A bigger Mac-only forum?
 

I've bounced around several Mac forums over the years but I haven't come accross anything major. I'm thinking of a Mac forum as large as thecarlounge.net. I love this forum, but posts often go unsoloved/answered or only have maybe 200 views.

So, where does everyone else here post?

Some posts don't get any response because they didn't explain what their problem was well enough. Others are asking about something incredibly obscure - something that probably only a few dozen people in the world know or care about.

And then other posts are asking about something that has been asked (and answered) several times before - and people are tired of putting forth effort to answer those who don't seem to have put much effort into searching for answers.

And then,unfortunately, there are posts asking about problems that are difficult - either intrinsically difficult, or just difficult to solve from a distance. Networking problems often fall into this category. There are so many variables in networking that figuring out what is going wrong is sometimes difficult even for an on-site expert.

As far as I can tell, this is the only Mac forum that is big enough/worth my time to check back and visit every day.

Quality over quantity. Would you rather have 50,000 sub-par posters all talking in circles or posters like hayne, NovaScotian, yellow, Photek, Craig R. Arko, et al?

Suddenly, I miss mervTormel around these parts . . .

Thanks Mikey ... love you too :)

Ack, sorry, dunno how that got there. I'll edit it out.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Actually, the two biggest "Mac Only" forums(in this or that way) i have found are: http://forum.insanelymac.com/
http://forum.onmac.net/
They helped me to solve a few problems))

Forums statistics, available at the bottom of each forum's main page:

Mac OS X Hints
Threads: 62,148; Posts: 342,744; Members: 50,121

Insanely Mac
Threads: unknown; Posts: 271,807; Members: 63,525

OnMac
Threads: 1,761; Posts: 10,408; Members: 6,047

That’s why I love this Forum, too. There is true substance here. And it’s a thriving, caring community.

By and large, members think before they post, and they do so respectfully.
If they don’t have anything to say, they usually have the courtesy to shut up -- or go elsewhere. (There’s a heckuva lotta other forums filled with chatter and static!)

And Hayne just gave you a pretty complete answer on response/non-response.

MacOSX.com
Threads: 75,797; Posts: 486,799; Members: 87,383

Non-Mac-specific measuring stick:

forums.somethingawful.com
Threads: 1,899,312; Posts: 47,436,363; Members:89,604

http://forums.macrumors.com is by far the largest one that I'm involved in. However, I must say the technical help one gets here is vastly superior than those aviliable at MR. There are simply more people who know less there.

Stats:

Threads: 261,716, Posts: 3,191,460, Members: 95,160

Thanks everyone! Again, I'm a huge fan of this forum and I'm not calling out the community's ability to troubleshoot...just looking for more distractions at work I guess.

As far as online communities go, MR is a good one.

I agree. I have learned so much over this past half year. Thanks to all. Sort of an aside as I look at Mikey-San's list: has anyone heard anything from voldenuit since late summer?

That's about it! (I know, I'm breaking that rule right now:p.
This is hands-down the site I go to for troubleshooting, and usually find that someone else already asked the same question. Usually an answer is here too.
I lack the patience usually needed to read long, off-topic rants at most sites , some which frequentkly turn quite hate- and distasteful; but I actually once in a while indulge in the coat room here.
So thanks guys & gals for your contributions!

I agree.

Another very useful, though underpopulated forum:
http://www.insidemacgames.com/forum/

"Our members have made a total of 150,945 posts
We have 7,462 registered members…
Most users ever online was 234 on December 12th 2006, 02:34 AM"

I think it's interesting that this (macosxhints) forum only comes to life during normal business hours in the US and UK. Doesn't anyone here actually… work… at work?

Well, at school (One more year, oh god, one more year), I have a policy of never asking for extra work, so I browse forums whilst waiting for the boss to notice I'm done doing whatever/give me another assignment.

Also, I use this forum to help out with computer quirks, as long as I'm doing something productive in electronics, he could care less what I do on the net.

Just as a mini update to this thread: I found out one of my favorite Mac news sites has a thriving forum: macnn.com

That's all! Thanks.

LOL Merv would correct my grammar and spelling on top of helping me solve my problem. I am pretty sure that dude got a job with apple since he seemed that after his new job he was not allowed to post about apple products. Which is something you agree to when working for apple. Of course, this is complete speculation. Howeer, that guy was smart, really smart.

I have been hopping around the Linux forums lately, since I had just recently upgraded my laptop to suse 10.2. I couldn't get YUM and APT to work with current repositories, even after enabling it in YAST. Which is why I started called Microsoft M$, and well, ya those linux guys influenced that! I honestly don't hate MS products, well at least not their server products. However, I am worried that vista will not live up to its hype due to all the push backs, but I will still get a copy of it. Mainly so I can learn it.

Then, my boss, last week gave me a brand spanking new macbook pro C2D....and well I just run kunbuntu now via parallels, but that is beside the point.

www.linuxquestions.org is a great resource for linux users, and their forums are nice.

As far as mac platform goes, I haven't found a better forum yet. The people here all have different back grounds, and different knowledge. I can set up servers, work stations, network equipment, deploy images, but when I have a user ask me how to use a plug in, in photoshop I sometimes post it here because I know there are some designers here that know that stuff. Well, that and almost all of our designers run macs.

The real challenge is, actually finding a good windows based forum that isn't over run with 16year old kids giving out bad advice, or just giving you the standard answer for everything: "Dude you should like, scan for virii and like spyware and stuff." Virii isn't even a word!

my 0.02 cents

Oh and one last thing, a lot of us work with this stuff professionally, myself, carlos, hayne, saintduo, craig, yellow, etc (too many to list actually). We are giving out good free advice. I am a independant/sub contractor on the side. My lowest rate I will work at is $50/hr, and I am very very very cheap compared to most. When someone who works in the field posts, its like getting a free service almost. Granted we can't possibly fix everything over the net, but at least you are getting an answer from someone who at least knows the basics to give a quality answer.

Amen
 

Maybe I should'nt admit this but the forums page here is my Home page on my browser.

I have a job as a Designer/Production artist, I am more of an apps guy than a systems/network guy. However my job is requiring me to be one more and more.

This site has been a great resouce for me, I have not gotten any bad advice. Thank you in advance for my future posts, I still need lots of help.

sh

Uh-oh. You should put me on your ignore now then. :)

I'll go with Hayne's take. I can only think of two related questions I've asked in these "pages" that have gone completely unanswered*, and the only suggestion I've ever received was that it was an ISP or DNS screwup (which it probably is, but I'll never know).

I have a hotkey combo that dials up this forum and the MacOSXhints cover -- two things I look at several times a day just to keep in touch with this gang even when I'm not having any problems. [I'd have added trevor to those who have helped me and can't imagine why I got included).

*[Why my Software Update timed out in Tiger, and after a short run of success, times out now in Leopard too.]

I'll admit my mac nerdery as well, and say that this forum and the hints page are the first pages I load up every day. Regardless if I have an issue or not. I learn so much here from just constantly scanning the hints and threads alone, not to mention when I have an actual issue I need help with.

There have been a couple of occasions when I haven't received any replies on topics that I didn't think were that obscure, but then I guess the odds of someone who does know something about it coming past in the next couple of days is sometimes hit and miss. I mean does anyone actually go further back through topics than the first two pages of the Apps forum?

I have noticed an increase in people asking questions without even a cursory attempt at a search prior. Hard to enforce I guess. But I admit I've been less interested in the fifth thread in a week about no sound playing an .avi (codec issues) or one of the other perennials. I guess I should be more charitable.

I could really only recommend one other forum...

http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

Please be assured that the help received here is appreciated to the max. I would be lost without this place. :)

In fact the amount of beer that I owe trevor alone is starting to look like a mortgage-style commitment.:eek::D