RobotShop + Lynxmotion Forum Merge

RobotShop acquired Lynxmotion back in mid-2012 and we are committed to developing the brand as well as the community. The Lynxmotion forum is considered one of the top robotic forums where enthusiasts can meet, discuss their projects and ideas, as well ask questions. There are a number members who have given a significant amount of their time and energy to building up this brand, and for this we are incredibly grateful.

In the spirit of creating an even larger robotics community where people can discuss not only Lynxmotion products but also products which RobotShop sells, we would like to get your feedback about potentially merging the RobotShop forum and the Lynxmotion Forum into one. This potential merger would also allow us to implement some new features which would encourage participation and reward active members.

We look forward to your feedback.

www.robotshop.com/forum/
www.lynxmotion.net

To address some of the questions which have already been raised:

]The merge would retain all users from both forums (and corresponding information). No need to create a new account. /:m]
]We would retain all posts /:m]
]We would retain user seniority of the Lynxmotion Forum and do our best to retain it from the RobotShop Forum. /:m]
]The Lynxmotion website would not be touched /:m]
]We would likely use phpBB /:m]

Some potential new features:

]The new forum would use the same header and footer as the other RobotShop sites (e-commerce, blog). /:m]
]Implement surveys /:m]
]Photo of the month /:m]
]Point system? /:m]

Potential Forum structure:

1. Help and Technical Support (This would be for more public Q&A)
   [INDENT]
   a) Robot Parts
   i. Communication & Control
   ii. Electronics & Components
   iii. LCD, Display & Lighting
   iv. Mechanics
   v. Microcontrollers & Accessories
   vi. Motors, Actuators & Controllers
   vii. Power Systems
   viii. Robot Sensors
   ix. UAV & Drone Parts

b) Robots and Kits
i. Robot Construction Kits & Parts
ii. Robotic Arms & Grippers
iii. Humanoid & Biped Robots
iv. Hexapod Robots
v. Quadruped Robots
vi. UAVs & Drones
vii. Wheeled & Tracked Robots
viii. Electronic Experimentation
ix. Alternative Energy & Beam

c) Schools, Teachers & Education
d) Tools & Equipment
e) Domestic Robots
f) Robot Toys
g) Professional and Service Robots

[/INDENT]

2. Lynxmotion (A place to discuss mostly Lynxmotion products and related)
   [INDENT]
   ** a) Robots**
   i. Arms
   ii. Bipeds
   iii. Multi-Leg
   iv. Robonova-1
   v. Rovers
   vi. Servo Erector Set
   vii. Sumo
   viii. Tracked Vehicles
   ix. Scale Robots
   x. UAVs / Drones

** b) Electronics**
i. Servos
ii. SSC-32
iii. BotBoarduino
iv. Bot Propeller
v. ARC-32
vi. Bot Board
vii. Wireless Communication
viii. Remote Control
ix. Playstation 2 Controller
x. General Electronics

c) Software
i. RIOS
ii. SEQ
iii. LynxTerm
iv. FlowStone
v. Linux
vi. Mac
vii. Microsoft Robotics Studio
viii. RoboRealm
ix. General Programming
[/INDENT]

3. Projects and Design (more general robot discussion, like if you were working on a custom robot)
   [INDENT]
   a) General Discussion
   b) Robot Project Showcase
   c) FlowBotics Studio
   d) MyRobots.com
   e) Education / Learning
   f) Microcontrollers and Programming
   g) Communication and Control
   h) Electronics and Electrical
   i) Mechanical Design and CAD
   [/INDENT]

4. News and Guidelines (Company news, forum guidelines etc)

I think there are too many categories and that makes it somewhat difficult to figure out under what category a given post might belong to. Per example, DFRobotShop Rover is a tracked robot. So Should I post in Rover or tracked category. If that is not important then such a structure is irrelevant. From a user perspective this is not convenient.

Combining two forums is a great opportunity to make a major clean up, not just copy and paste the categories of one forum into another. You are dealing with legacy information, consider making it archive only.

I don’t see the benefit of having one section called Robots and one called Robots and Kits. Each section contains too much redundancy (Arms in Robots and Robotic Arms and grippers in Robots and Kits section).

I would consider getting rid of unpopular categories. Scale robots is an example.

I would consider main categories such as the following. Some of those could be broken down further.
–News and Events
–Robots and Kits
–Robots construction and design principles
–Hardware
–Software
–Commercial and Institutional support

Yes I understand although I was not really looking for an answer. Maybe my example was not adequate. The point I was making is that is raises confusion. I think you understand what I mean. Not only it creates confusion when drafting a post, but also for people interested in searching/browsing a given topic or problem.

I think I would avoid any category that deal with a specific brand or model. As the company grows, it may force you to create new categories and when a product becomes obsolete then you may endup with a dead category. That’s why my little barebone example I was using is “brandless”. If there exist such a requirement, then I would implement it directly in the catalogue. I product, one commen area. Many others do it. A good non commercial example is the PHP manual. When a product/function gets obsolete and removed, so are the comments. I think at this stage, user points and history is irrelevant.

Mario

Definitely appreciate the feedback - keep it coming!.

In this case, the “Rovers” category (2av) would ideally be for Lynxmotion rovers only. Since the DFRobotShop Rover is not a Lynxmotion product, the post would go under (1bi).

Agreed. To make the transition smoother and easier, we figured we would merge the two and leave as much of the Lynxmotion structure untouched. At a later date, we would do a bit of a cleanup.

The general idea is that section (2) is for Lynxmotion specific products. Would it be better to merge them with the other robot kits?

Agreed - archiving them or merging them with other categories maybe best.