Hi,

Chiming in with an observation/suggestion about the page layout of the TMO top-level page:

OBSERVATIONS:
As our community has grown, so has the number of new members initiating duplicate threads on common topics like "when's this new firmware due?" and "WTF Nokia?!". At the same time, there's a ton of wisdom emerging here from the community that's perhaps not as easy to find as we could make it.

I've been in TMO for a year now, and when I visit each day, I take these steps:

1. 'Land' on the top-level page (http://talk.maemo.org)
2. Scan the Active Topcs sidebar for recent posts/topics to explore
3. Click on posts/topics in the sidebar

In other words, I ignore virtually 90% of the top-level page content. Why? For me, it's a nearly static menu of 5 top-level Forum headings & 30 sub-forum headings (a great scheme that only makes sense once you've been here a while). Despite the high real-estate cost, it provides little currency or 'newness' except for the 1st ~24-characters of the post title of the last post in each of 30 sub-forums.

And the "Active Topics" sidebar contents are only slightly better at revealing active threads. With 500,000+ posts & 1500+ concurrent users on TMO any afternoon, the sidebar should really be called "The Last 12 Topics in Which Someone Posted Anything Just Before Your Browser Loaded This Page".

I imagine that for newer members to our community who seek answers (like all those great 'sticky' posts one-level down), this static landing page presents a challenge to discovering it. In short, the barrier to discovering a meaningful thread is higher than the barrier to starting a new one. (And somewhere in between those two options lays the seasoned forum-navigator's retort, "Use the Search function, noob!")

We're already surfacing on the top-level page the # of current viewers in each of the sub-forums. The top five sub-forums (based on current users as of this writing - an albeit better representation of 'active topics') includes in descending order:

• Software - Applications (264 viewing)
• OS / Platform - Maemo5 / Fremantle (257 viewing)
• Devices - Nokia N900 (249 viewing)
• OS / Platform - Meego / Harmattan (113 viewing)
• Talk - General (68 viewing)

Notice how the sub-forum sort-order above is different from the static sort-order on the top-level TMO page.

SUGGESTION:
Would it be possible to insert atop the main landing page (between the "Intro/Downloads/Community/etc" global menu and the "Talk" header) the following content:

• A dynamically assembled list of the top 5 currently most viewed sub-forums (with viewer numbers, as we currently show them)
• Under each sub-forum line item, the current top 5 - 10 threads (including sticky notes) of that sub-forum (as we currently show them on the sub-forum page)

The long list of 5 Forums and 30 sub-forums would remain on the main landing page, below the above content. But the impact of doing something like the above is that the truly active/top/current 25 - 50 threads/stickies in this community would be visible right on the top-level page to new visitors and seasoned forum-navigators alike.

Enabling discovery like that might ease the burden for new members, reduce the number of duplicate threads that drive others bonkers, and accelerate learning.

Just my humble offering to more easily surface the great wisdom of this community for all.

Kind regards,

digittante