Great initiative @JonRaymond
From personal experience of using other Discourse forums (and moderating them) what helped a lot is to make it as easy for others as possible and have clear guides for new users.
The implementations we are using on a DIY electric skateboard forum might not translate 1:1 to this hobby but can be reworked to fit.
1. A general thread for all kinds of questions.
These don’t have to be strictly bambu or 3D printing related. How do I do X, how do I find Y, does this look like YY? This also helps new accounts that can’t create new threads due to spam protection, and allows them to still have a place to ask a question that isn’t just the “welcome to the forum” thread.
Similar to my Public chat Thread which is more of conversations thread or a place to move to when it’s becoming off-topic on another thread.
2. A “Pictures and Nothing Else” Thread.
Here users can show off - whatever they want (as long as it follows the Bambus TOS and guidelines, of course), but as the name implies: No text allowed.
If users want to reply to a picture, they can use the “Reply to Pictures and nothing else” thread. This keeps the main image thread clean of any text, and users can talk in the reply thread. With tens of thousands of messages over the years, I can say that this has been a great success.
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3. Is a direct response to your projects idea.
We have a category named DIY Builds
These act as a sort of diary. Some write up their project after it is finished, others write it as they go along, which allows them to incorporate feedback from other users.
4. Wikis and references
We all know and love the Bambulab wiki, having a similar kind of wiki for this forum can make things a lot easier. With a good formatting system, having links or information for all kinds of things
Examples from the my DIY Forum.
All in one schematic diagrams (This needs some new formatting)
5. Pinning Threads.
Keep certain threads that help newcomers (and regulars) visible and easily accessible, such as wikis or the Questions thread (see #1).
You don’t like that this thread is pinned? Unpin it!
6. QOL changes
Reducing the minimum character limit would be a good example. Wanting to stop responses like “ok” might be noble, but unnecessarily lengthening them with words that add nothing makes it less effective.
Need to rewrite some stuff, that’s coming later.