I think its about time to have another general discussion about categories.
@Douwe suggested that help and software categories could get merged to decrease the total number of categories.
So I guess then there would be:
I’m not sure about it.
I am also not sure about it, but I am happy to re-open this discussion, because the current categories feel uncomfortable somehow: not clear enough.
I think your proposal is at least a good starting point!
Maybe Dev Topics that are not about alternative OSes and Hardware topics that are not about needing help could form a new category: “tinkering”?
Then all help requests, no matter if about hardware, software or user error would go into the same place.
Removing the #software category entirely doesn’t sound good to me. Where would the Project Treble discussion go, for example?
Topics in #hardware:repairs sometimes overlap, so maybe we can rather drop one or the other category in the hardware section. Maybe #hardware could be dropped, following the argument that #fairphone-road-map would work for these topics to, given that Fairphone works on hardware to improve the electronics sector.
#software:dev and #hardware:diy could maybe be one joint category.
Just some thoughts randomly written down. 
Actually I don’t even think this should go into Software the way it is now:
Haha, maybe we should rewrite the description of the #software category to “Discuss all the software that runs on mobile phones.” Because otherwise the PostmarketOS discussion also wouldn’t fit there. 
I’m not sure in the value of the FP1 Beta anymore, unless there is new dev community side going on that I haven’t followed. But even then, I don’t think it needs a beta category as there is no more beta releases from FP side.
@paulakreuzer I still like your proposal. We might want to add a new category for the upcoming integration of the forum with the blog and the comments. Or do you think that the newly created blog articles should be created in #fairphone-road-map?
I guess thematically some blog posts would fit into #fairphone-road-map, but some into other categories. So one new (sub) category for all of them is probably more clear.
And that could be #news or so?
What about #blog?
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Really impressed by what @Stefan did to the #austrianfairphoners topics I am currently working on a plan to put similar structure into pinned posts, guides & wikis.
Once I have a working draft I’ll introduce it in a new topic.
But first I need to know what to work with and I think the current structure of categories simply doesn’t work for my plan
One thing I think we need for better structure would be to not have so many different places to go if you need help.
Currently we have:
I think we should have one help category with the sub-categories:
and then we would have a category for Operating Systems with sub categories for each, which would only include general posts on how to install, update/upgrade, use & modify the OS.
The hardware category could be dropped.
The Roadmap I think should either be expanded (with sub categories for blogs, (regular) AMAs, …) or integrated into Community (Roadmap = wishes & dreams of the community to the company and announcements of the company to the community).
The rest I’d leave as is (except the Dictionary needs fixing - too many broken tags).
PS: One downside I see with a help-super-category would be people posting there (instead of in a sub category) and not mentioning whether they have an FP1 or an FP2.
PPS: Oh and for my plan it would be ideal if we’d have an even number of categories in the end.
Iiuc that would reduce the number of categories quite drastically. Besides the effort of recategorizing my main question would be if a Help “super” category would still be helpful for filtering and searching. If 80% of all posts would then be in the “Help” category, that would IMHO render the categories useless.
Just my 2 ct.
Thank you for starting a discussion about this. 
Here is a (in my little head) well-thought-through alternative proposal:
| Super-Category | Sub-Category |
|---|---|
| Community |
|
| Technologies |
|
| Help (mostly individual requests) |
|
| Market |
|
| Meta |
Recommendations for MP3 player apps that display album art? (individual request, now software) → Help
Is SailfishOS ready for daily use? (individual request, now #software:alternative-oses) → Help > AltOSes
Microsoft "goes Open Source" (= acquired GitHub) (now #community) → Technologies
🇩🇪 🇬🇧 Aktuell | Austrian Fairphoners (now #community) → Community > Local
✏ List of Fairphone 2 Resellers + prices (now #community) → Technologies > Fairphone
Sailfish OS 2.1.4.14 alpha6 release (now #software:alternative-oses) → Community > Developing
✏ FP2 modem firmware (now #software:alternative-oses) → Community > Developing (or Help > Guides)
Edit: @paulakreuzer I gave some more reasoning above.
Edit2: @paulakreuzer And I saw my mistake with the Is SailfishOS ready for daily use? topic.
I also posted a follow-up description here:
Okay, I see there is a lot to discuss.
I don’t get this one.
Wouldn’t that be Technologies > App Tips in your proposal?
Why move this out of AltOSes?
I think this would make more sense in market.
This is a release ready for use and the topic is not about developing.
I’d like to see this from a forum visitor’s perspective:
So when I need help with my SailfishOS installation, I go to Help > AltOSes. When I want to find out about the various OSes that I can install on my Fairphone (this is before the trouble starts 
) I go to the Community > Developing category. I wouldn’t see this category as solely for software in development, but also for releases (is software ever finished?).
Yep, and I hope that others also take a bit of their time and give their thoughts, so that we can reach a better result together.
I’m with you up until here.
I just think it makes more sense to say:
I think it makes sense to keep topics where developers discuss the development in Developing and topics where users discuss the usage of the usable operating system in Operating Systems/Alternative OSes (whatever the name).
Be honest - you just want it to be an even number of categories! Joking aside, here is a proposal that takes into account your critque:
| Super-Category | Sub-Category |
|---|---|
| Community |
|
| Operating Systems |
|
| Industry Change (?) |
|
| Help (mostly individual requests) |
|
| Market |
|
| Meta | […] |
@paulakreuzer You said you didn’t understand my proposal for a category called “Technology”. My aim was to give the #community category a sharper profile. Thus I’d like to find a new home for these and similar topics because they do not directly concern the Fairphone community*:
At the moment they are just “parked” in #community because we put everything there that doesn’t fit somewhere else.
I’d like to make it more visible that the developers are also part of the Fairphone community. Thus my idea to move the sub-category to the #community category.
If we have Help categories for the OSes, we don’t need respective sub-categories in an Operating Systems category, IMHO. There aren’t so many general discussions per OS. Plus, unlike Help topics, in general the topics in the current #software category and its sub-categories are well-described in their title and it is clear which OS they are talking about.
Maybe we just have to define the #fairphone-road-map category a little bit broader to also allow for (smartphone/internet/electronics) industry related topics. Then we might not need a sub-category specifically for Fairphone. It wouldn’t hurt though, IMO.
PS.: Please also let’s not forget to revise the category slugs. They are inconsistent and also quite long in the present form: #fairphone-help vs. #fairphone2help etc.
* I see the #community category more like a “meta” category, where we discuss about the community, their work, their opinions etc.