Forum OpenACS Q&A: New forums - someone summarize status please

1: New forums - someone summarize status please

Posted by Don Baccus on 07/17/02 08:49 PM

OK we've had a long exhaustive thread on new forums for non-techies, newbies, etc ... I've been too busy to follow in detail so I thought I'd ask a couple of questions to help me understand whether or not we can wrap up and move forward.

Is there consensus among those participating as to what new forums we should start up?
If so, can we have an actual list of names posted here by someone involved in the thread so we can haggle over (fine-tune) the exact titles we give these forums?
Anyone want to volunteer to write "about" intros for one or more of the new forums?
Who should moderate/take a lead on making sure questions get answered? I saw at least one volunteer for at least one forum ...

Pardon my impatience - the thread got long. If we can get a firm list of forums, "about" teasers etc we can get them up in the next few days.

If I'm premature and there's no consensus then let's flail away 'til we get there.

2: Response to New forums - someone summarize status please (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Koot on 07/17/02 09:29 PM

Here's your 1st volunteer 😉) I called myb service TimeDesk, and have plenty of time for whatever is needed, alslong it's not hacking or graphic design.

3: Response to New forums - someone summarize status please (response to 1)

Posted by Torben Brosten on 07/17/02 10:33 PM

As someone helping to sort out and write the docs, I really could use the resource of a "new user"(non-techie) forum and an admin forum. (I volunteer to support what I propose).

I'll post descriptions for these hopefully by Friday --the flurry of doc related posts over the past day is beginning to eat into my billable-time schedule.

4: Response to New forums - someone summarize status please (response to 1)

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 07/17/02 10:59 PM

I'd like to split of OpenACS evangelism category into a seperate bboard. Though calling it evangelism or OpenACS marketing is probably not the best thing to do (though it should exactly cover those topics). Maybe we could call it "OpenACS@com". And yes, I would maintain and foster the forum.

5: Response to New forums - someone summarize status please (response to 1)

Posted by xx xx on 07/18/02 12:36 PM

My conclusion from this 'new-forum' thread would be:
- create a new designer AND a new admin user-forum. Remember designers and admins have completely different questions (and coding level)

There are some objections against a newbies forum. Categorisation of messages and UI orientation of the Bboard are preferred by some, but this needs new code and/or code adjustments. Suggestion for the future?

My comparers-forum (july 12), other's evangelism-forum, marketeers-forum or dotLRN-forum could serve questions that are not related to the development of code or the use of code.

If new forums are added, please document the purpose of the forums (and the level of the audience).

6: Response to New forums - someone summarize status please (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 07/18/02 07:04 PM

the flurry of doc related posts over the past day is beginning to eat into my billable-time schedule

You and me both - that's why I posted this plea for a summary!

OK, sounds like "OpenACS Evangelism" with Malte is in (I have no problem with this name, do others?)

"admin" and "new users" with Torben in charge seems in

Ben Koot ... will just help out by trying to answer questions etc? Or does Ben want to play a moderating role, too? (in all honesty I can't remember having ever "moderating", as in "deleting or editing", a post here though I'm sure the time will come when we'll get trolled by outsiders).

There's another idea afoot - fold the OpenACS 4 design and test forums into the general OpenACS forum since most such questions are landing there anyway and OpenACS 4 talk now heavily outnumbers OpenACS 3 talk. This would happen as part of our migration to the 4.x-based OpenACS.org site. (the new bboards mentioned above won't have to wait, of course!)

Any more thoughts?

Malte and Torben ... if you guys put together the forum descriptions and formal names I'll put out another post (new thread) listing the specific proposals. Unless there's significant opposition after that's done, I'll make the forums.

How does this sound as far as process goes?

If you agree, just e-mail me when you have the descriptions and formal name proposals ready (we're talking a paragraph or two at most).

7: Response to New forums - someone summarize status please (response to 1)

Posted by Cathy Sarisky on 07/22/02 05:16 AM

I'd be in favor of splitting off an openACS 3.x forum, separate from the Q&A forum. With the intermingling of 3.x and 4.x comments and questions in this forum (and the less than stellar search interface), finding questions that have been asked before is getting tricky. Or at the very least, separate 3.x categories within this forum would be helpful, if we could search by category.

I'ma bit worried about balkanizing the forums too much, but at the same time, having everything in one huge forum isn't so great either.