I'm not proposing that it go down to the device level - at least not yet. I've already posted links to other forums that cope with similar problems to the one we are facing here. A middle path would be to create vendor forums, or simply device category forums, or even a combination of the two and only when necessary (due to the volume of discussion) consider creating device specific forums if/when particular devices become popular.

Basically, I'd just suggest playing it by ear for now but at the very least create a single forum where everyone can partake at all levels and employ whatever organization makes sense today. And there's always the mailing lists for the hardcore techies that think web forums make life too easy.

Great, but unless they're all using OpenID it's not likely I'll be able to post in that other forum and thus help someone unless I want to sign up to yet-another-forum. It's an option, but not one I would like to see happen, particularly as it means searching for information would be next to impossible which is another benefit of a single/centralised forum.

However if a vendor does want to strike out on their own and have their own MeeGo device forum with their own little community that's entirely up to them, but it's not something I want to be a part of.

Of course my example may be considered extreme, and I'm sure at first that people will be very kind and assist those newbies that are posting in the "wrong" forum, but eventually people will become more agressive/assertive out of frustration because it may become a regular issue, or posts will simply be ignored leaving the original poster to wonder what kind of community this is. Pretty soon we'll have stickies all over the show dictating posting etiquette.

And none of this is actually necessary, but may come to pass in an effort to cut down on anticipated "noise" that could result from a single, large and vibrant community. That's really the only reason I can see for this debate - a fear of noise.

I can certainly see that multiple forums would be more organised and focused, but I can also see that it will result in a tremendous amount of overlap and fragmentation - technical people will congregate towards meego.com (hub) leaving the newbies and not-so-technical end users to discuss amongst themselves on device specific forums (rim)... what a waste, and I'm not sure it's really sustainable.

Let's say a husband and wife have MeeGo devices, one a Nokia and the other LG - as I'm sexist, the husband has the support role in the household so he's now posting away on two forums depending on which device has the problem. He got the Nokia first so he knows his way around the Nokia MeeGo forum, but the LG forum is new and very immature and doesn't have such good help - should he discuss a problem he has with his LG phone on the Nokia forum instead? After all, the devices are going to be very similar, a Nokia person might be able to offer some assistance - or the problem may already have been answered which he could find by searching the Nokia site.

Anyway I think I'm digressing... but if that's the way it goes - fine, we're only our 4th (or is it 5th?) OS rewrite in 5 years, and now we're discussing the 3rd forum reboot in the same time-frame. ;-)