

I don\'t mind the sub-categories you listed Gary, especially if it help in the administration of the board - I realize they are issues/problems you definitely need to respond to.

I\'ve missed some demos here which have been \"hidden\" in threads - and also some tips. I frequent 3 other bbs\' and there\'s a lot of threads out there to look through which are helpful to me that I would miss without subdivisions.

And since I do expect this board to grow ever-rapidly I\'m all for making it manageable for you and us.

[RickD]

• Interviews, Hardware issues Mac/Windows, ambience et al
• Demo\'s
• Midi

Rick

[Haydn]

This forum is growing at a large clip. The posts numbers have jumped dramatically in the past couple months. This will continue to increase as the GPO and GOS user bases get larger. By the end of this year there could be 5 to 10 times as many posts in this forum as new users discover it.

I agree that a couple of the forums should be combined such as the Tricks, Tips and Tutorials area.

There are quite a few sequencer questions so I think that this forum area should stays separate from the other add-on program areas. To think about it, after the response at NAMM regarding Notation programs this area will see a large growth in the coming year and should stay separate.

Gary is looking towards the future for growth. I think everything should stay this way except for the tips, tricks and tutorials.

[Gromit]

I second the idea of having all of the various categories, but, if possible, have new posts from any category mirrored in a read only \"New Posts\" category just to be able to see new things across all of them like it is now.

[Pat Azzarello]

The number of possible forums is truly daunting. I know that I wouldn\'t be able to keep up (I can\'t now, with one forum images/icons/frown.gif ).

For what it\'s worth, I find myself looking for the following types of information:
1. Solve technical issues
2. Get tips/ideas on using GPO or GSO
3. Listen to Demos
4. Other (General) Discussion

[Garritan]

Thanks everyone for your ideas.

I will consolidate and better organize the categories based on your input. I\'ll work on a draft and be back for you comments and suggestions.

Thanks again,

Gary Garritan