BeBook dedicated device forum

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Having seen the commonality of the Hanlin V3 devices, I got used to the convenience of having all the devices in a single forum. And what should happen? Suddenly there is a dedicated Astrak EZReader forum, which if I'm not mistaken is another set of Hanlin clones.

There is no perfect forum layout, but I agree with you that having EZ Reader separate from Hanlin is not the best approach. There seems to be a trend away from sub-forums, but having BeBook and EZ Reader sub-forums under Hanlin makes more sense to me. The other approach that might work is tags (prefixes), again under a Hanlin Forum. This is used currently in the Sony Portable Reader (New Forum).

[JSWolf]

Since we have the new Sony forums setup with prefixes, why not have a V3/V5 forum with prefixes for all the different clones? That would make this that much easier.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

There is no perfect forum layout, but I agree with you that having EZ Reader separate from Hanlin is not the best approach. There seems to be a trend away from sub-forums, but having BeBook and EZ Reader sub-forums under Hanlin makes more sense to me. The other approach that might work is tags (prefixes), again under a Hanlin Forum. This is used currently in the Sony Portable Reader (New Forum).

Alex and the moderators discussed that quite a bit. Alex decided to go with the seperate forums because he felt that most people looking to discus their device will not know that they have an OEM Jinke device and won't realize that is the forum they are looking for.

BOb

[Hellmark]

And as far as changes go to the sony ones, well, that was just renaming the 700 forum to also include 300 and 600.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Alex and the moderators discussed that quite a bit. Alex decided to go with the seperate forums because he felt that most people looking to discus their device will not know that they have an OEM Jinke device and won't realize that is the forum they are looking for.

BOb

Are you serious? So what's that mean - bad luck to all the other Hanlin users (BeBook, LBook, etc.) who just have to figure it out themselves?

Come on, this was a bad decision and should just be admitted. There is much more benefit to having all Hanlin users under one forum. Or at least separating by actual device (V3, V5, etc.). But dividing the forums so that V3 and V5 clones are grouped by distributor is a little stupid.

As was pointed out to me when requesting a BeBook forum, it is the same hardware with interchangeable firmware. And I agree - there is much more benefit to a common forum. I have found many good ideas from users of other distributor devices. I now run my BeBook with LBook firmware, and it's great!

As Astak is aimed at the US, I would suggest any user has made a conscious decision to boycott the big names like Kindle and Sony, so they know exactly what they are getting - a Hanlin clone. That's probably why they chose it - after reading forums like these.

Anyway, too late for all that now. Much ado about nothing. A bad call, inconsistent reasoning, and very disappointing.

P.S. Maybe one day you will change that catchy and wholly erroneous tag-line on the Hanlin forum - you know the one: "Chinese counterpart to the Sony Reader." Maybe you could use that area for something informative - like making a clear and concise connection between the Astak and Hanlin forums. That way those poor confused souls, who don't realise they have a Hanlin clone, will find their way with ease.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Anyway, too late for all that now. Much ado about nothing. A bad call, inconsistent reasoning, and very disappointing.

Just remember this is your opinion and I respect it. But, there is no right or wrong way to organize the forum.

BOb

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Just remember this is your opinion and I respect it. But, there is no right or wrong way to organize the forum.

BOb

I agree, and I apologise for sounding too aggressive, but I was somewhat annoyed. An unenviable job to make decisions on the organisation of the forum, as you can never please all of the people all of the time.

I was just more annoyed than usual because of the apparent inconsistency of this decision - which is exactly the same as my request for a BeBook forum which was denied earlier in 2009. And the reasons for the denial were sound, and I was actually grateful for the decision as it made it easier to keep track of all the Hanlin V3 related info.

This decision seems to be a reversal of that policy, for no clear reason or benefit. I have already seen some posts by (I'm guessing) Astak newbies who have just realised that the Hanlin and Astak hardwares are the same, and they can often find help in the Hanlin forums too. So separating out an Astak dedicated device forum seems to be a decision that detracts from the ease of finding closely related information on this site.

The decision to create a somewhat redundant Astak forum when it could be handled under the Hanlin forum, whilst ostensibly ignoring other devices (most notably the Cool-ER info seems "homeless") exacerbates the frustration level a little. It seems to be a bit of a gap in the forum organisation that I hope can be addressed as soon as possible.

Thanks for your understanding.

Perhaps one short-term solution to the Hanlin vs Astak forum issue could be to place a sticky in each forum, clearly pointing to the other forum aas another resource for finding Hanlin device info, to try to make it easier for new and less device literate members and viewers to find help for their devices?

[AlfonsVH]

I think this topic needs another thinking through since BeBook will release their Neo soon, which is a rebranded Onyx device rather than a Hanlin.

So, keeping that in mind, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a separate BeBook forum?