<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 11/13/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Shane Sammons</b> <<a href="mailto:shane.sammons@gmail.com">shane.sammons@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div>Hi Everyone,</div> <div> </div> <div>I had a little side questions about a forum in a previous question. However, I wanted to be a member here for at least a week to see the flow and organization of stuff here.</div> <div> </div> <div>Now I have decided it is time to ask your thoughts and opinions on forums. Not to replace the mailing list, but to offer a more interactive, community driven, better organized, and active resource to add to the items K12LTSP and such might have. I think a lot of good can come from it, but only if many people agree and willing to use it. </div></blockquote> <div> </div> <div>My vote is NO.</div> <div> </div> <div>Let me quickly go through your list of Pros:</div> <div> </div> <div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div>*We can organize, categorize, and sub-forums things</div> <div>Think of things broken down like Client Setup -> Brand -> Model with topic for each system, how much cleaner could it be?</div></blockquote></div> <div> </div> <div>We should capture information and put it on a Wiki. A set of messages/problems do not necessarily fit one category, or is not posed in such a way to fit an existing category, but can be post-edited to follow some hierarchy. If someone is having severe issues and can't categorize it as being their client, their server, or their switch, then most issues will originally end up in a catch all group anyway, or worse the wrong group. </div> <div> <div> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div>*Its able to be searched, no need to use Google, though we all love it, you need not take an extra step</div></blockquote></div> <div>K12OSN can be searched also from the mailing list webpage I thought? If not, then is using Google really that hard? Some people may not realize there is a mailing list and by using Google they can find it, it will be much harder if Google can't spider our forum boards as easily. </div> <div> </div> <div> <div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div>*We can rank members, give awards (special ranks), and if modded even more potentially</div></blockquote> <div>I don't see a need for this. Most people on the list are naturally helpful and don't have to be tossed trinkets such as a rank or award to help others out.</div> <div> </div></div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div>*We can moderators to help manage posts and topics, editing, and more is available.</div></blockquote> <div>I for one am bogged down as it is with all the Linux and educational FOSS mailing lists I am on and I don't know if there are too many people that will raise their hands to do more work. I also believe in the free and open flow of information, without moderators. </div> <div> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">*It is database driven, which we can export and move elsewhere is the time comes</blockquote> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">*It is convertible, most major forums convert between each other without topics loss</blockquote> <div>These really don't count. You assume we want a forum to begin with so not losing the information and converting the forum data to another forum system is a good thing.</div> <div> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">*Member groups allows easy identification of developers, contributors, company reps, etc. and can be optional </blockquote></div> <div>Just have people add it to their signatures, but please no more then 6 lines or 200 characters.</div> <div> </div> <div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div>*You can still "subscribe" to topics and forums to still get email updates of events.</div></blockquote> <div>This could be useful.</div> <div> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">*We can make guides and topic solutions that can be submitted to the Wiki</blockquote> <div>Nothing stopping us from doing it now.</div> <div> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">*Because of categories the community can have "other" topics to help branch out beyond the scope mailing list </blockquote> <div>There are already other mailing lists and associations out there. To think that we can take something that is very technical and branch out and get more members might be harder then you think. Hosting for other groups or creating an umbrella association may be better, but then we already have SchoolForge. </div> <div> </div> <div>Darryl<br> </div></div></div>