What caused me to start the thread was watching these two get shut down:
The latter especially looked like a sincere exchange of information that could have been useful if it had it been allowed to continue.
Well, I feel this is somewhat misguided, in the sense that I am pretty confident implementing either would grow the user base, albeit I am not a DLNA user (it really frustrated me and I avoid it like the plague) and I have my Roon library organized to the point where folder browsing would seldom be useful to me. But I have to think there are a fair number of folks that install Roon, point it to their audio file folder and have it indexed, and then go to play an album to see how it sounds and they can’t find that album, decide Roon is garbage and go no further – some of those are the ones that started threads asking about folder navigation and why isn’t the most obvious means of finding something available.
Browsing by folder structure to get your feet wet in Roon but with a familiar organizational scheme might bridge that gap and bring users to appreciate other (better for music) navigational schemes. I also believe there are occasions when it could help with problem solving - i.e. where is that album in Roon and why isn’t it showing up? I need to navigate to it somehow to see where the issue is.
But that said it is your product. I can’t make Roon implement anything, and to be honest, I care much more about being silenced when I state my opinion than I do about those as potential features. Topics don’t need to be locked unless they devolve into insults etc.
This goes along with my sense that in general there is a group of Roon users that are almost religious about it, literally to the point of being hostile to other points of view. I promote Roon to all my friends and other music fans. I have, many times, had someone install Roon on their phone or ipad so they can drive my collection and see how great Roon is. But there are others that seem to almost take personal offense to any suggestion Roon can be improved, or that a given feature would have value to some. And to me shutting down any suggestion of folder browsing is a representation of that.
Merging seems fine to me. Keeping the forum organized and relatively easier to use is great. Closed, without the purpose of mere organization or preventing flame wars is what gets to me.
I appreciate everyone’s point of view. I don’t appreciate if it is just done in a mocking fashion or “because Roon said so.” To me, closing perfectly civil discussions is a representation of authority gone bad. I grew up an authority-resisting punk rocker and it’s just who I am.