On Mar 17, 2011, at 8:23 PM, Thibaut Camberlin wrote:

> 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.

Thibaut we *already have* a forum...

Your argument isn't quite valid since you also need to subscribe in a forum to 
post!

If you just want to browse the list: http://xwiki.markmail.org

Thanks
-Vincent

> I am +1 for a forum solution for users.
> 
> --
> Thibaut
> 
> On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Andreas Hahn <[email protected]> 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
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