Suggestions on forum improvements

[pschaff]

A bit stale I admit, but was drawn back by the new post in the topic and had some new thoughts.

Guess I ought to use the editor tools rather than format tagging by hand if I'm going to skimp on the proof reading. :oops:

[AlanBartlett]

To me, that new post is (or was) nothing more than a spam vector. :-x

I doubt that there will be further postings by that user.

[quote]
Guess I ought to use the editor tools rather than format tagging by hand if I'm going to skimp on the proof reading.
[/quote]
At least a moderator has an unlimited time frame in which to re-edit a post . . .

[pschaff]

RHIP - why don't you join up?

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
RHIP - why don't you join up?
[/quote]
We're getting a bit OT here but as you are tweaking [b]burakkucat[/b]'s tail, I'll mention that initial [i]feline[/i] discussions on that subject have taken place. By all means give [b]toracat[/b] a bump when you next pass each other . . . ;-)

[pschaff]

I do seem to recall [b]toracat[/b] mentioning being able to retire when you got ready to step in. Seems to me we have room and work for more than one cat.

OK - enough OT already!

[memilanuk]

Phil, Alan,

Given some discussion elsewhere I've looked around a little at phpBB, mainly because 1) its what I see being used @ forums.debian.net, 2) it seems to work well enough there and 3) its free ;) vBulletin as used @ ubuntuforums.org costs $$$ and while it might be appropriate for what is frankly a larger community, I think it might be overkill for here/now. Not being a forum *admin* I don't really have a feel for how complex any of these options may be on the maintenance front, or in terms of migration.

One thing that was interesting to note is that there is/was a package called mail2forum that worked with phpBB for mailing list integration - one of the concerns noted elsewhere was the potential dilution of questions/responses over too many different options such as mailing lists, IRC, forums, wiki, etc. This looked like it might be able to serve to tie the two (mailing list/ web forum) together a bit, and provide for an integrated search. The downside... right now phpBB has moved to version 3, and m2f doesn't appear to have kept up (being a volunteer project and real life making demands, from the sounds of it). One possible option might be move to phpBB3 and add m2f when it gets caught up.

One of the posts above mentioned the whole 'portal' bit... I tend to agree; make the portal lead to the forum, but not enclose it.

One other question/comment... exactly what forum software *is* this place using? Normally if I dig around a little I can find a small 'phpBB' or 'vBulletin link at the bottom of a page, etc. but I'm not finding anything on these pages...? Going by the url, I'm guessing its NewBB, part of the Xoops CMS system - neither of which I'd ever heard of before searching around for 'NewBB'. Then again, I'm not exactly the most up-to-speed on CMS and such :-?

Monte

[toracat]

Yes, it is Xoops with the forum (newbb) module.

[EDIT] It is NewBB 2.0 version 2.02 Final dated January 29, 2005. http://dev.xoops.org/modules/xfmod/project/?newbb

[pschaff]

The forum moderators don't really have much to do with the choices for Website 2.0 other than offering opinions. Those decisions will be made by core developers with input from many community members. The discussions mainly occur on the [url=http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-devel]centos-devel ML[/url]. A couple of recent threads:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2009-December/005237.html
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2009-September/005029.html

[memilanuk]

Phil,

That December thread was one that I was referring to... its too bad that m2f isn't really functional for phpBB3 right now, or it'd render the whole mailing-list vs forum argument somewhat moot.

Not quite sure what to make of the LDAP bit... is the use of LDAP required because of the Xoops CMS? I'm somewhat ignorant on these matters, but I thought phpBB could be setup to use whatever db flavor the user desired (mysql, postgresql, etc.), so I'm not following why LDAP? Also... I see that page was last updated 8 months ago... is it still under active consideration?

tora,

Thanks for the info. When I started digging up info on Xoops/NewBB I saw some dates from that time period and thought I must be not looking in the right spot... I thought most forum software development was a little more active than that. Security fixes, if nothing else, and the changes to php 5.3, etc.

Monte

[pschaff]

[quote]
memilanuk wrote:
Phil,

... I'm somewhat ignorant on these matters...[/quote]

Me too. :-)