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Resolved Forum suggestion: Early Intel Macs forum — addition of model-specific topic prefixes [updates ongoing, unresolved]

B S Magnet

B S Magnet

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Dec 5, 2018
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23:58:30. Unceded Treaty 13 lands of N Turtle Isle
File this one under forum suggestion for the Early Intel Macs forum:

Now that more new users are becoming aware of the Early Intel Macs (EIM) forum (namely, as topics on pre-2013 Macs, posted originally on product model forums, are migrated to the EIM forum), there’s now an abundance of topic titles which don’t indicate what kind of Mac a topic’s question pertains. Part of this is the nature of moving older-model topics/questions away from a product-oriented forum over to a platform/product-era forum, and part of it is a limited awareness for writing a descriptive topic (not uncommon, especially for first-time posters looking for support/help from the community).

Folks have managed, over on the PowerPC Macs forum, to not need to develop model-specific topic prefixes beyond “Resolved” (for threads whose questions were answered/resolved). This may speak more to the fewer models in production when Apple made the switch to Intel, and/or perhaps questions tend to be centred on processor-based (i.e., G3, G4, G5) questions rather than model-based questions.

Question: For the EIM forum, might the moderators consider evaluating, in y’all’s own time, the benefits of adding (optional-use) topic prefixes for model-specific questions? In short, these would amount to topic prefix “tags” for the following models (possibly with two or three hues to distinguish between portables, desktops, and pro/enterprise):

  • iMac (or, as iM4,1–14,4) [update: deployed and now active]
  • Mac mini (or, as Mm1,1–6,2) [update: deployed and now active]
  • MacBook (or, as MB1,1–7,1) [update: deployed and now active]
  • MacBook Pro (or, as MBP1,1–10,2) [update: deployed and now active]
  • MacBook Air (or, as MBA1,1–6,2) [update: deployed and now active]
  • Mac Pro (or, as MacPro1,1-5,1) kept out (for now, even as new threads on EIM can be — and are — about these Mac Pros)
  • Xserve (or, as Xs1,1-3,1) [update: originally proposed with MP in orange; deployed as red]
Possible additional, colour-keyed Prefix label, for OpenCore Legacy Patcher-related questions might include:
  • OpenCore Legacy Patcher (as OCLP) (wherein text within the gold label is black, for easy legibility).

The uncoloured “Resolved” tag would, of course, still have its usual utility, as it comes in handy from time to time.

[Unannounced update, 2023.10.09: The moderators quietly made the inclusion of Prefix labels mandatory when creating a new post on the EIM forum, but as of this update, are yet to create a discrete, “General”-purpose Prefix label. Presently (and confusingly), “Resolved” is listed beneath a section called “General”.

[Proposal, 2023.10.10: add a “General” Prefix label, discrete from any other Prefix label. Leave it the default Prefix label hue. Additionally, modify the “Resolved” Prefix label to an implicitly inactive shade of grey:
  • General, or similar (wherein label is left in the default Prefix label hue — white on dark theme, dark on (default) light theme).
  • Resolved (for threads whose original question was answered and/or problem fixed to the original poster’s satisfaction; render label as a shade of grey to show its completed/resolved status and to distinguish these as troubleshooting threads which no longer demand priority attention on the EIM index page)

Thanks for reading and for evaluating this forum suggestion, whether up or down.


[2023.09.11 edit: changed the red-hued selections to orange, owing to the rejoinder reply I made earlier this day.]

[2023.09.18 edit: adding the possibility of a gold-hued Prefix title label — perhaps black text within a gold label — for OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) questions.
 
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B S Magnet said:
I don’t think the “[model] all models” options are really needed (and risks clutter), but this is definitely a step in the right direction. :) 👍
Click to expand...

I concur with the assessment that the options for "[model] all models" are overkill. The prefixes are a very welcome development nonetheless. :)
 
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B S Magnet said:
File this one under forum suggestion for the Early Intel Macs forum:

Now that more new users are becoming aware of the Early Intel Macs (EIM) forum (namely, as topics on pre-2013 Macs, posted originally on product model forums, are migrated to the EIM forum), there’s now an abundance of topic titles which don’t indicate what kind of Mac a topic’s question pertains. Part of this is the nature of moving older-model topics/questions away from a product-oriented forum over to a platform/product-era forum, and part of it is a limited awareness for writing a descriptive topic (not uncommon, especially for first-time posters looking for support/help from the community).

Folks have managed, over on the PowerPC Macs forum, to not need to develop model-specific topic prefixes beyond “Resolved” (for threads whose questions were answered/resolved). This may speak more to the fewer models in production when Apple made the switch to Intel, and/or perhaps questions tend to be centred on processor-based (i.e., G3, G4, G5) questions rather than model-based questions.

Question: For the EIM forum, might the moderators consider evaluating, in y’all’s own time, the benefits of adding (optional-use) topic prefixes for model-specific questions? In short, these would amount to topic prefix “tags” for the following models (possibly with two or three hues to distinguish between portables, desktops, and pro/enterprise):

  • iMac (or, as iMac4,1–14,4)
  • Mac mini (or, as Macmini1,1–6,2)
  • MacBook (or, as Macbook1,1–7,1)
  • MacBook Pro (or, as MacBookPro1,1–10,2)
  • MacBook Air (or, as MacBookAir1,1–6,2)
  • Mac Pro (or, as MacPro1,1–5,1)
  • Xserve (or, as Xserve1,1–3,1)

The “Resolved” tag would, of course, still have its usual utility, as it comes in handy from time to time.

Thanks for reading and for evaluating this forum suggestion, whether up or down.
Click to expand...

As a follow-up on this discussion for the mods:

Would y’all be amenable to amending the (still new) Early Intel Macs Prefix tags to hues based on class of Mac (similar to how Prefix tags are colour-keyed on a couple of other forums, such as Marketplace)?

1694445952491.png



In the above original post, I used a hue (green) to designate desktop models; a second hue (blue) to designate laptops; and a third hue (red) to designate enterprise/professional systems.

These don’t have to be the hues assigned for a labelling colour scheme, but using hues and/or hues most friendly to colour-blind users (i.e., using orange and not red, since red, especially in dark mode, can be hard to see for folks with deuteranopia, or “green colour-blindness”) ought to help everyone looking at the EIM forum topics page to distinguish questions/discussions which relate to a product series at quick glance.

This portion of the original request is optional and completely at the discretion of the mods, but in making the above request originally, this was something I had in mind at the time as part of the request.

Cheers!

postscript: The “Resolved” tag, as-is, is fine.
 
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Weaselboy said:
Which systems would this be, since Mac Pro's are not in the Early Intel Mac section? Did you mean Xserve?
Click to expand...

On the original post made back in July, Mac Pros were part of the designations I was organizing as an “enterprise/workstation” class.

The Mac Pro 1,1–5,1 models were omitted/removed by the moderators just after the Prefix tags were created, as a function of this announcement made back in early 2021 with the EIM forum was struck.

So this red or orange Prefix tag would leave just the Xserves to have a hue all their own, as EIM-era Mac Pros are (at least officially) excluded from the EIM Prefix tags.

Hope this isn’t too confusing.
 
Weaselboy said:
Which systems would this be, since Mac Pro's are not in the Early Intel Mac section? Did you mean Xserve?
Click to expand...

I’ve gone forward with the original post in this discussion thread and proposed an additional, colour-keyed Prefix label for questions relating specifically to OpenCore Legacy Patcher, as “OCLP” (and, by extension, the dosdude1 patches for older macOS builds though Catalina).

Suggesting this additional Prefix label might be beyond the remit of fulfilling the original, pending request, but it could, at least for the next few years, be useful to see at a glance — particularly, should some kind of Prefix tag colour scheme be adopted somewhat along the lines of the above three, proposed colour-keyed groupings of “desktops”, “laptops”, and “workstations”.


EDIT: Distantly related is my recent realization how a user can click the Prefix label found on a forum page to filter only those discussion threads which use that Prefix label. This is not only really nifty, but it would also add utility to the inclusion of colour for the Prefix labels.

For example, I clicked the “MBP” Prefix label to only show those topics:

1695085587819-png.2268331
 
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Weaselboy said:
This has been implemented.
Click to expand...

Thank you for doing this. It’s made a significant difference.

There is one little problem which needs to be fixed: since the last changes to the Prefix Label, it is not possible to start a new thread without having to select a prefix. For the occasional, general-scope threads which aren’t specifically related to a particular line of Early Intel Macs, this prevents one from posting a new topic for discussion.

For example:

1696745588646.png

1696745618133.png


The thread above is about OCLP and not limited to any particular Mac model (just as long as one, as the video in the pending post notes, is using a Penryn or later Mac of any variety; in the video, both a Penryn MBP and an Ivy Bridge MBA are used as quick demonstrations).

Selecting the bottom prefix option, “(no prefix)”, doesn’t make it possible to create a new post thread: the issue persists.

Could this be amended so that the “(no prefix)” option is available as a valid, permitted option when making a new post? Cheers.
 
We like to make prefixes mandatory, otherwise they tend not to get used. What if we added an "Other" prefix to cover the topics you mentioned?
 
Weaselboy said:
We like to make prefixes mandatory, otherwise they tend not to get used. What if we added an "Other" prefix to cover the topics you mentioned?
Click to expand...

EDIT to add: As it appears presently (you might still be working on it, I’m not sure), this is not going to work:


1696768329437.png



“General” and “Resolved“ need to be two, discrete prefix label options for this to work properly. Cheers.

EDIT to add: Until this gets fixed, I’m unable to submit the above screencapped post on ActionRetro, as a general scope post for Early Intel Macs does not meet the criteria for any of the available (and, now, mandatory) Prefix labels. Best recommendation is to make “General” and “Resolved” as two discrete Prefix labels — maybe with “Resolved” being coloured as a slightly darker grey. Additionally, a third prefix label (which may no longer be necessary), for OCLP-related posts, might be an option (see original post in this S&FF thread). Thank you for working with me on this, @Weaselboy . /squeaky_wheel
 
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