Whats the best forum for posting 'Smart Home' questions?

Forums › Geekzone › Whats the best forum for posting 'Smart Home' questions?

gpnz

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#80681 2-Apr-2011 20:21

Hi all,

I have some questions about "smart homes" and of course I thought aha! geekzone will be the place to ask - but I cant see a forum that really jumps out as the right place to discuss smart home type topics. Some of the entertainment and network forums would cover off individual aspects, but as the whole smart home thing is about the convergence of many topics (HDTV, LAN, automation, security etc) I just wondered what the appropriate forum would be.

My actual question at the moment (which I wont go into the detail of, but will outline for the purposes of an example) is around smart home cabling and wiring standards.

Would be interested in peoples thoughts on where the best place to ask these types of questions would be.

Cheers,

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#454606 2-Apr-2011 20:32

Hmmm. Probably just the Off Topic really.

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gpnz

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#454756 3-Apr-2011 11:18

Cheers, I'll give it a go.

freitasm

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#454759 3-Apr-2011 11:19

But that's a point. We don't have a Home Automation forum around here... Should we create one?

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stuzzo

534 posts

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#454764 3-Apr-2011 11:32

freitasm: But that's a point. We don't have a Home Automation forum around here... Should we create one?

I don't know if home automation would fill a category. Incorporating it in something like "Home Technology" might be interesting incorporating green technology, energy efficiency etc.

My feeling is the current fit for it is home theatre as that is how a lot of people get interested in automation.

gpnz

80 posts

Master Geek

#454792 3-Apr-2011 13:21

freitasm: But that's a point. We don't have a Home Automation forum around here... Should we create one?

I honestly dont know what the demand for a forum along those lines would be, but I do know geekzone was the first place I thought to look to find people talking about this type of stuff, but none of the existing forums really stood out as an obvious place to ask questions.

stuzzo:
I don't know if home automation would fill a category. Incorporating it in something like "Home Technology" might be interesting incorporating green technology, energy efficiency etc.

My feeling is the current fit for it is home theatre as that is how a lot of people get interested in automation.

A home technology (or similar) forum sounds like it would be a good idea. To be honest, I personally think that the Home Theatre forum is a bit narrow for this type of discussion and threads along the lines of security and home networking would quickly get off topic. I would concede its a tough one however, especially as many of these topics stand alone in their own right (and are already represented with individual forums), its just when you start to talk about them in the context of provisioning and managing them a residential dwelling (or similar) that they take on a different (and interrelated) context.

Cheers,

rphenix

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#456274 7-Apr-2011 10:29

Having a forum for smart home/automation topics would be a great idea.

Decimate

120 posts

Master Geek

#456276 7-Apr-2011 10:30

rphenix: Having a forum for smart home/automation topics would be a great idea.

+1 I've been looking into this alot lately.

Jaxson

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#456284 7-Apr-2011 10:45

As above, currently the home theatre section caters for this despite that being off topic as such. A Home Technology section would be a good bet for security, structured cabling and home automation discussions. Also it could through in a bit of energy efficiency efforts as well.

langers1972

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#456286 7-Apr-2011 10:47

gpnz: Hi all,

I have some questions about "smart homes" and of course I thought aha! geekzone will be the place to ask - but I cant see a forum that really jumps out as the right place to discuss smart home type topics. Some of the entertainment and network forums would cover off individual aspects, but as the whole smart home thing is about the convergence of many topics (HDTV, LAN, automation, security etc) I just wondered what the appropriate forum would be.

My actual question at the moment (which I wont go into the detail of, but will outline for the purposes of an example) is around smart home cabling and wiring standards.

Would be interested in peoples thoughts on where the best place to ask these types of questions would be.

Cheers,

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SumnerBoy

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#456315 7-Apr-2011 11:36

Ecobob is great for eco building design techniques and discussion, but a forum on Geekzone for home technology would be very useful IMHO.

freitasm

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#456317 7-Apr-2011 11:39

I am off to lunch, but will create a Smart Home forum later today.

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Decimate

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#457451 11-Apr-2011 12:31

freitasm: I am off to lunch, but will create a Smart Home forum later today.

Any luck with this?

timmmay

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#457470 11-Apr-2011 13:00

freitasm: But that's a point. We don't have a Home Automation forum around here... Should we create one?

The forums here are strangely specific, compared with other forums i've used. I sometimes have trouble trying to work out where to place a topic. I'd go for more general forums, otherwise you'll end up with dozens more forums eventually. It initially put me off using geekzone, but i've gotten used to it.

Having a forum for each telecommunications provider, every major OS, each major platform, seems a bit weird to me. The only advantage I can see is it makes it easier for vendors to monitor questions and problems, and send out "new thread" notifications.

Jaxson

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#457472 11-Apr-2011 13:03

Following on from above, we really need an 'advanced' search which allows you to search 'this forum', or find results from 'these' selected forums etc.

As it stands I have about 3 or 4 that I look at regularly but if I'm going to check something on another one there doesn't seem to be any way to search older posts from just that forum.

timmmay

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#457478 11-Apr-2011 13:18

Or just buy vBulletin, add a skin to match GZ, and integrate it with the existing user database. Seems easier than writing a forum from scratch, which is what I presume has been done.

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