Re: [xwiki-users] Drop mailing lists in favor of a forum software

Hi, IMO it makes a lot of sense to use a forum solution for users (when it does not for devs). When I was working with WordPress software, I was reading a lot forum threads (they are using their other product, bbPress). I wouldn't have thought about subscribing to a mailing list, I didn't even know they existed. I was not Open Source minded, so are a lot of people using XWiki and willing to contribute good feedback. A forum is so much easier to read (topics, dates, tags, rates) and much less geek.

I am +1 for a forum solution for users. -- Thibaut On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Andreas Hahn <ahahn(a)gmx.net> wrote: > Am 14.03.2011 09:16, schrieb Vincent Massol: >> On Mar 13, 2011, at 10:00 PM, Andreas Hahn wrote: >> >>> Am 10.03.2011 17:39, schrieb Paul Libbrecht: >>>> Please contradict me! >>> Paul, >>> actually - how could I do this ? >>> I'm not an expert in forum software so I'd to go for the naive approach >>> - comparing features e.t.c. >>> >>> I was hoping for some insight that it is beneficial for the whole >>> project to encourage users first to browse and then to participate - >>> even if it means for you and the others around here to give up beloved >>> habits. >>> >>> Anyway - I'm not going to push you guys back to the future of Web 2.0. >>> >>> Given the lame participation when compared to the survey 4 years ago it >>> seems to me that quite some people have already left the boat and it may >>> not matter anymore. >> I'm not sure how to read your last 2 paragraphs. >> >> Just note that fro my POV there's no "you" and "me" here. There's only a > global community and you're part of it. That said at some point some people > are going to need to work to make it happen, this is where the distinction > will happen. How far are you willing to help? Maybe a first step would be > that you help find either a forum software that fits the bill or a hosted > service that would work for us. >> >>> From the people who answered so far my feeling is that: >> * people seem to agree in general that at least for users a forum would > be nicer >> * since xwiki committers provide a substantial amount of answers to the > user list as of today it would be nice that they can continue to have the > information coming to me > > For my own FOSS project I'm hoping to start soon - I'll be going with > http://stackoverflow.com. Providing support means checking the site for > tagged questions a couple of times a day. It's just one mouse click. For > me it makes no real difference in getting mails or checking a forum as > long as you have a one-click list of open topics. > > Gathering all the information about all possible options and criteria > can get very time consuming so I think we should try to rule out > something first. > > Forums that are operated by other providers (getsatisfaction, > stackoverflow, ...) might > * be discontinued without warning (see jive) > * change their policy later (no more free forums) > * not expose user mail addresses and forum content (or might change that > policy) so you're locked in. > * not be as flexible as own forums if you want to change something (add > category, ...) > > OTOH operating an own forum > * requires admin efforts (must be maintained and updated, backups, ...) > * may not be as publicly visible as that of other providers (because of > their advertisements ...) > * may not be as innovative as special forum operators ('awarding for > active participants', ...) > > In addition there are concerns valid for both: > * Is it important to somehow import the existing mail archive ? > > So IMO this is the first decision - is it ok to rely on somebody else ? > and then decide which one. > > I'd be ok to spend time on it once its clear which way to go. > However - as for me - nothing will happen fast as beside of my daily > work I already have a side project so this is kind of > side-project-side-project. > > Now for getsatisfaction - I don't know anything about it except that > what can be found on their site. > They don't seem to offer free accounts for open source. I've also seen > no indication you can get mail alerts for new contributions. > > So how do we approach this ? > > bye > Andreas > >> My personal POV is indeed that I'd like a forum for both the > participation part (ie awarding status/points to active participants to > surface them) and the categorization part but indeed I don't see myself > going to the forum so it has to come to me. I think this is easy to achieve > since on forums like getsatisfaction you can subscribe to the whole forum > and thus receive all posts. What would be even better is if I could post or > reply by replying to the mail. >> >> Now back to getsatisfaction I think before we could use it we'd need to > check: >> * are there any limitations for free open source forums? What's their > position on open source? >> * how can we get all the posts in a neutral and standard format should we > want to move to another tool later on? >> >> Thanks >> -Vincent