How is this project coming along? We’ve been using tags since the beginning however I find that a third level would save me headaches and work for a specific use:
note: on our site categories are referred to as channels
Two channels serve the core purpose of the site and purposely do not have sub-channels but use tags extensively.
- the ER (questions)
- the lounge (discussions)
All other channels exist to fulfill a complementary function : feedback (site and community meta communication), announcements (historic and chronological repository of all outgoing communication), in the news (« Out there » news related to our purpose), Resources, Reviews, HVAC (a venting non moderated spot accessible only to subscribers which topics are not displayed), etc.
Really, these top channels could be tags but I want their topics segregated from the rest as they have specific functions that belong in separate « forum sections ». Unfortunately, because the top level is used to provide a « section title » for the group of related channels it contains, it is currently impossible to have sub-channel
Use case example:
In « Ressources » we have ‘books’, ‘training’, ‘sample files & code snippets’, ‘Apps (free offered as is to the community)’, Products &Apps for profit, 'Plugins’…
Plugins are such a big thing with the platform we use that it justifies its own channel. Especially to segregate them from the actual products that are produced using that platform.
Some plugins creators are actively marketing theirs and I wanted to avoid having a few different plugins threads lost in tons of « updates, announcements, releases etc » threads by those active promotors. So, I created the rule that there can only be one thread per plugin. Aside from the fact that people need to be constantly reminded, i end up having to constantly clean up that channel.
If I can create a sub-channel per plugin, I can let each developer/product promoter take care of their channel, have promos, updates announcement yet limit to one the number of threads displayed for that specific plugin channel.
So I am really looking forward to the ability to nest one more down!
The next super useful functionality would be to have « channel (category) » level moderators. Being able to give moderation rights to only specific channels would be awesome.
Currently my work around is to create a group named JohnDoe_curator, make John Doe owner of the group and, for the JDcollection channel, give creation rights to JohnDoe_curator group and reading and replying rights to Everyone.