Subforums renaming/regrouping/merging

[aaakknu]

Here is the discussion: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52635

If you do not agree with the merging or renaming of your subforum or have other ideas/suggestions, join the discussion.

The poll about flags for subforums: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52875

[Antea]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I have noticed in the Uralic thread, that there are a lot of sub-threads about the different varieties of Sami languages. And it is a little bit tiring to have to browse all the pages to find them. Wouldn't it be possible to unite them in a sub-thread or something, even if it is inside the Uralic thread?

[h34]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I have noticed in the Uralic thread, that there are a lot of sub-threads about the different varieties of Sami languages. And it is a little bit tiring to have to browse all the pages to find them. Wouldn't it be possible to unite them in a sub-thread or something, even if it is inside the Uralic thread?

I'm not sure if it helps but there is a thread with links to each of the individual language threads:

http://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=53353

[Antea]

Thanks, it certainly helps (i didn't remember there was a thread for Sami music ). But still, maybe we should consider in making a sub-thread for grouping them or something, because there are not only some scarce threads, but a lot of them

[Linguaphile]

Thanks, it certainly helps (i didn't remember there was a thread for Sami music ). But still, maybe we should consider in making a sub-thread for grouping them or something, because there are not only some scarce threads, but a lot of them

What do you mean by a sub-thread? I don't feel they should be grouped together in one thread, if that's what you mean. They are different languages, and combining them as if they were a single language could be very confusing. If there is a way to click on a "Saamic" heading and see a list of Saami languages, that would be great. (But I also think it's basically what h34's organizational thread does, so I'm not sure how it would be different from what we already have. Is there some way to pin h34's post to the top to make it easier to find?)

I think h34's thread helps organize them quite well. In addition to the list of "threads by language" that he posted (in which most languages, except for Northern Saami, have a single thread), there is also a list of "threads by topic" here, which links to individual topics for each language. For example, here is the list of links to " conjugations of regular verbs" and from there you can choose any Uralic language (at the moment, we have posts with conjugation examples for seven Saamic languages, seven Finnic languages, Erzya, both Mari languages, and Komi; you can find any of those posts from that link). Then when you select a language and view it, you can click on the " for comparison " link at the bottom of that language's conjugation post, to return back to the list of conjugation posts in other Uralic languages. That was h34's idea and I think it makes it very well organized and (for me anyway) very easy to navigate from language to language if that's what I want to do.

Northern Saami is admittedly spread out in many threads, because it at one time had its own forum and so there were several threads created for it. There were threads for Inari Saami and Lule Saami back then too, but they got very easily buried among the threads for Northern Saami. Once the Uralic Forum had been created, the intention was basically for each Uralic language to have its own thread within it. And the various Saamic languages are quite different - clearly related quite closely, but with different grammatical systems, different sound systems, different gradation, different orthographies, different loanwords and different evolution of words from proto-Saamic. North Saami "you two aren't" is doai eahppi leat and "you all [three or more] aren't" is dii ehpet leat; in Kildin Saami, both sentences are тыйй ебпе лий, for example. Or to say "it's two o'clock," in Inari Saami it's tijme lii kyehti, in South Saami tsåahka lea göökte, in Lule Saami kloahkka l guovten.

Some of the threads, like the one for Akkala Saami, have very few posts, but that is because little is known about Akkala Saami (the last fluent native speaker died in 2003, or there is one speaker left, but the fact that this is questionable shows how spotty the research is) and there aren't many resources out there. It's a short thread, but I hope to add more to it when I can (and hope someday someone else might as well, if they have info I haven't found) and resources about it are scare enough that if you google "Akkala Saami," the thread on this forum thread is the fifth result that comes up on Google (after Ethnologue, Wikipedia, OLAC, and the Endangered Languages Project). Even the Endangered Languages Project has zero resources listed for Akkala, just a language metadata description (language name, number of speakers, location etc) and a bibliography for which the only Akkala-specific listing is Wikipedia. I would hope that a person searching for information on this language would find the fact that it has its own thread here useful. There aren't many pages that attempt to collect resources on this language; the thread here is one of them.

Would merging the Northern Saami posts into fewer threads help? That is the only thing I can think of, but again, the post h34 linked to also takes you to a listing of all of the Northern Saami posts, sort of like a directory of posts.
So each of the other Saamic (and other Uralic) languages has its own single, dedicated thread, but there is a directory of sorts to help you navigate among them. I think that makes a lot more sense to me than merging several languages together.

[Antea]

If there is a way to click on a "Saamic" heading and see a list of Saami languages, that would be great.

Yes, I agree.

(But I also think it's basically what h34's organizational thread does, so I'm not sure how it would be different from what we already have. Is there some way to pin h34's post to the top to make it easier to find?)

Yes, that would be a good idea, because I didn't see that thread at first.

Northern Saami is admittedly spread out in many threads, because it at one time had its own forum and so there were several threads created for it. There were threads for Inari Saami and Lule Saami back then too, but they got very easily buried among the threads for Northern Saami. Once the Uralic Forum had been created, the intention was basically for each Uralic language to have its own thread within it.

Ok, I didn't remember about that.

Would merging the Northern Saami posts into fewer threads help? That is the only thing I can think of, but again, the post h34 linked to also takes you to a listing of all of the Northern Saami posts, sort of like a directory of posts.
So each of the other Saamic (and other Uralic) languages has its own single, dedicated thread, but there is a directory of sorts to help you navigate among them. I think that makes a lot more sense to me than merging several languages together.

I don't know what's the best solution. But I didn't find the directory thread and it was like very tiring to have to go through all the pages to find the posts about Sami. That was the reason for my suggestion.

[Linguaphile]

I didn't find the directory thread and it was like very tiring to have to go through all the pages to find the posts about Sami.

Is there some way to pin h34's post to the top to make it easier to find?)

Yes, that would be a good idea, because I didn't see that thread at first.

Does anyone know if this is possible on this forum? If so, who would be able to do it?

What we would want to pin would be either this thread: Uralic languages: Links to threads / posts

OR both of these two posts:
Uralic languages: Links to threads by language and Uralic languages: Links to threads/posts by topic.

Or, at least, that's how I understand this discussion and it makes sense to me. Antea, if that's not what you are thinking, please say so.

[Antea]

Yes, It’s Ok for me 👌

[vijayjohn]

If you want one or more threads to appear permanently at the top, ask the admins to "make it/them sticky." Only they can do that since the forum currently has no moderator.

[Aurinĭa]

I've stickied the thread. There's no way to sticky an individual post, but if it would be really useful, I could split the thread at that post and sticky the new thread as well.

If there is a way to click on a "Saamic" heading and see a list of Saami languages, that would be great.

AFAIK, that's not possible with the software this forum uses.

[Antea]

Thanks!

[Linguaphile]

I've stickied the thread. There's no way to sticky an individual post, but if it would be really useful, I could split the thread at that post and sticky the new thread as well.

If there is a way to click on a "Saamic" heading and see a list of Saami languages, that would be great.

AFAIK, that's not possible with the software this forum uses.

Thanks! The thing about clicking on a heading was more like an alternate suggestion, so no problem that it can't be done - I think the sticky thread takes care of it. As for the two individual posts, whatever anyone else thinks. I think splitting the thread as you suggested might make it a bit clearer but I'm not sure if that's necessary. In other words others might like it that way (I can see how it would make it easier to navigate) but for me I think the change you already made is enough.

[Osias]

What happened to that spam blocking suggestion of mine?