News & Shares forum category 🔖 (new!)

[hydn (Hayden James)]

We’ve created a new, more lightweight space for sharing the things you find interesting around the Linux and tech world.

To help keep General Discussions and Articles & Guides easy to browse please use News & Shares category for current news items, fascinating articles, community finds, and other things worth putting in front of the community.

If you find something interesting that doesn’t quite fit Showcase, but still deserves a little time in the spotlight, you’re welcome to share it in News & Shares.

So the simple distinction is: if you’re sharing something because you found it interesting, use News & Shares . If you’re sharing something you’re personally connected to, or adding your own experience, testing, analysis, or discussion, Articles & Guides Showcase, or General Discussions may be the better fit.

When a link is news related, you can also tag it with news.

This also moves our weekly news round-up topic to the News & Shares category.

Interesting reading, community finds, worth sharing and worth discussing… that’s what this space is for.

Thanks for helping us keep our community forums organized and content easy to find.

[andreas]

Just to confirm, does it mean that the Articles & Guides section is reserved for linuxblog.io articles, and the rest would go in News & Shares?

[hydn (Hayden James)]

Good question, and I will update the description, as the answer is in what was moved and what was not moved but not articulated above.

No. Articles & Guides is not reserved for LinuxBlog.io articles.

Articles and guides, especially when the topic creator is personally connected to them, belong in Articles & Guides or Showcase. By personally, that includes being the author, or having personally tried, downloaded, installed, tested, asking a question about, or interacted with something being discussed in an article and so bring their voice to a topic for discussion.

That’s why a topic like this one you posted, and other topics by others were not moved:

The joy of simple computing

I’ve just written a brief article on what I’ve called “the joys of simple computing”, i.e. simple, performant, native applications, snappy systems, and a simpler web. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well, as I have a gut feeling this message would resonate here.

The distinction is that the author has a personal connection to what they are sharing.

On the other hand, a topic I posted in the general forum was moved to News & Shares

A 25-year-old Brazilian video patent just expired, ending a lingering legal headache for Linux

Interesting read: https://www.xda-developers.com/25-year-old-brazilian-video-patent-expired-legal-headache-linux/

In my case, I have no connection to the article beyond finding it interesting and sharing it.

Now, for example, I were explaining how that patent affected me, my work, or something relevant to members here, or needed help answering a question regarding it, then it would be a better fit for General Discussions because I would be adding my own experience or something beyond the title or news.

So the simple distinction is: if you’re sharing something because you found it interesting, use News & Shares . If you’re sharing something you’re personally connected to, or adding your own experience, testing, analysis, or discussion, Articles & Guides Showcase, General Discussions, Help & Support etc. may be the better fit.

[andreas]

Ah, thank you, that’s very clear! I like it!

[Jymm]

Sounds good hydn, I often share articles I find interesting, but am don’t have any connection to them.

[hydn (Hayden James)]

Yes and many are current and interesting stuff we find. So we need to keep that going.

Sometimes I don’t have the time to create a discussion or debate out of something I find. But it’s still share worthy, even with a short intro sentence and the link.

Hopefully this space serves this well.