[Devel] forum research

[Mark Freeman]

OK, I've done the install and updated the notes.   FUD does appear to
have the slightly better feature set (it has mailing list
integration), although they are practically neck and neck on this
front. When it comes down to looks and "looking like it is part of the
OH site", Vanilla still has my vote.

It's a real toss up. In the end, regardless of the features, I like
the look and 'feel' of Vanilla better.  FUD looks dated.


On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 7:22 PM, Mark Freeman <mark at timewasted.net> wrote:
> I apologize as I must have forgotten about FUDForum being mentioned
> before.  I just took a quick look at the features available and it
> looks quite good.  I will try installing it now and seeing how it
> looks.  I'll update everyone with more details shortly.
>
> On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 7:07 PM, Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org> wrote:
>> On Sun, 19 Jun 2011, Mark Freeman wrote:
>>
>>> Good morning everyone.  I apologize for being unable to make it to
>>> yesterday's meeting, as Saturday afternoons tend to be a little tough for me
>>> to make.  I was hoping to be able to get on and update everyone as to my
>>> work thus far.
>>>
>>> I finished looking at a few options and made my notes and recommendations
>>> available here: http://openhatch.org/wiki/Choosing_a_forum. As expected, the
>>> options really came down to the first few packages that were recommended
>>> during last week's meeting.  I was especially impressed with Vanilla, as my
>>> recommendation shows.
>>>
>>> Hopefully this will trigger some discussion so we can make a decision on
>>> how to proceed.
>>
>> Mark, thanks for working so much on this!
>>
>> I notice FUDForum didn't make the review; is there a reason for that?
>>
>> Assuming that FUDForum shouldn't make it, here's how I see it:
>>
>> * Vanilla looks great visually, out of the box, and is designed to be an
>> excellent forum. (I've actually been kind of in love-at-a-distance with it
>> since I first heard of it in 2005ish.)
>>
>> * If we install GroupServer, so far, it seems that I'll be the one to
>> maintain it. (If it's even installable!) I'm not particularly interested in
>> personally being the one to maintain more stuff on the OpenHatch server(s).
>> If we drop Mailman, I might possibly be up for it.
>>
>> What I think is that, for now, we should give up on the dream of solid
>> integration between the web forum and email lists. Then we can use Vanilla
>> for at least two forums: (1) "User help" (e.g., "I am stuck on this training
>> mission!"), and (2) OpenHatch Publicity chatter.
>>
>> For now, I think everyone on [OH-Publicity] is also on [Devel], so I'll ask
>> here:
>>
>> If (for example) we move the Publicity group to be a web board, would that
>> be the kind of thing that would *stop* anyone who is involved now from
>> contributing? (Note that with Vanilla, you will be able to susbscribe to
>> receive email updates about a thread or a board automatically. You just
>> can't hit "reply" in the mail client.)
>>
>> If not, then I think the best next step is to install Vanilla, figure out
>> how to get the login integration going, and then try using it for Publicity
>> chatter, and also figure out other uses for it and open it up to that.
>>
>> How does that sound?
>>
>> --
>> -- Asheesh.
>>
>> http://asheesh.org/
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>