Jonathan? I registered - I did try and post - but it wouldn't let me?

Here is a forum and although it is a permanent record one can only post text here, no images or files.
Plus it's not editorialised, that makes it hard to find the gems.

However I'm a bit concerned that there's already several such fora, isn't more fragmentation the last thing that we need. I'd also be concerned at the amount of work involved in running such a forum, very kind of Jonathan to offer, just wonder if he realises the amount of work involved.

Bob.

Others have tried like forums in the past. None of them have had any level of success and finally died.

Like Victor says, why go there instead of here? What does the users gain by doing so?

A great idea. While there is a lot of info on the Sony forum it is too buried for browsing.

I have not tried this, but could you not save the vegas forum to your hard drive as a favorite accessible offline? From here, if you have google desktop, it could index the site and you could have all the answers you ever wanted at your fingertips bypassing the Sony search and having it stored on your system. I believe this can be done and updated everytime you go to the site. Has anybody tried this- I might give it a shot this afternoon just to see.

j razz

John Meyer said something that led me to believe that he saves certain threads to a Favorites folder. That's what I do now.

More than the work involved, if the title/name of the forum has "Sony" anywhere in it, be prepared for a visit from the Sony legal team. :-(

Anytime I see a gem thread - and even in these pre-Announcement days that's still about once every week or two - I just save the URL as a favorite, in a separate bookmarks folder called Vegas Topics, and change the default name of Sony Media Software - Forums - Vegas - Video Messages to whatever the topic is about.

More on topic of the original off topic post...I appreciate JN's enthusiasm, but I don't see where another Vegas forum will do any good. There's already Vegas fora on dvinfo, creativecow, and others.

<edit> eh, sorry. I see the original intent is not to create a competing forum necessarily, but to catalog existing tips, tricks, tidbits.

For anybody who who can't get good searches with the built-in forum search here (which I think is pretty good), you can always use Google's site search (just do a search on this :O).

To anyone outside the U.S. (and to many inside too nowadays), SMS means Short Message Service, i.e. "texting" on a cell phone.

Like said earlier, if that forum permited us to post pictures and other files, I'd sure go there regularly. That's precisely what's missing here.
And find a name like "y-nos" or something to avoid killing the bird in the egg , like DSE said... ; )
Plus, I too was confused at first with the SMS thing: I was about to not even read the thread since I'm not interested at all in using my phone on the web.

Wow, I'm glad to see someone replied. I was hoping for one reply, but instead, oh so many.

vicmilt, you wouldn't need to go there, it's a shortcut, cliff note version of what you've already found other places. Eventually it would grow into something that generated original content, however, I would expect the life to remain here, but useful links to go there. Another advantage is the image hosting.

Grazie, this is my first forum and I'm still learning how to put things together. Perhaps another user out there would be interested in helping me get it started. Any takers?

farss, Fragmentation is what I'm hoping to stay away from. In all honesty, I would expect these forums to be more fragmented, because that is the nature and gem of this forum.

Jay_Gladwell, that's true, but then Indiana Jones did it. I've got high hopes.

Pcamp, thanks, you summarized very well one of the main goals I am trying to accomplish. Let me repeat it: While there is a lot of info on the Sony forum it is too buried for browsing.

jrazz, yea you could do that. On this site you don't need to install Google Desktop or download the entire forum to your hard-drive. I'm also convinced that editorializing the useful pieces would make it even easier. Sometimes important things in a solution thread come up much later, or are worded less-than-understandably.

Jay_Gladwell, that is also well put. That's kind of what this website would do.

DSE, that's a very interesting point to bring up. I wish I knew how to fix that right now, but could you help me understand how I would be running into legal issues? How do you discuss a product on the web without mentioning the producer?

DavidMcKnight, yeap, I don't want to compete. It's less of another woman and more like a sister.

Coursedesign, oo I'm glad you mentioned the SMS thing. It's tricky enough when SMS already means to us Sony Madison Software and Sony Media Software.

fuTz, thank you for the helpful suggestion. I wouldn't want to run into legal complications on the night of conception. That's never good in any situation.

So, anybody know phpbb? :) I've done more forum moderating in my online years than anything else. So, as far as the issue goes of managing and maintaining, it's one of my strong points. If my site explodes with viewers, well then, web willing, there will be some other good souls to help me manage the content. That's usually what happens on other boards.

Also, the images of the software/logos are probably trademarked. I would make sure there was nothing like on the site ;-)

if sony is checking their own forum,, they are aware of what he is doing, and should send an email if they have issues. What i mean to say is big deal, the guy is promoting sony , and they can use a few fans these days.

When i first set up VegasUsers.com i wrote to SonicFoundry (before SONY bought the product line) and asked for permission to use some of the logos and to have links to their site. Not only was permission readily and happily granted, but they even made me aware of an "associates" program whereby i can receive commissions from the links and they provide special artwork specifically to be used on our 3rd party sites.

The program seems to have gotten a little stale under SONY's leadership, but it still seems to be in existance.

fldave, you bring up another good point on the issue of graphics. Chienworks gave some useful information on the subject.

winrock, I appreciate the support, and I have not received any emails from Sony, yet. I DO want to make sure I'm running my site appropriately with their respective trademarks. Like a car, I want my forums to purr real nice.

Chienworks, do you think you can point me in the direction of that associate information? I'm not even looking for commission, although that idea sounds nice too. The most important thing to me at this point is that I am taking the right steps to start this board off right. Therefore, I really want to make sure that I'm using the appropriate graphics.

I've known many forum administrators who've kept their sites dark until the launch date, but I've seen more success when things are open from the get-go. Just look at what you've brought to my attention already; thanks EVERYONE! Think of the new forum as a beta. I'm not even sure what to call it yet, but I am expecting to gain a lot of valuable information. :)

Suggestions and comments are also welcome, my email is jonathantneal AT hotmail DOT com

My comment about fragmentation was based on the number of Vegas fora. There's ones at COW, DVInfo, DMN etc.

And there's a number of specific ones also run by people from here including VASST.....

I do see value in including images of what problems we are having, like screenshots of Vegas timelines, output problems. Sample vegs. All imbeded in the posting. Yes, you will have people attempt to upload some avi's, which you should have some upload limits in place. Prepare for a large monthly bandwidth issue.

I frequent the DMN forum which I think lately I've seen some screen shots. And I'm a lurker <g> at the dvinfo.net Vegas forum, which I don't think allows images. Others I check from time to time are vegasusers.com, jetdv for newsletters.

Are there others that I'm missing that are popular?

fldave, these forums are gonna kick butt as far as speed and reliability. The forums are currently configured for 500 MB of storage (and may well reach into the GBs+). I have a 12MB max upload size per attachment as we speak. Though I'm not looking to host MPGs and AVIs, I am looking to provide whatever is necessary for the best information collection! Now, as far as MPGs and AVIs go, my idea is to setup a torrent host, that way I don't even have to worry about bandwidth. I've got plenty though.

Jonathan, I do like the look/feel of your forum, I definately prefer the look of the phpBB forums than this forum.

Maybe I'm naive, but I wouldn't worry one bit about "sony legal guys" getting on you about this. Care to guess how many "Microsoft discussion forums" are out there? Thousands. How many have permission? Probably none.

Why would someone go to your (or other) forum instead of this Sony forum? I'd guess because you have to have legal registered software to post here.

But - personally, unless there's something really, really great in your forum, I'll stick to this one and to Edward's JetDV forum, who also happens to use phpBB. Not to mention the fact that JetDV has some really great information there as well.

And I always love Chien's VegasUsers but more for video sharing rather than the forum.

Edit: And I certainly wasn't trying and don't want to discourage you or anyone from creating another Sony Vegas forum, the more forums and talk, the more folks might buy into Vegas, and the more creative minds will get churning.

So, is there anybody out there who wouldn't mind assisting me in the first week of launching the web site?

I'd recommend you call SMS and ask for Steve F. for some help/information.
If the DOMAIN has Sony in it anywhere, it's a serious problem, I guarantee it. NDA prevents me from saying more.
Anyway, the guys in Madison are there to help...not create problems.

They may have a "web kit" available which could have some product pics, logo pics, their preferred sales pitches, copyright notices, etc, that have been blessed and ok to use on thrid party websites. I know some game companies that do this as it promotes their game. They do reserve the right to revoke their use if they don't like how they are used.

Maybe Sony Madison has something like that. Maybe even a logo that has something like "rootkit free" j/k

p.s. just to clarify before it gets mis-interpreted; meaning that is free of rootkits - not that they include them for free.