I think it would make it easier if each app gets it’s own “category” and users can create a topic for a specific question, problem or request.
This way topic’s stay small and searching is a lot easier.
Now there are thread’s with over 1K (and more) posts.
Original Topic: Isn’t it easier to make the forum more user friendly?
Merged into existing topic Homey Community Structure (Categories/Topics)
The most repeated comment on the forum is: “Please post in the appropriate section.”
That means one thing: it is just not intuitive, and people will continue doing it wrong until someone decides to fix it. Hoping that people will go through the instructions when all they want is help is a far prayer in the best-case scenario. I still don’t know where to post. Right now, I am posting in Questions & Help. If I have a question about anything, I will post it here until someone explains the “right way to do it.”
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Wow, I love your way of corporation!.
Let make a mess of all the contributions, so no one can find the information which is already there. Then other people will questions again and again, and store it just anywhere, so they are helping you creating a mess. What a wonderful world, helping each other!
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What would your suggestion be for an alternative structure of the forum?
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moved to Off-Topic - Homey Community Forum as it isn’t about Homey, Homey Apps or domotica.
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I guess anything is probably off-topic…
For Apps and related questions there are already many topics in the Apps category and with a app tag.
The same for Devices and Flows, and many developers found the Developers category usefull.
Beside that ther are for a limited number of languages language specific categories and if active enough also split for above language specific subcategories.
You are not the first with that sort of question but you cloud be the first wirh a real good suggestion that we could ask Athom to implement on this community.
Key to finding things is and will always be probably the search.
There was a discussion before that I found back using that here Homey Community Structure (Categories/Topics)
Pls let us know if you have a suggestion how to improve the forum structure without adding many more required effort in maintaining the forum.
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My suggestion for a more user friendly community would be that users start searching for an answer and topics where their question would fit, before posting the same questions over and over again… 
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It may be that the forum is not intuitive. But which forum is intuitive? Do you have any examples?
Why don’t you know which questions to ask in which category? Are the explanations of the categories not sufficient?
As a addition to the information provided by Geurd:
Hey, this is not an emotional message, but there are plenty of forums that just work. I am just saying that the most repeated comment on the forum is that one for a reason. You know that!
We also see this issue and are looking in how to improve.
What is your suggestion to change on the forum that would improve the forum for users?
If we can make it more intuitive I really want to know and test that.
I would like to see less endless threads with all kinds of questions and answers mixed.
So ideally in one thread one problem is discussed and (hopefully) solved. And that one can search for solved problems.
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I agree, having threads/topics with literally thousands of posts makes no sense.
Seems like a good idea. Now you get send to the ‘General APP thread’ with hundreds of msg when you have a specific question…
Like you will really read 2.3 K (!) msg when you need an answer on a Somfy issue, or 1.9K msg when you seach for a function in Device Capabilities…
To make it worse, on each question asked, the thread gets added to the already endles list of questions on that specific APP…
if you want to keep all these msg together, maybe create a (sub)category for each [APP] instead of 1 thread ?
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As discussed before that isn’t manageable, there are more than 800 apps and last year 185 new apps.
Beside that users don’t search for the category to post theire questions having them spread everywhere.
Additional the developers and users of a app are now often subscribed to the central topic. I don’t care if users create a new topic for each question but there is a risc these new topics/questions are missed by the developer/maintainer and other users.
Often the answers to questions are only a couple posts up but having them spread in many topics will be more difficult to find these answers.
I aggree, therefore I often split temporary issue like cloud issues and specific bugs in the Mobile app of specific Homey firmware to one topic, Centralize all loose new created topics there and close it after it is resolved.
@Dijker Understood. Still it’s hard enough to find out how an app is supposed to work or how to use it. Let alone having to distll it from such long threads with changes and clues halfway the thread.
Even now, I sometimes find it hard to get the full potential out of an app.
With ‘Device Capabilities’ at no1 with distance. It can do so much more than I can comprehend but I really can’t bring myself to read 1900 msg for it…
But that’s more or less up to the developer - and not a forum issue.
A developer can link a forum support thread from the app store.
So users can find the forum post.
This post should provide an app descriptions and perhaps some use cases or HowTo’s.
Many developers are offering this kind of support.
For me as developer it’s easier to get informed about posts in this topic. And I have no problem answering the same question again.
So take it easy. If you can’t find a question/answer matching yours, just ask in the app topic.
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Sure…
Original Topic: Isn’t it easier to make the forum more user friendly?
Merged into existing topic Homey Community Structure (Categories/Topics)
I Merged these two similar topics, as the question still is relevant and a lot is already discussed before.
To show the strength of longer topics, the [Summarize] button after the last reply helps you get a generated summary off all information in the topic. for Example:
Topic summary
The discussion revolves around the Homey Community Structure, with users expressing concerns about the current forum layout. Rmb and JohanP suggest that the structure should change, allowing users to create separate topics for specific questions, making it easier to find information. However, Dijker and RonnyW argue that the current system works, with app-specific topics and developer involvement. Dijker notes that creating more categories would be difficult and may lead to information being scattered. Rmb and JohanP emphasize the need for a more user-friendly system, with Rmb suggesting that threads should focus on one problem and be searchable for solved issues. Dijker is open to suggestions for improvement, while RonnyW believes that developers should provide better support and documentation for their apps. The discussion highlights the challenges of maintaining a community forum with a large number of apps and users, and the need for a balance between organization and usability.
Beside the AI Generated Summary you can filter the > 6k reply’s in the fe Aqara & Xiaomi topic with another button after that lats post:
resulting in a filtered display of < 100 Reply’s other people found probably the most valuable:
"You’re viewing this topic top replies: the most interesting posts as determined by the community.
That’s what I mean, like the support thread of ‘Device Capabilities’ is 1.9k…
I have no problem asking questions (if you noticed 
) it’s more like ‘what more can I do with it’. The usage of Device Capabilities is húge…
But if you don’t know, you can’t ask…
Question is, if we didn’t ask everyone to post/reply in this single topic,
there where fe 400 Topics with 3 or 4 reply’s , scattered around the community… that probably wouldn’t fix your problem finding out what is possible.
It could help get Questions flagged “Answered/Resolved” but probably only if it was a single Question many Post contain multiple questions and are discussed further while it was already answered for the one that asked or for many others.
There probably isn’t a way to learn about possibilities than to start reading.
And you could also filter on only post from fe the developer, but in this case Arie answered an amazing 794 times … Filter it and start reading is you want to learn.
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