Discussion Forums/Request For Comment

Mozilla is interested in gathering feedback on how the community feels about the state of Discussion Forums (mailing lists, newsgroups) and how they can be improved.

Please contribute to this document.

Status Quo

At present, Mozilla IT manages two Mailman v2 instances, **one** for 'simple' Mailing Lists (various -AT-mozilla.org addresses) and **the other** for a Newsgroups + Mailing Lists (a.k.a. "Discussion Forums") which have @lists.mozilla.org email addresses, and corresponding Newsgroups hosted at news.mozilla.org, provided by GigaNews and synced to Google Groups.

Discussion Forums are the [primary form of communication] for projects within Mozilla, and are available over the most kinds of mediums: email, newsgroup or via Google Groups' web interface; all posts are synced (hopefully) across all other mediums, and the user not bothered with the details. To encourage the largest range of voices, we want to be available in a seamless way to as many formats and devices as possible.

Problems

Spam

SPAM has been a huge hassle in the past and is tricky problem to solve. IT is deploying a well-trained Spam Assassin to catching incoming junk mail.

Google Groups Syncing

For various reasons, Google Groups has had trouble accurately syncing with the posts from news.mozilla.org, particularly newly created lists , causing confusing and fragmentation.

Desired Features

Web Interface

The ability to reliably post from a webpage to a Discussion Forum (as would be expected in a traditional 'Web Forum') is sorely lacking from Mozilla. Google Groups (as mentioned previously) is not always reliable with our forums, and has a distinctly foreign feel.

Mailman currently can provide read-only archive of messages.

Mobile

A tablet or mobile-friendly interface, as a growing number of users will be using Firefox for Android, etc.

Suggested Improvements

Mailman version 3

Mailman v3, has a number of promising advancements that could improve the current state of our Discussion Forums.

Multi-domain support. Allows IT to combine the two separate instances of Mailman, potentially.
Persona (OpenID) Support
Web interface (Django), user posting and administration

Jive Social Intranet

http://www.jivesoftware.com/social-business/solutions/social-intranet/features

Miscellaneous

Mozillian Jabber

Modern Jabber (XMMP) is a flexible instant messaging system. Mozilla could create chatrooms that synchronize to corresponding IRC channels, but be available over a protocol supported by most modern Instant Messaging clients that new users are more likely to have. This would facilitate easier 1-on-1 communication in a safe and secure way, possibly even making use of @mozillian.org account names.

Mozillian Diaspora

Open Source 'Social Newsfeed' software exists, and has been shown to generally work. Should Mozilla pursue hosting Social Network tools for Mozillians (community members and volunteers, plus Mozilla employees)?