Resolved ℹ️ Newish feature for EIM forum: title Prefix labels for (most) Intel Mac models

[B S Magnet]

Some of the regulars have probably taken notice of this already. This post is for everyone, though.

Several weeks ago, I made a site/forum feedback request to add thread Prefix labels for each major Macs line covered by Early Intel Macs.

In addition to the original “Resolved” label, we now have labels for most of major EIM Mac lines. They’re labelled as:

• iMacs: iM 4,1–14,4
• Mac minis: Mm 1,1–6,2
• MacBooks: MB 1,1–7,1
• MacBook Pros: MBP 1,1–10,2
• MacBook Airs: MBA 1,1–6,2
• Xserves: Xs 1,1–3,1

A few people have started using these Prefix tags. This is fantastic, but they’re probably not yet known widely (as I don’t think I posted about this on here previously). A really useful feature of Prefix labels — something I did not know until recently — is one can click on these labels to filter all threads in the forum index which share that Prefix label. Here’s an example of clicking on the “MBP” Prefix label:

I’ve asked the moderators for the possibility of adding in hues for Prefix labels based on type of Mac (i.e., desktop, laptop, and workstation/enterprise). This would make them more readily identifiable at a glance. At this time, Prefix tags share the same non-hue as “Resolved”.

I’ve not suggested the above three be the hues for Prefix labels, but three discrete hues, discerned by both trichromats (people without colour blindness) and dichromats (i.e., most people with colour blindness) would be best.

To give an idea of how that might look, Marketplace-related forums use a colour-contextual Prefix label system:

You’ll see above (and with existing EIM Prefix labels) how Early Intel Mac Pros (namely, Power Mac G5 “cheese grater”-form factor models, MacPro1,1–5,1, 2006–2012) lack a Prefix label — not yet, at least.

That’s something which, for now, isn’t included as a EIM Prefix label (for peculiar grandfathering reasons, despite the guts of Mac Pros and their contemporaries in the Xserve line being, functionally, identical). Nevertheless, we welcome discussion of these “classic” Mac Pros as bona fide Early Intel Macs, and those Mac Pros most certainly have always had a cosy, welcoming home here.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT to add: I’ve amended the Site & Forum Feedback request with the possibility of considering a fourth Prefix label hue for any topics relating, explicitly and specifically, to the OpenCore Legacy Patcher (and, by extension, the dosdude1 patches for macOS through Catalina). This hue, if adopted as a Prefix label, might be labelled something like “OCLP”. I’ve also added a poll here to get a better idea how EIM forum users feel about the inclusion of hues to distinguish classes of posts — not unlike on other forums (e.g., the Marketplace).

 

[ToniCH]

Ok, great - but...

I think the mid point in Intel Mac production was mid 2014.

In above tags:
- iMacs go to iMac 14,4 ie. mid 2014
- but MBP's only go to 10,2 ie. late 2012?
- why not MBP 11,3 ie. mid 2014 too?

Care to explain the reasoning?

Ps. I didn't look at others so don't know if they a logical.

 

[B S Magnet]

Ok, great - but...

I think the mid point in Intel Mac production was mid 2014.

In above tags:
- iMacs go to iMac 14,4 ie. mid 2014
- but MBP's only go to 10,2 ie. late 2012?
- why not MBP 11,3 ie. mid 2014 too?

Care to explain the reasoning?

Ps. I didn't look at others so don't know if they a logical.

There’s already a discussion about this in progress on another thread.

Cheers.

 

[B S Magnet]

Some of the regulars have probably taken notice of this already. This post is for everyone, though.

Several weeks ago, I made a site/forum feedback request to add thread Prefix tags for each major Macs line covered by Early Intel Macs.

In addition to the original “Resolved” tag, we now have tags for most of the major EIM Mac lines. They’re labelled as:

• iMacs: iM 4,1–14,4
• Mac minis: Mm 1,1–6,2
• MacBooks: MB 1,1–7,1
• MacBook Pros: MBP 1,1–10,2
• MacBook Airs: MBA 1,1–6,2
• Xserves: Xs 1,1–3,1

A few people have started to make use of these Prefix tags, which is fantastic, but they’re probably not yet widely known (since I don’t think I posted about this previously). Also, at this time, the Prefix tags are all the same hue, but I have asked for the possibility of making the tags hued based on type of Mac (desktop, laptop, and workstation/enterprise). This would help make them more easily identifiable at a glance. I’ve not suggested the above be the hues for Prefix tags, but three discrete hues which can be seen by both trichromats (people without colour blindness) and dichromats (i.e., people with colour blindness) would be the best.

You’ll see above (and in the existing EIM Prefix tags) how Early Intel Mac Pros (namely, the Power Mac G5 “cheese grater” form factor models, MacPro1,1–5,1, 2006–2012) aren’t given a Prefix tag — not yet, at least.

That’s something which, at this time, isn’t being included as a EIM Prefix tag (for peculiar grandfathering reasons, despite the guts of Mac Pros and their contemporaries in the Xserve line are, functionally, nearly identical). Nevertheless, we welcome discussion of these “classic” Mac Pros as bona fide Early Intel Macs, and those Mac Pros most certainly have always had a cosy, welcoming home here.

Thanks for reading!

On the linked site suggestion thread, I’ve also proposed a tentative, additional Prefix label for OpenCore Legacy Patcher topics, as “OCLP”. If it were to be added, the Prefix label could be assigned a hue such as gold (probably with the letters “OCLP” being in black text for legibility).

On the topic of Prefix labels, are things I did not know until tonight:

if one is on the forum topics page and clicks on a Prefix label, the page refreshes with all forum topics which use that particular Prefix label. For example:

 

[B S Magnet]

On the linked site suggestion thread, I’ve also proposed a tentative, additional Prefix label for OpenCore Legacy Patcher topics, as “OCLP”. If it were to be added, the Prefix label could be assigned a hue such as gold (probably with the letters “OCLP” being in black text for legibility).

On the topic of Prefix labels, are things I did not know until tonight:

if one is on the forum topics page and clicks on a Prefix label, the page refreshes with all forum topics which use that particular Prefix label. For example:

View attachment 2268331

Updates:

• Many of you by now have noted how the EIM index page is a lot more colourful. The moderators were OK with adding this feature to help to streamline product-line-specific discussions.
  
  [I suppose the same feature could, at one time, probably have been applied to the PowerPC Macs forum. Owing to a) how fewer Macs were in circulation at their peak (with those using them being fairly seasoned Mac users with a sense of the back-end quirks which made Apple products their own thing); and b) Apple hadn’t started dropping in product-specific firmware lockdowns and/or hardware-related tweaks with a proprietary zeal until the Intel era Macs were settled into place, this kind of a labelling scheme — for Power Macs, Cubes/Mac minis, iMacs, iBooks, Xserve G*s, and PowerBooks — was probably never necessary. So there’s that.]
• BUT — and this is where y’all come in — the changes to the Prefix labelling system came with an un-requested, unannounced requirement that all new EIM threads must adhere to and use a Prefix label when making a new post. This is generally not a bad idea. The trouble, of course, is there’s no way at this time to make a post on EIM about Intel Macs in general (such as discussing OS X/macOS, OCLP, hardware upgrades which work across all models, general scope WikiPosts, and so on).
  
  I’m being a squeaky wheel about this on the original request thread, on the Site & Forum Feedback forum, because I discovered this unannounced implementation of making Prefix labels mandatory whilst trying to post on an ActionRetro video and discovered I couldn’t make the post (and it remains a post which is still queued, but not posted).
  
  At this time, “Resolved” is the only non-product-specific label option available (and filed under a section called “General”), but it falls well short of being able to make general scope posts. So at this time, there’s no Prefix label for general topics or Early Intel Macs-wide discussions. I’ve asked the mods to make additional adjustments to make this possible on the above-linked S&FF thread.
  
  Your input on these tweaks is very welcomed.
  
  Until this gets resolved, however, this forum is in a sort of slightly hobbled state, even if it doesn’t seem to be at cursory glance. I apologize to everyone for being the catalyst behind this (interim) mucking up of making the EIM forum a more readable, more accessible, and easier to use place as more MR forum folks come here to rely on this community for technical support and modification/upcycling discussions. Hopefully this all gets resolved shortly, as the original idea is, almost, in place.

So that’s about it for now. Cheers all.

 

[B S Magnet]

UPDATE!

We now have the Prefix label thing sorted out and it is once more possible to post new topics which aren’t specific to a particular Early Intel Macs model:

Zoom in…

I think this ought to be one of the last adjustments we’ll need to make for some time to come.

Thanks, mods.