[K12OSN] Opinions on a Forum

[Steven Santos]

Shane,

This has been discussed here before.  The bottom line with it is that it
just wouldn't fit with everyones current workflow nearly as well as an email
list does.  My vote for changing to a forums set-up would be a no.

Something like PHPBB and Mail2Forums was sugested, allowing everyone the
best of both worlds, but no one ever did anything with it.

While my vote for changing to a forum is a no, I think a forum could add a
lot. If you are gun-ho about this, if you have the time to put into this,
the technical skill to do this, and you really wanted to create a site that
would start to change peoples minds, you would have to offer them content
that they will use and that is easier than what they currently do.

Here are some ideas for you to think about:

- a single board with feeds to/from all of the various LTSP mailing lists
(Ltsp-discuss, Ltsp-developer, Ltsp-announce, Ltsp-translations.

- a google coop search for LTSP specific websites.

- set up a bot to allow automated captures of irc.freenode.net #ltsp and
#ltsp-docs conversations and then have the transcripts automatically posted
to the site (politics of that are up to you to figure out...).

- a news blog or newsletter type thing for LTSP, with news summeries from
the various lists, IRC's and CVS changes.

- an updated a set of key links to good LTSP websites.

- set up a "K12LTSP-Teachers" forum, and answer questions in that forum
(hard questions can easily be forwarded to this list for more technical
help)

- set up torrents for all K12LTSP ISO's

- Try to figure out other ways to get LTSP content on such a site that would
draw people in and help enhance the community, rather than trying to change
it.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Steven Santos
Director, Simply Circus, Inc.
Email: Steven at SimplyCircus.com
 Mail: PO BOX 620753
       Newton, MA 02462
Phone: 781-799-4938
 eFax: 309-214-0899
  Web: www.SimplyCircus.com
  -----Original Message-----
  From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com]On
Behalf Of Shane Sammons
  Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 2:34 PM
  To: K12OSN at redhat.com
  Subject: [K12OSN] Opinions on a Forum


  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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