Before we initially launch this forum, we want to select a good set of top level categories. We are trying to strike a balance between having a useful differentiation between posts without having too many categories. There is also a tagging system which can be used both within and across categories, so that is a way to make finer distinctions within a category. Over time we can always add more categories as needed. Based on preliminary discussions and posts already on this forum, here is my opinion for an initial category list:
- Announcements: A place we will make announcements about NetLogo
- Programming/Modeling Q&A: A place for people to get help on NetLogo programming/agent-based modeling. There will be tags to specify further such as “model design help”, “NetLogo code help”, “Python integration”, etc.
- Educators: A place for people to discuss educational uses of NetLogo in school, university, and other settings
- Share & showcase: a place for people to showcase their models, integrations, or other things they’ve found and discuss
- Feature Requests: A place for people to request and discuss new NetLogo features
- Bug Reports: A place for people to report bugs they find with NetLogo
- Miscellaneous: a place to post anything that doesn’t fit one of the other categories
Please reply with any categories you think should be added or removed and why.
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I mostly agree with Jacob’s categories but here on some thoughts.
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I agree we should have a separate specific place for educators.
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I don’t think we should have a separate specific place for research/professional users because educators are going to need the same kinds of information.
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I would try to separate programming help from modeling help, even if overlap and miscategorization are likely. They are two very different issues. Perhaps “NetLogo user support” and “How to model it” or “Model design”.
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For user support, I could see having separate tags for each extension
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We should have a category for resources like learning materials, books, training opportunities, etc.
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Share and showcase should include letting people post their research papers.
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Do we want this forum to also host user extensions? If so, we need a place for them and to make it clear that they should be here.
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I just reordered existing categories so that feature requests will be displayed on the left and show up front.
My main intuition is we should consolidate (at least at the beginning). Once a category has too many posts and people start to complain about multiple purposes in the same place, we start to separate them (based on the feedback). So I am not proposing anything new, just waiting for the full list and see where we can merge.
That said, we should still have a category called “Meta” or whatever where we discuss things about the forum itself.
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I don’t see Feature Requests on the side bar of categories…
Really? Maybe try to refresh?
When I click on “all categories” I see it second, but my side bar looks like this:
Fixed. So basically you can personally customize this for your own sake but there is a global setting in admin.
BTW, should we show the categories by default? Maybe this will make @SteveRailsback happier? i.e. Categories - NetLogo Forum
That could be interesting to also create a part for “extension development”. There are lot of extension developped and we need a location to push specific question about this type of Scala development.
This could be another way to exchang with core dev on some points without using github issue.
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I agree. This is a good idea to have a category for people to discuss developing extensions.
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Sure! A side note: we have a plan to make it possible to do NetLogo extensions via NetLogo. So the category, if we create it, won’t be solely about Scala 
Is the General Q&A category currently serving for both modeling and programming help?
Yes, for now it is. Do you also think we want to split it into two categories?
I think so yes.
Modeling Q&A and Programming Q&A should be separate and focussed categories in their own rights. General Q&A could remain.
Hmmmm. Maybe we should make those sub-categories of Q&A? Do you think that’s a good idea?
I agree with you. I think as long as users can clearly demarcate, and find the right place to post their questions, we should be fine.
A place for any and every kind of queries under General Q&A and sub categorizations in the form of Modeling Q&A and Programming Q&A.
It seems to me that this kind of categorization should fine for now, but other members may have better suggestions.
2 subcategories are now available. @jzkelter @SteveRailsback
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