MX2 Community Forum opened

Community Forums/Monkey2 Talk/MX2 Community Forum opened

Danilo(Posted 2016) [#1]
The new MX2 Community Forum opened at forum.mx2.community/

Register now and join the MX2 community!


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#2]
Good luck! :) Out of curiosity, is there a need for that?


GC-Martijn(Posted 2016) [#3]
no... its not an official forum


Danilo(Posted 2016) [#4]
Well, mx2.community can be a community-driven platform for
the free and open-source programming language MonkeyX 2, a.k.a. MX2.

Open-source is driven by the community, and here is the platform for it: mx2.community

Of course often the start is not easy, but somebody has to start it. For now it's a forum,
and hopefully we (the MX2.community) will build more projects over time (Wiki etc.) - if users want to contribute.

Of course I hope Mark, as the maintainer and main developer of MX2, joins as well.


impixi(Posted 2016) [#5]
TBH, I like your forum system and styles much better than the "official" ones. Hopefully MX2 can attract enough users to sustain an alternative community site. Might be too soon yet, though...


Danilo(Posted 2016) [#6]
phpBB forums have also built-in private messaging and communication system,
used by hundreds of thousands users world-wide. I think it's well-suited to build a community.


ratking(Posted 2016) [#7]
Yay, another empty forum :-P


Danilo(Posted 2016) [#8]
Why so negative? Just join and help to build the community... ;)


abakobo(Posted 2016) [#9]
nice forum style!

I'm a bit confused with the fact there's two (three) mx2 forums now.

I rather like Danilo's forum style but rather like to have only one forum moderated by (at least) the main developper. With all the fresh download links and so on...
But as all this is in a start I suppose it will converge in a very suitable community!

Thanks Danilo for all the things you've already done for mx2 visibility. You're showing a nice path. Hope my skills will one day allow me to help, but i'm affraid i'll participate only by asking questions in the beggining! I'm still on ignition-x and my next project (first non educative) will be with it..


ratking(Posted 2016) [#10]
I'm not really negative, more like realistic. :-P It's just... I saw a lot of forums fail because they started too big (with too many subforums) and no users. Usually a forum doesn't become a big community just like that. In my experience, communities come semi-automatically when the thing it's about (in this case: Monkey2) is good and forces interaction with others. It certainly doesn't help when there are several forums at once, in my case it even drives me off because I'm not keen on following several forums more for just one thing.


Pakz(Posted 2016) [#11]
My Monkey blog gets just under a thousand hits a month(first year) I did spend time creating content for it. under 200 posts. I still get a few hundred hits a month on my old java blog with its 200 posts. Maybe if you create some content for the forum and maybe a option to host games/code then it might get some use. I have no use for a forum most of the time. I just check it for the contents that shows up.

I myself have not the power to create something that attracts lots of users. I once posted hundreds of posts in a forum nobody used. I do not do that anymore:)

I will check the forum for the time being and sees if it gets some use. Not to sure if it will stay online for as long as the blitz basic forums. Great learning material there,


degac(Posted 2016) [#12]
To be honest I would prefer one single place to host forum/dev-blog/download/apps.

MX1 website was designed with this in mind. And since MX2 is/will be something different (in syntax & supporting target) a separate home is needed, to avoid confusion.
BlitzBasic.com was designed to host all the products (with separate sections for Blitz3d, BlitzPlus and BlitzMax): Monkey was the first to take its own road.
There's a Monkey section, but just to remember the 'other' it exists another BRL language :)

So, the most logic solution - to avoid another level of disgregation/separation etc - should be to come back to BlitzBasic.com site, adding a specific section for Monkey2: adding a blog (wordpress or other) shouldn't be so difficult I think!
I know the modern forums have many useful functions / theme / facilities, so once you start with them going back is very hard!
And I suspect the time & resource to move ALL the blitzbasic.com forum to another 'forum engine' is too high.

But having 3 (or more - even independent like the Danilo's one) places is not a great strategy.
Marks' blog, MX2 blog, MonkeyX.com, Blitzbasic/BlitzMax/facebook/twitter: just too much, don't think?


Nobuyuki(Posted 2016) [#13]
regarding blitzbasic.com forums:

There is over a decade's worth of community there. I deliberately avoided BB after the bb2d windows beta for a long time until Monkey came out (long story, don't ask!) -- here's what I think. If BB.com's community is thriving on its own, it doesn't need consolidation. If it needs consolidation, you should be asking why! Communities that get old and stagnate sometimes carry a lot of baggage and drama, and sometimes people just don't want to deal with the heavyweights which dominate the discussion in well-established communities. Shadow hierarchies and all that. Just my 2 cents.

regarding danilo's mx2 forums:

I don't fault danilo for wanting to create a big "catch-all" community, but there's a catch-22 there, too. Without content, it's worthless. Of course he'd want us to come in and help fill it with content, as would anyone starting a new community! But as far as I can see, there is no big draw there at all. (phpBB is not really worth mentioning imho; these forums are 'adequate' for the existing community size.) It may be worth going to if it starts hosting stuff like games showcases, reviews of the latest Monkey/mx2 games, community "news" etc. IE: Content. That is something that is actually missing from most Monkey community gatherings; this forum barely has enough content to keep itself going, and I go here because it is (sadly) still the busiest Monkey forum there is.

People don't "help" improve the community because there is little in it for them. I've learned in the past that if you give people the right kind of encouragement and "hype", they will proselytize your product for you. This is why products like Haxe, Construct2, Fusion, and LOVE2d get the kind of attention it does. Products like Monkey and Godot get relatively less attention, the way I see it, because I believe their developers are interested in the product they're developing almost to a fault -- Wanting to produce the best thing and hoping it floats to the top by its merits alone is unfortunately not how most things get anywhere; they usually need an evangelist, a "barker"; someone who pitches it to disinterested people and tells them what's in it for them.

There is nothing wrong with this attitude, btw. Not everyone cares to get all of the fame and attention for making a great product, they just want to make a competent product. But, what I am trying to say here is that what applies to the popularity of the product itself also applies to any community surrounding that product, as well as meta-products such as 3rd party community portals. Monkey as a product has a small part of the content (the language, a small site, and some small forums), but none of the marketing and a bit lacking in hype. Danilo's forum currently as a meta-product has pretty much no content (afaik), and some marketing. Until it gets some tutorials or reviews or blog hosting or something like that, I'm thinking that most people are gonna give it a pass.

Sorry for that huge wall of text!


abakobo(Posted 2016) [#14]
Imho the main problem is that there is no release version. So it is a bit early to create seductive content (and others). We don't even know for sure how will mx2 be in the release version... though it looks promising.
I think if the externals linking is pretty and sugarish, Mx2 will have a lot more visibility, because open source needs good linking.. the ability to manage pointers and references for example (danilo wrote it somewhere (type&)) could make a huge difference in community building (my point of view).


Danilo(Posted 2016) [#15]
Mark joined the mx2.community, so you should join as well.
Register now and help to start the open-source MX2.community


wiebow(Posted 2016) [#16]
I can register, but I doubt I'll post there, so no. And 'should' does not come in to it. Like Nobuyuki says, there is no need for it. yet?


Danilo(Posted 2016) [#17]
It's a pity.


GC-Martijn(Posted 2016) [#18]
With all the respect, people can create as many forums as they want ;)
But don't target it as the main root forum.
The main/root forum needs to be on a (new) monkey2 domain with as owner Mark and nobody else.
That way you can guarantee a safe future for the data.

The user database can be (the monkey-x) one so people don't have to re-register again.
And of course there is no need for this at this point.