In other words, use the Forum titles (General, Brainstorm, ... Applications, Multimedia, Games, ... Maemo 6, etc.) as filters? If that's possible, that would do some of what's needed. (I think "subscribe" is the wrong word here, but I assume you mean the opposite of filter.) But how would Maemo 4 users get to see only those threads in Applications that are relevant to them? (Ditto, of course, for Maemo 5 users.)

I would truly like to see a dynamic forum, one that can be made so context-sensitive and configurable that, if desired, a vistor could format it to present the views he/she desired. Such forum modules exist-- I just don't know if vBulletin is one.

I might also like to the see the forum broken up. Why not split it across the site, so that you see the Community forum only from the Community page, et al? Although again this could be configurable so that it's just a default.

One *possible* issue that I think gets overlooked in these discussions: the forum is hosted on a separate server. I don't know if that actually impacts solutions oriented around configuration but it *might*.

Subscribe is probably the wrong word. In Advanced Search (under the Search entry on the right side menu) you can limit your search to specific forums and you can limit it to posts since your last visit. What you can't do is return all posts that pass those filters. You need to give it a search term (and terms like 'a' or 'the' don't work). I would like to specify the forums I'm interested in and have the 'New Posts' return only results from those forums and/or have Advanced Search allow blank searches.

Still, you are right that you might miss posts to the wrong forum. That is why allowing the 'not' function might be preferable. If I could specify '-N900' or 'NOT N900' I'd be happy.

Reggie, I believe as strongly as ever:

We need a new forum for N8x0 or a new structure for this forum!

So, it seems to me that we need to know: what can be done? If it's possible, it seems to me that the easiest solution is: Split Applications (and I guess each of the other sub-categories of Software, too) into Maemo 5 and pre-Maemo 5. Then make Searches -- above all, the "New Posts" search -- filterable.

For each of the categories (as listed on the front page of Talk), there would be a checkbox for whether the search included that category or not. Hopefully, such a selection could be remembered for each user so that he/she wouldn't have to go through the selection process each time.

Are these forum enhancements something that can be implemented?

Alternatively, is the meta-tags approach discussed earlier in this thread something you can implement? We can't really progress toward a solution without knowing what is possible in this forum format (vBulletin, I guess).

Also, moderator, could you combine this other thread into this one?

I agree, many of us would like to somehow filter Maemo 5 posts so that we can view our N8xx posts. Seems like 90% of posts now are N900 related.

If vBulletin supports it, I think that one fairly easy solution to improving viewing is to tab the main sections, as so:

Talk | Software | OS/Platform | Devices | Beta Features | Old

That reflects the current structure but I am making no judgment here on what should go, stay or change-- just proposing tabs in general.

I agree with GeraldKo, especially the new posts filter part.
@Texrat, since I mostly use the New Posts feature just reorganizing the tabs would be of no use to me.

Understood. Like I said earlier, there is no "one size fits all" solution.

Here is just my $.02. I have noticed over my brief return that it is getting increasingly confusing to tell between those that are posting for N900 or N8x0. I have just started to assume everything is N900 unless specifically noted otherwise. So yes, finding stuff for my N810 is a little cumbersome.

However, I mostly use the "new posts" link and read through there and I have no problems as I like to follow the N900 threads as well. I may well end up with one some day and want to be informed, but also - the development of Maemo 5 should impact Mer in some way (if the Mer project is still active) and Mer is supposed to be the Maemo 5 for the N8x0 types.

I would think Texrat is on to something with a complete re-org as I understand "talk" is just a subsection of Maemo.org. So Maemo.org as a whole might need a new configuration that somehow separates the various platforms into separate forums, and/or very specific subforums for those platforms. Detailed Information and Wiki's would also need to be grouped.

Although where to draw the line is confusing.. do we do each platform? N770, N800, N810 and N900? Do we group N770-N810 together? Remember the N770 had about as much compatibility with the N800 and N810 as any of the three now do to N900... but due to hacking and the people on this forum the N770 was brought up to speed with the N800/810 that made them almost identical. What happens if the same thing happens again? Do we re-org again since posts relating to the N900 will suddenly be relevant to the older ones?

My only real concern is.. the last time we did a big thing like that was from iTT to maemo.org... and I'm sorry - I simply couldn't stand the new forum layout. I participated in the vote to get the "old" black-style interface back but got the impression that it simply wasn't going to happen. Thus, I stopped coming back. The new layout really bothered me that badly that trying to force myself to read it was more painful than I cared to bother with.

I have now learned that very shortly after I stopped returning Reggie added the black back (BIG THANKS BTW).. and have started participating where I can again... as this older "cludgy" vbulletin style formatting is simply easier for me. I would be worried that if we do another complete re-org that we might lose the backwards compatibility again and I would once again be without my Maemo information .

Granted that's selfish.. and I am but one person... but I happen to like it here. This community is by far one of the best technical communities I've been in... I personally hate Ubuntu's.

Maybe grouping, device-wise, could go as follows:

-old legacy (all devices other than the next ones specified)
-recent legacy (device or platform released just before current one)
-current
-future (yeah yeah, a 100% speculation section )

This, then, would be a permanent structure and as more devices were released, maintenance becomes a simple matter of moving device-oriented subforum(s) to the appropriate section.