Sub-Categories for Released User created drivers/app

Might I make a suggestion to the Administrators (@bobbyD), that a sub-category for each of the released user created driver/app. This would avoid having these very long threads that have to be parsed in order to see if you are asking a repeated question or problem.

Hope this helps (and can be done).
Alan

I agree that some threads can get unwieldy, but a sub-category for every driver and app sounds like a lot of work to keep updated.

Who would decide that a new sub-category should be created for a new driver/app? The developer? Hubitat staff? A committee of some sort :slight_smile:?

The number of sub-categories would be constantly expanding and I think that would also become very unwieldy.

Edit: have you used the forum search tool? It’s the magnifying glass icon at the top of the page. It’s far from perfect, but it can be toggled to search only the thread you’re currently viewing, which may help identify previous posts in a long thread that are relevant to a question/issue you have.

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Thank you for your feedback. I agree too, that popular topics can get lengthy, especially if they involve subsequent events related to the initial topic. I think a more manageable solution may be, to use "tags" rather than categories. Tags can be easily searched, and also, existing topics can easily be tagged by many of our active community members. Unfortunately, it is not possible to allow users to create new categories.

Here is an example of a tag for community created integration:

MyQ tag
https://community.hubitat.com/tag/myq

Here is the list of existing tags:
https://community.hubitat.com/tags

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@marktheknife Thanks for your comments. But are multiple sub-categories any worse than a thread with 3000+ replies? I agree on the management issue and decision, but that can be handled. And yes, I do you use the search extensivly, but alas it's only as perfect as the search.

@bobbyD Thanks for the comments. I would not allow users to make Categories, that would be a policy of the Administrators. And which get a thread? Direction can be set to do that (say when a "main" thread hits 100/500 replies? or when installed on x number of devices).

It was a suggestion and it has been made. And that's the end unless others comment.

Thanks for the hard work! I love the product and it's extensibility.

Thanks,
Alan

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Do we have a lot of these? Genuinely curious. I know the NR thread is pretty long and is at about 2700 posts. Haven't seen many others that long.

Edit:
Never mind - found the answer:

There are three threads that run over 2000 posts. The longest is the HubConnect thread which runs to 3.1K. NR is at 2.7K.

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Just want to throw out there that unless individual developers build a "phone home" into their apps/drivers (I don't know of any developers doing that FYI), no one, not even the HE team, knows how many devices that apps/drivers are on. It's the beauty of a local-only hub instead of a cloud-based one.

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Not that big, but I do get his point, even 500 posts is really hard to find answers in a thread. I also find that the forum's "search within thread" works a lot worse than just finding the overall thread. What it sounds to me the OP is looking for is something more like Reddit where people just create sub-reddits for popular sub topics. I just don't think forums are geared to that kind of thing. If I were to put together my list of what I consider "very popular" apps and drivers, I'm probably at like 50 which gets unwieldy.

If I can’t find the answer I’m looking for using the search function, I just add another response at the end of the relevant thread with a preamble of, “I apologize if this was asked before but I couldn’t find the answer”.

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Me too, but of course, then we make the thread even longer :grin:

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And simultaneously improve the chance of a search working :grinning:

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Long threads are unwieldy, and sometimes hard to find the relevant information. No denying that. They also make it so people have to ask the same question multiple times because they can't find the answer easily. Having hundreds if not thousands of sub categories will make things worse rather than better in my opinion.

What probably should happen is to close the old topic and create a new one (or split off the old one) once a topic gets to a certain length, or an app/driver is updated, or the discussion shifts focus in some way. There are some apps and drivers that have changed so much over time that they barely even resemble the original. For the most part, I think the developer and/or the thread starter should control this and not just do it randomly.

Tags will surely help if people add them or use them. Getting things into the correct category in the first place also will help.

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Ecobee Suite does a nice job of this. When there is a new "major" release, he closes out the thread and starts a new one.

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I agree that this would be the best solution, though hard to enforce since it would be up to each community dev.

I think any solution that requires active management by hubitat staff is unlikely to come to fruition.

They disclaim any responsibility or support for community-developed apps and drivers (which is understandable), so if they get into the business of creating sub-categories for some apps/drivers but not others, it could imply that those select few have been officially approved in some way, when in reality they haven’t.

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They have made that clear in the past. There just isn't enough staff to moderate more than what is here now.

:+1: I don't think they want to play sides.

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Thanks for all the comments.

"Cause and effect are two sides of one fact." quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Alan

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The reason I mentioned this, is that this is the 3rd time I've entered a comment on the "chain" and it has been not replied to. I have even tagged the developer, but alas, they are "missed" some how. I know everyone is busy, but its frustrating.

Oh, well, Guess I will bump the current post again.

Which community app/driver? I tried to figure it out using your posting history, but could not. In your HubConnect post, you tagged @spelcheck and not @csteele or @srwhite (who's currently away).

I'd help you @alan564923 but I'm not the developer on that project and have no experience with it. I'm thinking they might be thrown off because I was tagged? I would try again tagging the creator of whatever that release is. :v:

If it was my release though, though I see you tagged me a few times and look like you're in a hurry, I also wouldn't have been responding to any of those tags until now. Busy weekend!

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I don't know who can answer as it's spanning multiple Apps. From my experiment, HubConnect seems to be doing it's job, but it's hard to be conclusive about that, since "Follow Me" is just a bunch of letters to me. :smiley: I tagged @bptworld there too.

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That's the one. I have 3 posts in there that got lost. I didn't learn to tag the developer until recently (I know, I know). This could have been prevented if i could enter a new post that the developer would see automatically.

When I did tag the developer, as noted I tagged the wrong person due to the "Developer" tag. It would be nice if in your profile you noted your drivers/app (except Bryan since he would break the system).

Alan

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