[K12OSN] Opinions on a Forum

[Shane Sammons]

Hi Everyone,

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.

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.

I am willing to host it and provide a license I have or use a free forum
like phpBB or Simple Machine. I have a lifetime Invision Power Board license
that I am not using anymore and can easily place on a subdomain of the site
I registered it with. I think vBulletin would be a great board to have, and
I know the XML based mods for it make it VERY easy to add awesome features
to, I just don't have a license for that one.

So that said, what are your thoughts and reasons pro or con.

Mine Pro:
*We can organize, categorize, and sub-forums things
Think of things broken down like Client Setup -> Brand -> Model with topic
for each system, how much cleaner could it be?

*Its able to be searched, no need to use Google, though we all love it, you
need not take an extra step
*We can rank members, give awards (special ranks), and if modded even more
potentially
*We can moderators to help manage posts and topics, editing, and more is
available.
*It is database driven, which we can export and move elsewhere is the time
comes
*It is convertible, most major forums convert between each other without
topics loss
*Member groups allows easy identification of developers, contributors,
company reps, etc. and can be optional
*You can still "subscribe" to topics and forums to still get email updates
of events.
*We can make guides and topic solutions that can be submitted to the Wiki
*Because of categories the community can have "other" topics to help branch
out beyond the scope mailing list

Here are the pros I can think of:
Requires Internet browser, can't just use your email.
Will likely require a login, at least in most areas.
Likely to confuse people as its like the mailing list and might be thought
of as just "one more web page to visit"
Requires community interaction and support to operate adequately.
Loads the server as all users are connected to a single point, not their
inbox.

Well hopefully that is a good start, and you can all share with me. I would
like to help this project out, and I feel a forum is the one area I can
contribute. However, I just want to make sure it is a valid option and
choice to help out with.

Thanks,
Shane
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