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Discussion Forums/Problem Statement: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with "This is a "problem statement" trying to explain what problem our current Discussion Forums are attempting to solve. As the current solution is not awesome, people often get to th...") |
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It's not at all clear that removing this requirement will make any difference. As long as we have mailing lists, we can convert them to news in various ways, including the gmane.org service (where anyone can apply to have it done, not just us). Also, the last time we did a survey, a significant proportion of current users used this access method. | It's not at all clear that removing this requirement will make any difference. As long as we have mailing lists, we can convert them to news in various ways, including the gmane.org service (where anyone can apply to have it done, not just us). Also, the last time we did a survey, a significant proportion of current users used this access method. | ||
Ditching the news requirement would allow us to just go wholly to Google Groups. We would then, at least, have everything in the hands of one organization. However, [John Resig has some thoughts http://ejohn.org/blog/google-groups-is-dead/] about why that might not be a good idea. They are unlikely to be any more responsive to problem reports than they are now. | |||
===Why can't we ditch the mailing list part? I hate mailing lists. That'll make things better.=== | ===Why can't we ditch the mailing list part? I hate mailing lists. That'll make things better.=== | ||
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===Why can't we ditch the web part? I hate the web. That'll make things better.=== | ===Why can't we ditch the web part? I hate the web. That'll make things better.=== | ||
For an organization which makes a web browser, this would be a... surprising move. The web is also the only way to provide convenient searchable archives, so there needs to be some web presence for the forums. It might be possible to ditch the writeability of the web-based access method (i.e. just have archives, not posting). Also, you may have heard this before, but the last time we did a survey, a significant proportion of current users used this access method. | For an organization which makes a web browser, this would be a... surprising move. The web is also the only way to provide convenient searchable archives, so there needs to be some web presence for the forums. It might be possible to ditch the writeability of the web-based access method (i.e. just have archives, not posting), but removal of the ability to post via the web would raise the barrier to entry of discussions. Also, you may have heard this before, but the last time we did a survey, a significant proportion of current users used this access method. | ||
===Why can't we go news-only? One thing is much easier to maintain than three.=== | ===Why can't we go news-only? One thing is much easier to maintain than three.=== | ||
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===Why can't we go mail-only? One thing is much easier to maintain than three.=== | ===Why can't we go mail-only? One thing is much easier to maintain than three.=== | ||
Presumably you mean mail-only with a web-based archive? Amazingly, it seems the open source community has still not managed to come up with mailing list management software with a decent web-based archiving interface. | Presumably you mean mail-only with a web-based archive? Amazingly, it seems the open source community has still not managed to come up with mailing list management software with a decent web-based archiving interface. And removal of the ability to post via the web would raise the barrier to entry of discussions. | ||
===Why can't we go web-only? One thing is much easier to maintain than three.=== | ===Why can't we go web-only? One thing is much easier to maintain than three.=== | ||
The UI of web-based discussion forums, particularly with relation to threading and unread message markers, still hasn't caught up with email and news. It's very hard to consume a large quantity of information this way. | The UI of the web-based discussion forums we can find, particularly with relation to threading and unread message markers, still hasn't caught up with email and news. It's very hard to consume a large quantity of information this way. | ||
===Why don't we bring it all in-house?=== | ===Why don't we bring it all in-house?=== | ||