This will probably bring some strongly opposed opinions but eventually it will have to be discussed. And I know it’s still early but I think starting this way could prevent the discussion from being spread over many threads, one for each category, so I hope this one will serve as the main place to discuss it so we gather more people and can take decisions in a more democratic way. That said, let’s begin :
The blenderartists categories have been unchanged for a long time, while Blender, its surrounding tools and its community keeps evolving, so I think at some point, when the time is right (i.e after the 2.8 release), the categories will need some refreshment.
I don’t know the consequences of removing or merging categories nor how much work would be needed to avoid wreaking havoc in the website while doing so, but if it’s doable, I hope the admins are open to this idea and that we can discuss and vote on decisions.
I’m far from being the most active user so I know I can’t be right on everything but here’s my personal viewpoint so far :
Artwork:
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Forum Gallery: The upcoming Discourse Gallery plugin may make this category outdated. We’ll see how it goes but if it does, maybe we can make some room and ditch that one.
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Focused critiques and Works in progress: Merge them. To me they mostly split the same thing in half. If you post a WIP, it’s because you want critiques and, on the other hand, if you post for critiques, it’s because you’re not finished with your project. Now, those categories claim to separate serious work vs … I don’t know… not serious? But just looking at the threads they really seem to do the same. And after all, if you post your WIP for feedback, doesn’t it imply that you want to improve it and therefore that this is serious for you ?
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Sketchbooks: I wonder if the upcoming Gallery plugin will allow us to make our own portfolio but if it does, I think after some time we can ditch that category too.
Coding:
- Released Scripts and Themes: rename it to “Add-ons, Scripts and Themes”. There are too many add-ons in there to ignore it in the title. And “Released” is not really needed in my opinion, since its obvious enough that unfinished scripts should be discussed in support categories instead.
Game Engine:
After the 2.8 release, this category will eventually become a deserted town, so when that time comes, we could remove it from the home page.
Support:
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Lighting and Rendering: I would separate those 2 because Rendering is more technical and lighting is more artistic. However I would rename “Lighting” to “Lighting & Framing” (because those two disciplines are very intertwined)
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Materials and Textures: Material equals Shading, and Shading equals Render engine, so material support belongs in Render engine categories. I would rename this one to just “Texturing” (plus it would be more consistent with the category right above it: Modeling)
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Blender Artists Website Support: this name is a little confusing. Either use “blenderartists” in lowercase and without a space in-between or simply name the category “Meta”.
Misc:
There’s only one subcategory there and it’s lost at the very bottom, this doesn’t seem right to me. I would put the “Off-topic Chat” category in General Forums and ditch Misc, since whatever you would write in Misc-only would definitely fit either in “Off-topic Chat”, “Blender and CG Discussions” or any existing category.
There you go, now tell me what you think and please be as specific as possible.