Currently this forum is structured in a way that is entirely centric to the AIP process and isn’t conducive to other discussions. I believe this keeps the forum itself from becoming a vibrant place for discussion about AIP-related topics, workstreams that might be inspired by the work of the DAO, as well as for general community growth and camaraderie.
Note: as a bit of background, I’ve been and am currently the admin of other Discourse forums, so I have a deep familiarity with the ins-and-outs of the software.
The current structure of the Discourse is as follows:
General
Live AIP
Core: Ecosystem Fund Allocation
└── Core: Ecosystem Fund Allocation (Resubmission)
Core: Brand Decision
└── Core: Brand Decision (Resubmission)
Process
└── Process (Resubmission)
Informational
└── (Resubmission)
This structure is too flat, as well as doesn’t account for the possibility of many other channels that might benefit the DAO and its community. Additionally, it doesn’t account for Discourse subcategories as being an excellent way to broadly stay on top of activity within a certain idea space.
Therefore I propose the following restructure, as well as introduction of a couple new categories:
Note: I’m using subcategories to better organize
Start Here
└── Announcements
General
└── Events
AIP Ideas
AIP Drafts
└── Core: Ecosystem Fund Allocation
└── Core: Brand Decision
└── Process
└── Informational
Live AIPs
Help & Resources
└── FAQs
└── Get Help
└── Stay Safe
Restructuring what’s already here
First, I’m proposing that we rearrange from an entirely flat category layout to something that better utilizes the features of Discourse, and moves things into logical subcategories.
- AIP Ideas becomes its own category, which would have the 7 day topic auto-close timer built in
- This could also take advantage of the Discourse topic voting plugin to help the author and moderators gauge the value and interest of the idea
- AIP Drafts moves all of the AIP types under one home
- This is a huge help as it means that someone can navigate to the Drafts category and all topics within subcategories (AIP types) would aggregate together in one home, potentially improving engagement across the board
Changing the default landing page
By default Discourse is set to view the “Topics” view. Unfortunately this makes discovery of the various categories difficult. It also tends to focus the discussion only around the most recent posts at any given time, which is not conducive for a forum with a wide range of topics.
Therefore I propose that we switch to the “Categories and Latest Topics” setting by default. It would look like this:
And it’s set in the Discourse settings like this:
Adding helpful categories
The ApeCoin forum can become a living, de facto home for all things ApeCoin, that doesn’t require the apecoin.com website to change.
But getting there would require adding a couple new categories
Start Here
This would set up a handful of important topics that would help initiate a new forum participant into the DAO. This could be locked for replies to keep the content tight.
Posting would be restricted to forum mods only
Announcements
This would be a category for broad announcements to be made. The reason this is separated is because we could then take advantage of Discourse notification settings and auto-alert all forum participants on new announcements added.
Posting would be restricted to forum mods only
General
Events
This would be a spot to stay informed on all the different events (like live events, meetups, Twitter spaces) related to ApeCoin.
Help & Resources
This would be a broad category, mostly relying on its subcategories. Posting would be locked entirely at the top-level category and only allowed in subcategories.
FAQs
I mean, I guess this one is obvious
Get Help
This would be a place for apes to help other apes. I’d imagine that some apes might even set their notification preferences to “Tracking” or “Watch First Post” so that they might get alerted any time a new post goes live so they can jump right in and help.
Stay Safe
This would be the home for all things scams and general advice on security, etc. Many long-lived topics could be here, and it would be a logical place for people to become informed about the scary stuff that’s out there that might lead to losing our Apes!
Summary
Biggest thing here is that above all else I believe we should move the current AIP Draft topics into a logical grouping under one category called AIP Drafts.
As always, feedback is welcome and encouraged!