We have two big announcements: First, after two years, we are closing down the Numbers Templates Forums. Second, we are starting a new site called AppleInquiry.com, which will serve as the new home for the content generated on the forum.
We have many reasons for doing this. Chiefly, we believe that the software behind AppleInquiry.com (the same that runs the sites StackOverflow.com and SuperUser.com) is vastly superior for quickly finding answers to questions. Second, users earn reputation points as they ask and answer questions, which allows for additional site privileges as you earn points (e.g., the ability to comment on questions, or edit tags).
Also, we wanted to expand the scope of the discussion beyond Numbers into all things Apple. For example, if you are running Numbers and have questions, you probably have questions about the rest of the iWork suite, or iLife, or OS X. See the point?
AppleInquiry.com uses openid for logins, so your personal data will also be more-secure (we will be deleting our forum user database after the site transition is complete).
How does this differ from the discussion boards at Apple? It differs precisely because the Apple boards are forums. This means that the replies to any question are set out chronologically with no weight given to a particular response. With AppleInquiry.com users can vote up answers that they feel best answer the question. This allows the “wisdom of crowds†effect to kick in, resulting in the most-relevant answers rising to the top.
All content on AppleInquiry.com is licensed under the cc-wiki with attribution required license. This means anybody can use the content for any purpose as long as they link back to the source, and license their adaptations under a similar license. This also means the content can never be locked behind a “pay wallâ€.
Another awesome feature is the ability to subscribe to rss feeds for individual tags. So, if you wanted to follow all questions and answers related to Numbers, you could subscribe to this Numbers Tag RSS feed in your favorite reader. Also, you can choose to be emailed when someone answers one of your questions. Great, great, stuff.
What is the goal?
The ultimate goal of AppleInquiry.com is to become the first place users go to answer their Apple related questions; a Wikipedia for Apple questions if you will. In order to achieve this goal, we need your help. A site like this can only catch on with an active community. We hope that users will both find, and contribute useful content.
It is perfectly acceptable to use the site like a notebook. By that, we mean that you can answer your own questions if you feel that the knowledge you are posting would be something you may wish to refer back to quickly, and is something that you feel other users may find useful. Joel Spolsky describes it thusly, “You can find out about bread on the internet, but there should be an entry for bread in Wikipedia. That’s the purpose of an encyclopedia.â€
One last caveat: The software that runs the software is currently in beta, so there could be some quirky issues at the start. Rest assured however, that these issues will subside. The software is being developed by Fog Creek Software, which has a reputation for hiring great developers and creating quality products.
