My initial thought is definitely yes for the Steam Machine, and maybe yes for the Steam Frame.
All devices are Valve made hardware running steamOS, so I would think a lot of the discussions/content would apply to Steam Deck. This also isn’t a super busy community, so I wouldn’t be that worried about Steam Deck specific content getting buried.
The Steam Frame is a bit more iffy than the Steam Machine though, there’s a lot of experience differences between the Deck/Machine and a VR device, so there will be larger differences. Also the Frame has ARM hardware and has to use an additional x86 to ARM compatibility layer for games running on it, so we’ll probably see some unique compatibility bugs for it.
Overall though I just want to hear everyone else’s opinions on it.
Yes, it makes sense to expand the community to be steam devices as a whole.
Community displayed name should probably change to Steam Devices or something like that.
Yes; it makes no sense to have multiple communities when the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are so similar to the Steam Deck. It may be that in the future it makes sense to split out topics if their isn’t overlap, but I’d say the community isn’t flooded with content and there is a lot of overlap between these topics that will benefit everyone.
I think that there is a somewhat decent chance that there will be an ARM Steam Deck Mini at some point. The Steam Client will probably be released for ARM distributions. I think for the foreseeable future there will be a considerable overlap of topics between thee devices.
I think should there be a flood of posts regarding hardware tinkering of the other devices (people sharing faceplate STLs for Machine or addons for the Frame’s expansion port), they could be directed to dedicated communities but for now IMO it’s fine to be inclusive.
I think that there is a somewhat decent chance that there will be an ARM Steam Deck Mini at some point.
Damn. I hope so. I play many indie retro style games, and my favorites are all on my Steam account. I would get so much use out of a truly pocket device with good retro controls and my Steam account signed in.
Edit: Alternately, somebody needs to release a dedicated pocket device with “Donut Dodo” pre-installed, and we can call it good enough for an few months.
Yes, altho I wouldve liked the name of this community to then changed to steam hardware (I dont know if thats even possible) but it works like this too…
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dude…
I vote yes, and change the name so it isn’t just deck
One more yes from me. All hail Gaben
Feels like the more accurate name moving forward would be “SteamOS Hardware”.
I’d say yes. If the volume becomes overwhelming new communities can easily be created.
Agreed, the fediverse is small enough now that living aggregate communities are preferable to dead specific ones. Especially because everyone hates posting something, getting their post removed and being told to go post in another very similar community they didn’t know existed. As you said, if it becomes a problem you can just spin off
Fragmented communities is such an annoying problem in the fediverse.
The problem can also be a positive, so that communities for more specific niches can be created, or to have alternatives for already existing ones with different management philosophies.
User numbers are still far too low for this to be a practical positive imo.
yes
Personally, I like the idea of becoming more of a “Steam Hardwares” community, as them being all kinda niche but close in scope, they shouldn’t conflict with each other nor turn the community into a too generalist one.
gabeware
FTFY
All hail the Gabecube.
But the Gabe Companion Cube…
Yeah, community being split up might just lead to inactivity for certain hardware if it isn’t popular enough. There’s enough overlap with SteamOS that I think being all in one is the best route. Maybe if lemmy gets way more users in the future then splitting up discussion to dedicated hardware communities might be an option, but for now better to be one.
I wouldn’t be opposed. New community name could be SteamHardware. They share an OS and ecosystem and people interested in one would likely be interested in the others.
I’d appreciate one place to discuss the whole steam hardware ecosystem, so yes.
I don’t know why you would, except in relation to how they work with the steam deck.
Sure! The only thing I’m worried about taking over the community is the Steam Frame. There’s a chance it becomes super popular. But if that happens, we can just make a new community for it. No biggie.
Yes, Assuming that renaming a community without creating a new one isn’t possible.
The best way would be to just rename to “steamhardware”, but losing everyone in the process is certainly not worth the rename for clarity.
Excuse me, did you just blatantly ignore the possibility of ‘Steamware’??
