OTOY Forums

Hi all Octane Blender plugin users!

We have created a group for users of this plugin on Facebook. If you want to join and share some tips, bugs and all this plugin related stuff you are welcome to join.

Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/Blender-Octane ... 417242760/

Just out of curiosity why bother with Facebook when we have a perfectly funtioning forum right here?

Because it's much convenient and fast to follow and reply on such group.

I would have to agree that in some cases facebook group has much more dynamic, on the other side You'll get a headache as well, since posts get under very fast & then You need more time to spend answering same atuff over & over.

The other reason is that this Bender plugin discussion is quite dead here. It would be better to use some tools that allow more dynamic discussion.

New link to the group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/500738480259364/

Previous was to the page not a group.

J.C wrote: It would be better to use some tools that allow more dynamic discussion.

Can you please define “dynamic discussion” and explain to me exactly how it is more useful then the current forum, in which topics of particular interest are easily searchable, and one can immediately jump to any page and section of the forum post?

I don’t use Facebook so maybe there are modes to it that I am unaware of. But my experiences trying to use one particular Facebook group have been frustrating.

I shoot panoramic photography and for many years enjoyed discussions by many amazing and knowledgeable photographers first on the QuickTimeVR Apple forum and then the PanooToolsNG Yahoo forums.

Both these forums are pretty much dead now - some years ago most of the members all moved the discussions to Facebook.

I have visited the Facebook group a few times but the discussions were always too linear - it was like wading through one huge unorganized stream of chatter. There was no zooming in on a particular post or area of discussion of interest. Normal forums allow you to search and seek out information of immediate relevance to you, or to an issue you may be having. Or simply to learn about new techniques or technology.

In contrast, the posts on Facebook seem more like unruly discussions in a crowded group of people in which only the last sentence uttered is what is being replied to or commented on. I just get the feeling that it is more chaotic, not as targeted as a proper forum, which allows for separating many different avenues of discourse into numerous chunks that are easier to search and navigate.

I also get the sense that Facebook groups are more “cliquish” and not as diverse. I’m not really interested in hanging out with a group of likeminded people for such linear discussions (I have my own immediate echo chambers for that). What I want from a forum is to be able to harvest information from those who are far more knowledgeable and experienced than I am and where, when applicable, I may be in a position to occasionally contribute something useful.

I know and understand what you mean. Facebook group is not a good example of knowledge base repository. I would prefer the forum here but it has pretty slow response time and is not realtime in discussion like on Facebook. It's not even sending me notifications that somebody responded here even if they are turned on. If nothing changes here (more discussion and faster responses from developers) I would prefer a Facebook group over this.