[Request for Comment] new forum dedicated to helping open source projects that improve the world

[Kunda1]

Recently @openBrain made a suggestion on Recreating a Libre/Open Source Otoscope in FreeCAD thread:

@FCcommunity : not to hijack, but I think that there are plenty of this projects that are willing to be open source but get some difficulties achieving this with 3D modeling (software & hardware are generally well handled). What do you think about something like having a dedicated thread (or subforum) where open projects can "register" to get the help of the community to have their model done? I think that if some money earning is involved, we can agree that it is fully given to FreeCAD.

@lemonbug back in the day also posted some threads that would fall in to this genre. So what does the community think? Have a dedicated forum for open source projects that improve medicine or quality of life, philanthropies, improve humanity for the better etc..so that the FreeCAD community can support these projects by building or optimizing their tools etc...?

[kisolre]

+1.
It is always a nice exercize and usage showcase.

[vocx]

... Have a dedicated forum for open source projects that improve medicine or quality of life, philanthropies, improve humanity for the better etc.

I have to oppose this proposal. In principle, it's a great idea. However, what will happen is that there will be a influx of interesting projects in the first month or so, but after that the subforum will become a desert. That's more or less what happened to the Users showcase and Job offers forums. Only a few threads are posted there, very sporadically. You only need to look at the second page to see very old threads from 2014 or so.

So, it's a nice idea, but I don't think it would be amazing. It would just add more clutter to the forum, and require more moderation effort. I think most users can already use the Open Discussion or User's showcase forum to do open source collaboration. Hell, I think it'd be much easier just to rename "Job offers" to something like "Job offers and open source collaboration". That will use an existing forum for either paid or free collaboration.

[openBrain]

I don't change my opinion. Except I think a subforum is probably better than a single thread so we can have one thread by project.
I don't think we need strict rules for the requester, but some guidelines about well presenting their projects, explaining their philosophy and giving accurate input data. I guess the community will be smart enough to react according the real intention.
However, I think we should define a recommended workforce. Something like having a GH repo where we can PR, and on our side having one file per part.

EDIT : didn't totally agree with @vocx but this has to be considered. Maybe advertising on FC or GH homepage for this can be worth once we are comfortable.