Enquiring minds want to know...

[Turtle91]

How many posts does it take to earn your own sub-forum??


Marvin is now well over 1000!!

[Jessica Lares]

Nearing 73,000 views too!

[forsooth]

how is subgroup on subject set up

?chromebook

Looking at the list of forum groups and subgroups I don't see any subgroup dedicated to a single eBook reading app. I'm sure if you counted up all the threads and posts for some other eBook reading apps some of them far exceed 1000 posts. So I doubt they will give Marvin its own subgroup.

Having said that, one thread with 1000+ posts is a nightmare to keep up with. Too bad they don't break it up into subtopics. I'm interested in Marvin when it comes out for the iPhone, but I gave up on that single thread idea way back when it was only a hundred posts or so. Especially since it was mostly one blow hard who managed to make almost half of the posts, and he isn't even connected to the app's development. Perhaps that has changed now, but it isn't worth the time and effort to read through 900 more posts to keep up with it.

[Turtle91]

You're right bout there not being a single forum for an individual ereader app, but there are individual forums for groups of readers by the same company, Kobo, Nook, Bookeen, Onyx, Pocketbook, Sony.

Marvin will shortly have an iphone version, and then shortly after that an android version...doesn't that equate??

Even if that doesn't "qualify" for it's own sub-forum under the "ebook readers" forum, it should qualify under "apple devices" (at least until the android comes out). Trying to read over 1100 posts to find the info you want takes forever...it would be really nice the be able to organize threads by topic...

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm interested in Marvin when it comes out for the iPhone, but I gave up on that single thread idea way back when it was only a hundred posts or so. Especially since it was mostly one blow hard who managed to make almost half of the posts, and he isn't even connected to the app's development.

Hmmm, care to specify? I've noticed no such anomalies here.

Originally Posted by Faterson

Hmmm, care to specify? I've noticed no such anomalies here.

I could but I would get another nasty PM from some over zealous MOD about yet another so-called infraction which we here in the USA merely call freedom of speech. So no, I'll not name names. Not that I should have to as it is fairly obvious who got post happy in that thread, at least early on.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I could but I would get another nasty PM from some over zealous MOD about yet another so-called infraction which we here in the USA merely call freedom of speech. So no, I'll not name names. Not that I should have to as it is fairly obvious who got post happy in that thread, at least early on.

...let me know when ever you get one of those nasty PMs and I'll give you some karma

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by jswinden

So no, I'll not name names. Not that I should have to as it is fairly obvious who got post happy in that thread, at least early on.

I for one have no idea whom you mean, and don't really care. I happened to register in this forum back in 2011, but only made my first post -- in the Marvin thread -- in December 2012, because previously I had been just too apathetic and depressed about the lack of quality e-reader software in iOS, to bother with contributing here. Depressed especially by Stanza's death at the hands of Amazon. Then, miraculously, Marvin appeared out of the blue -- and it's better than Stanza ever was.

Although I'm a huge Marvin fan, I believe dedicating an entire forum section here to Marvin would be over-the-top. I'm fine with the single thread -- although as soon as Marvin for iPhone appears (in the summer), the thread should be renamed to (for example) Marvin ePub reader for iOS.

Much as I love Marvin, it's not (yet) an all-purpose e-reading solution for iOS at this point. In order to be that, Marvin would need to offer at least 2 more extremely advanced features:

• reading DRM-protected books (including those purchased from Amazon or Apple, etc., or borrowed from electronic libraries)
• reading and annotating PDF files -- at least on the level of quality in GoodReader, which is an extremely high level. Much as I hate PDF files and avoid them whenever I can, many books (especially scanned/photographed old editions) are only available as PDF files, no EPUB files, and conversion is impracticable. This means that, on a daily basis, my reading is split about 50/50 between Marvin and GoodReader. Whenever I can, I escape from GoodReader to Marvin -- but it often isn't possible, unfortunately.

At the same time, there is still a huge amount of work ahead of Kris in order to fully develop and polish Marvin's current EPUB functionality -- so that it would be unwise trying to support DRM or PDF, before everything related to EPUB works as smoothly in Marvin as can possibly be achieved.

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm interested in Marvin when it comes out for the iPhone, but I gave up on that single thread idea way back when it was only a hundred posts or so.

Can't you just create a new thread for keeping track of the iPhone version? I'm sure if you brought it to Kris's attention, that he would be willing to post an update there when it is nearing completion. Then other people interested in Marvin for iPhone can subscribe to the thread. 👍

And, I may be mistaken, but I don't think Kris ever said Marvin for Android was a sure thing. But I have seen it talked about here as if it was (not necessarily by you, jswinden).

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by MeSue

And, I may be mistaken, but I don't think Kris ever said Marvin for Android was a sure thing. But I have seen it talked about here as if it was (not necessarily by you, jswinden).

We are just keeping Kris from getting bored!!

But there was some discussion back on page 452, or was it 912...or maybe 63?? about an android and a windows version. It sure would be nice to have a thread for "future Marvin versions" so we could easily find the discussion...but that would need a sub-forum. I guess we won't get one because Faterson is happy with a single 1200+ post thread??

[FlorenceArt]

Why don't you guys just create new threads with [Marvin] in the title, if you need new ones?

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Why don't you guys just create new threads with [Marvin] in the title, if you need new ones?

That same question would then apply to ALL posts in the entire MR forum...

The answer is organization and ease of finding info. If I want to find out everything I can about Sigil for instance, I go to the Sigil sub-forum and then peruse all the thread topics. Some of those topics I would never have found if I didn't know what to look for (or search for).

If I am trying to find out info on Marvin, I don't want to wade through a bazillion posts on how amazon is buying the world and leasing it back; or how to properly use a semi-colon; or how to center an image in an ePub; or how to easily and automatically convert a PDF to ePub; or how apple doesn't want to allow proper use of expanded memory because it would hurt sales, etc.

Seriously though, how hard is it to add a sub-forum? From a forum maintainer's perspective the actual task of adding another line in the list of sub-forums has to be trivial...so it has to come down to "does the topic meet some minimum requirements" to be added. I'm wondering what those requirements are, because it seems that there would be enough interest in Marvin to warrant one.

Does anyone know the answer? Is there even a defined set of requirements? Or is it just when/if a moderator decides it's worth the effort?

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

...let me know when ever you get one of those nasty PMs and I'll give you some karma

fomenter you are!

[Jessica Lares]

I am going to make an index of all the questions, answers, and whether they've been implemented for a future update, or are on the roadmap. I'll attach it to my original post when it's done. If anyone wants to help, I'm thinking about giving different people like 10 pages each to read through just to speed things up.