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I think it's a combination of a few things:

• It's buried deep, as various people have mentioned.
• Groups narrow down searches automatically, whereas in the knode, one is never sure.
• Whatever is the knode anyway?  Abstract memes are a shot in the dark, not sure about this one.
• "next-gen_beaglebone" is a very poor name for a BeagleBone Black group-like container.
• Navigation in the knode is really bad, no link to BBB under element14 Development Kits
• Groups create community and people immediately know what they mean.
• The Pi has a group, it seems reasonable that BBB should get similar support.
• The Google Group for Beagle* is a mess, we could do a lot better here with a specific group.

I won't argue that the knode can't fulfil the role, it probably can in theory.  I'd just question whether it's working in practice.

For a balanced argument, I'll also enumerate some pros for knode and cons for groups:

• The group concept doesn't scale too well.  A group for every board just isn't going to work.
• Groups distort the level playing field.  I bet Olimex isn't happy with the Pi getting special treatment.
• The knode could be nicely hierarchical.  That appeals well to my engineering sensibilities.

So, I do see some advantages to the knode approach, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to offer BBB the same degree of support as Pi is getting.  And until knode's hierarchical navigation is fixed so that at some level under knode you immediately see both Pi and BBB listed, it's not going to work at all.

Addendum.  It's pretty clear that the Element14_dev_kits page (the parent of "next-gen_beaglebone") is structured for high-profile advertising of Featured Products and not for convenient access to popular board resources and discussion groups.  Advertising and engineering support are in direct conflict in this instance, and it's made knode less helpful that it might otherwise be.

The cleanest fix would probably be to go up a level, to knode/dev_platforms_kits/ , and at the top of that page to list "Dev kits with active discussions".  The knode would then be providing hierarchical access to per-board discussions and other resources, semi group-like.  Currently it doesn't.

Drew Fustini wrote:

 

Is there something that is lacking?  Or is it just that it is buried too deep under the Knode?

You can't join the group as such. For example we know there's 8000+ people joined the Ras-Pi group. Here ? Maybe only the dozen or so of us, but no way to know.

Buried way too deep, you really have to know something exists in the knode before you have a hope of finding it. Take this area, the breadcrumbs at the top of the page show:

Home > the knode > Development Platforms and Kits > element14 Development Kits > BeagleBone Black >   Discussions

but if you go back to the e14 homepage and try to follow that trail it stops at element14 Development Kits and the BeagleBone black doesn't appear below that.

Also, why under element14 Development Kits ?  If you don't know it's there you'd be looking for CircuitCo, Ti or something along those lines..

If you go to http://www.element14.com/community/groups?ICID=all_technologies_menubar and 'Search for a Group' you don't find anything relating to beaglebone.

A lot of the same problems exist for other sub-groups in the knode, for example someone recently asked if there was a case for sabre-lite in, I think, the Embedded group (can't find the post today and the embedded group tells me there's no posts found for language english).

I never expected the sabre-lite group to have lots of activity, but given how quickly they seem to sell out you'd expect more.

Same goes for the Black - that Pi vs BeagleboneBlack thread I sometimes wish I hadn't started has generated a good bit more discussion from a wider audience. Very hard to tell just how much of that is due to how well hidden this area is though.

One other thing I noticed is that there seems to be some difference with the search box at the top of the page. You seem to get different results once you're already into the knode. It's hard to tell for sure but the impression I get is that the search from the homepage either doesn't include the knode or ranks the results differently, and once you're into the knode the reverse is true ?  If the search is different and people don't find what they're looking for at first attempt it's likely they'll just move on.

I mentioned that navigation in knode needs to be fixed, but something has to be broken first for it to be fixed.  Navigation in knode isn't broken, it just doesn't exist at all.  Only the advertising seems to have been given much design thought, and totally overwhelms usability.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

• The group concept doesn't scale too well.  A group for every board just isn't going to work.
• Groups distort the level playing field.  I bet Olimex isn't happy with the Pi getting special treatment.

We seem to end up with two almost seperate sites, you have the groups concept which is the default view when you first enter the site. Then there's the knode logically seperate and somewhat hidden.

Is it any surprise that things that have a higher profile due to being more readily accessable, either directly from the homepage or at least from the default view, get more interest ?

I found out the other day that we are able to create groups ourselves. Again, it's not obvious that you can until you find the page with the create group button.  I did contemplate creating a Beaglebone Black group, but thought better of it... Two areas with the same name might just add confusion.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

Only the advertising seems to have been given much design thought.

Is it just advertising ?  The numbers we've seen under the 'check more stock' link suggest that someone thinks that the BBB will be popular enough to have lots of them ordered.

Assuming that means they've made a commitment to buying them you'd expect a more prominent feature of them.

I see that there's currently a direct link to here from the top right of the e14 homepage, so hopefully Drew has got the message   but those links don't stay forever and once it goes the higher profile it gives will be lost and we'll vanish back into the bowels of the knode to be forgotten again..

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

Note to E14 admins.  Useful posts like shabaz's which many people are likely to want to reference in the future are going to get lost through lack of a BeagleBone group.

As a suggestion let's have a BeagleBone Black only group.  One of the problems I see in the wider community is the lack of distinction between the different beagle boards. So much so that while navigating their wiki looking for info on the eMMC that's only on the Black you're getting directed to stuff for the BeagleBoard xM and it's often more difficult than it needs to be to determine if what you're reading applies to the Black or not.

selsinork wrote:

 

but those links don't stay forever and once it goes the higher profile it gives will be lost and we'll vanish back into the bowels of the knode to be forgotten again..

And right there you've identified the single biggest problem with the knode.  A group has strong permanence, whereas knode places its emphasis on ephemeral discussions, all mixed up at top level.  It doesn't have the same degree of focus.  Searching and navigation problems are just fallout from that.

Drew Fustini wrote:

 

Is there something that is lacking?  Or is it just that it is buried too deep under the Knode?

 

One last thought, even here, there's fragmentation.

There's "enter to win a BeagleBone Black" in Dev kits and Learning center, "The new BeagleBone is Back in Black" in Single-Board computers. both posted by e14 employees it appears.  Whatever happens, wouldn't it be a good idea to have all the Black related stuff in the same place ?

selsinork wrote:

 

As a suggestion let's have a BeagleBone Black only group.

I think that would be best.  Only the Black will sell in very high volumes from the current Beagle lineup, only the Black is seen as a direct Pi competitor for many applications, and only the Black will result in large numbers of beginner-level questions which we will need to handle helpfully as a community.  A Black-specific group will support that well.

The fact that even E14 staff posts have been scattered all over the map owing to lack of Black focus is funny, but true.

Ping.