A place for Kyocera brands?

If there's to be a new forum topic on Kyocera, it may need some guidelines in a sticky about what it could or should contain. Since it would be open to reading by non-members, I'd suggest that we would still use the other member-only topics for things like 'buy-sell-trade' when they'd be appropriate, and lump them into the mix as we would any other item in the same topic.

It might also be reasonable to add one other sub-topic under 'Repair and Maintain' that would be dedicated to Kyocera branded cameras that were not co-branded versions, as I'd assume they wouldn't have any internal resemblance to Yashica engineered products, or share parts or adjustments or assemblies or repair 'methods'. 

I'd also offer a suggestion on what Kyocera products it might contain. I'll assume that most members (and most visitors) equate any "Yashica" gear as-discussed in this forum, as items produced by the owners of the Yashica moniker and trademark, between 1949 and 2005, and whatever might have been produced up until 2015 when the remaining parts and support units were closed - and "Yashica" as a named entity only, was sold. This obviously includes any Contax and Zeiss branded gear while it was licensed to Yashica (and later, under Kyocera, as it's wholly owned subsidiary), and additionally might include any 'Yashica' re-licensed products produced by others, as well as any Tomioka branded items that were produced between 1968-2015. I think these same criteria might reasonably be used to timeline what could be considered a piece of Kyocera photographic gear to include, when it falls between October of 1983, and December of 2015, and should include at the very least, any item solely branded as "Kyocera".

Co-branded items might muddy the waters when it comes to brand interest for members and visitors, and might not be the better alternative to just using a Kyocera topic, for the non Yashica or Contax related Kyocera era products. There are probably enough of them that aren't co-branded to warrant having a new topic, and it would clearly separate them from what fits in the current topic sections used for Yashica branded items.

I'm unsure of what gear may or may not have been manufactured uniquely by them, and solely branded as "Kyocera",  so there may be some late stragglers outside the suggested time range. If there were later models beyond 2015, I'd be lost to attribute a date for them myself, so I'll leave that for those who might be better informed to fill in a cut off date - if - that would be necessary for a definition of what to include.

I agree entirely with you on not needing a separate section .... it avoids making decisions on all of the questions I raised here and probably will save quite a bit of cross-linking between topics and posts .... and possibly forum searching. It also avoids having camera bodies, lenses, accessories, repairs, and brochures subsections lumped into one heading called Kyocera, just because the item/topic has Kyocera somewhere in its title!

I'll go with the flow in any case ... just making what I think are a few valid points.

As to Xkaes final point .... I think he has just achieved his goal 

If there's to be some inclusion needed to somehow recognize Kyocera branded gear, there still seems to be differing views on how to do that. The majority of those who placed a vote want a new topic section, but there's also opinions that the brand is included already. It's become clear that no decision made will make everyone 100% happy, so I'll seek to find a middle ground as a compromise, and revisit the decision after it's implemented to remedy whatever issues it may present.

For the time being, I'll create a new subtopic under 'Repair and Maintain' that will accommodate discussion space specifically for Kyocera branded gear. Not co-branded, not Kyocera-era gear of any type, but any model of photo gear that carried only the Kyocera brand and logo. I'll place a Sticky Topic in it to spell this out in detail, as a 'Read Me First' topic. I think we might all agree that the mechanical, and electronic elements used in the later Kyocera-only camera models appear to have no Yashica pedigree in them, and the designs - both inner and outer - likely didn't originate at a major level from pre-Kyocera era designers or engineers. Without a complete and full tear-down to verify it, they certainly appear to be separate cameras, from a separate company (or several companies, for licensed 3rd party re-branded models, when manufactured outside of Kyocera) and have no "Yashica" influence other than the marketing channels they flowed through on the way to consumers. Kyocera repair and assembly manuals and links for them can still reside in the existing topics for manuals as it is, so there doesn't seem to be another new section needed for one single brand or accessory type.

I won't be including any "Kyocera" upper topic section for the time being. As it stands now, there are general topics that should continue to accommodate Kyocera products, just as they do now for anything branded as either Yashica or Contax, and splitting hairs over 'step children' of the same parent company doesn't seem to be productive for anyone else in the same family tree. The only differences that currently seems to warrant separation for now are the ones that are 'genetic'... internal parts, repair methods, donor gear, repair advise, etcetera. If there is no crossover or shared internals to any other product models that came before them, then a unique topic category for the brand may be useful, and at least the brand is specifically named and announced as inclusive to topics generally suited within this forum.

From the standpoint of forum construction and use, it takes mere minutes to create a new topic or subtopic section and/or reposition them or existing ones into any order. If something sits little-used, or totally unused, it doesn't affect the rest of the forum in how it functions. If it takes up virtually no space and is trivial to setup, then it's only a matter of "will it get used?", and how moderators will have to maintain the additions, by moving or splitting/merging posts when needed, or deletions or edits, or adding polls, or redirecting users. Whether it's used - or not - is up to the members themselves.

I can only see one .... "Repair and Maintain" .... have I jumped the gun and this is "work in progress?

Anyhoo .... it could be a good compromise, doing it this way. Thumbs up Lumi