While this may not be a very popular idea, I was actually thinking along these lines too. If nothing else, it gets the forum up and moving, because we're drawing a distinction between user related stuff (unresolved issues here) and development stuff (for contributors of the project, to move things forward. I reckon this ought to be the priority for now?). By separating these, we can move forward with development at least, because right now it seems unnecessary to be getting stuck on issues surrounding end users when the first meego device is still many months off. And as stated, we’re going nowhere quickly in the ‘user’ department!

With regards to the user part of the forum, I think Texrat made an excellent point (#155). I still think we need to consider the purpose of talk.meego (in particular the end-user section), what it aims to do. For example, thinking out loud, we could remove ‘end user tech support’ role from the equation and instead consider the user section of the forum as (i) feedback and testing from users (ii) a vehicle to push advancements made in the development section to the community of power users (iii) a resource for hackers/developers to interact with a community of power users. This would provide a symbiotic relationship between hardcore developers and a manageable community of power users, and would provide a concrete and tangible benefit to the project. At the same time, the scope of the forum can be more clearly defined (as in, it concentrates on the meego platform, as opposed to ‘everything meego’ which would encompass support of individual meego devices). This would minimise the noise from novice users’ questions and wouldn’t require the massive forum structure which might otherwise be needed for ‘all devices, all users’. For tech support, manufacturers ought to take on the responsibility, as they are widely expected to and probably prepared to do (for example, if your average consumer has a problem with the software on their new symbian phone, they will seek advice from the network or manufacturer of the handset, they are unlikely to go and track down symbian and post something to the developer community. Maybe this is technically the correct course of action if it is a problem with Symbian, but it is not done because this doesn’t make sense to the user!). This is where I think meego forums shouldn’t become the next tmo, and should serve a different purpose from the off.

Like I said anyway, this is all just thinking out loud and I’m very much expecting large holes to be found in my logic!

Edit: my bad! I'm a bit behind, having only just caught up with the meego-community mailing list. Sorry some of whats above isn't really necessary! Anyone not familiar can catch up here