Continuing the discussion from [READ FIRST: Welcome to the Dallas Makerspace]
(READ FIRST: Welcome to the Dallas Makerspace):
I see there is some discussion about whether TALK is our official means of communication or not.
As a reminder: TALK was rolled out in October of 2014 to replace our previous official email communications.
Talk isn’t our official site. However, I think it could be for official announcements only. It could be a locked thread where the announcements are made. The rest of Talk not be official anything.
Edit: agree with the reporting issues.
You know people keep saying that; however, we then require/expect all issues and problems with the equipment to be reported via Talk. The Board President has started using talk to initiate member discussion for upcoming board agenda items, and perhaps more importantly we have used our internal discipline policies to apply to the Talk forum. Oh, and we created a specific members only section to discuss member related issues. We have no other viable or more importantly active method of communicating with our membership. It is clearly an official medium of communication of the organization.
To paraphrase, you may call the brown blob fudge, but if it smells like a turd…
I have edited my suggestion to state that Talk is the official “announcements” forum and also where to report problems. I have removed the reference to “discussion”.
Again, I don’t agree with this idea that it isn’t our official communication forum. It is how it is used, regardless of what we want to call it.
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/c/dms-members-only
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/training-required-tools-that-sit-idle-or-have-a-lack-of-trainers-classes/24873/141
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/bod-meeting-8-25-17-tool-access/25179/35
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/rooftop-access-now-locked/25146/9
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/board-of-directors-discussion-7-16-17-capital-equipment-presentation-form-approved-see-last-post/23856/13
…
As well as the discussions related to tool problems
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/c/issues-requests
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/issue-samsung-printer-is-offline/25283
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/issue-fusion-360-on-jump-fails/25286/5
…
Then there are the class announcements and class requests
…
ditto. I for one consider it the only communique from the machine shop. I don’t hang out in hangouts and my personal email is tied to my business so I don’t send makers there. this as unofficially the official channel. Last user count I was was that nearly 1000 members (2/3?) had TALK accounts. Not all may chime in, but I’m sure they are listening. cheers!
Just because something is used doesn’t make it an “Official” site. It has become that way, official if you like, for the reporting system.
The rest of what you cited are just cited I consider just part of the forum.
That’s why I like an Official Announcement Thread that is locked be put on Talk, people that don’t like Talk, could just track that one thread without wading into the maelstrom. While part of wiki is the “Official site” trying to find things on it is a real challenge.
When the board President repeatedly states that she wants the members to use it to discuss item, in liu of discussion in the meetings, then it is the official forum for cummications. The large number of other uses, relating to communications and the operations of the organization just reinforce that.
The meetings idea was effectively nixed by the board as it would be considered formal board meetings and would have to be schedule as such, the scheduling would be problematic. That’s why there are no meetings scheduled.
Posting discussion on Talk is an alternative in that anyone that wanted to could take part or just read - at least all members could even if in the members only section.
Then I should call it our de facto communication mechanism for announcements, problem reporting, etc. Problem solved.
No, we got rid of the previous ticket system. Talk is the official place to post issues and requests.
lol…wasn’t some stoopid jerk trying to get this question settled once and for all recent;y: Is or Isn't Talk the Official DMS Discussion Forum?
This place cracks me up.
You had the answer all the time… in the “READ FIRST” thread… 
I was AFK at the time you posted that thread and didn’t see it until now. But yeah ~ to answer your question, TALK was created as our official means of communication. 
Yeh, sorry, I wasn’t trying to revive that argument. My careless use of the word “official” inadvertently restarted it. If we do a “Fine Print” for new members, I will make sure to use the word “de facto” to avoid any argument.
Actually, I think Lisa has produce definitive evidence that the forum was created to be the official means of communication. Seems very settled.
No worries. I made same mistake thinking people would read the word “official” as what we both meant, which was “obviously de facto”, rather that “legally registered and governmentally official”.
Talk was rolled out as a replacement for our opt-in Google Groups (more or less a discussion mailing list for those that have never used it). We don’t have any official anything when it comes to discussions, announcements, issues, or anything else. Just the other day I reported an issue via our Discord server and someone then helped me with it. We’re never all going to be on the same platform at the same time so even suggesting something is official and the one true thingy is silly. Just use the things that make sense to use and when something better is available that makes sense to use we can try that too. Between Talk and our Discord server most things seem to be taken care of.
If you read my requests you will see I ask for discussion here, in discord, in committee meetings, in person and wherever else possible.
While the (unintentional? …suuure) characterization of Talk as such certainly often seems fitting, it’s also a good argument for not coronating it as the authoritative source of “official” business.
The discussions that occur here are not because it is the “official communication forum” (whether one means the “official forum for communication” or the “forum for official communication,” which it seems people are using basically interchangeably as it suits their argument), but because it is the only place for things to be discussed in anything other than an instantaneous on-the-spot fashion. (Forum-style, if you will.) So it may be de facto, but that is due to there simply being no other available alternative at all.
Fine by me, frankly – except that sometimes, trying to deal with every kind of communication we’d want or need in one medium can at times make us that guy in the workshop that’s using a wrench as a hammer. (Dude. Quit that. There are a BUNCH OF HAMMERS.) Or worse – using a soldering iron to melt plastic.
Not that we’re going to actually start using, say, an issue tracker again any time soon – but it would still be nice to have a separate “official news/announcements” source (as per WTB: MakerSpace Happenings -- The Executive Summary). Among other things, it would help greatly with one of the many hurdles to new member involvement of not being able to easily get the latest information on the goings-on with equipment and committees… let’s not kid, the wiki is super useful but not exactly universally and consistently timely, all “shouldas” aside.
And yes, this may also be related to my having again spent two hours today wading through Talk trying to catch up on less than two weeks’ worth of posts and separate the signal from the noise… it’s not just new members that this would help! Sure, there are some folks who will keep suffering through this exercise no matter what. But if the “community” we claim to want to foster in the 'Space and bring new people into is dependent on going through all of Talk to stay current and not feel like an outsider, we’re doing that goal a disservice. If a local PTA can pull off a newsletter-like set of updates once a month, the bulk of our membership that doesn’t have a Talk account can hardly be faulted for expecting something a little more distilled and well-curated from us than what we currently provide as far as “latest news and updates.”
Working on it!! 