Re: [Perfparse-devel-int] Support forum on sf.net

[Flo G. <fl...@bi...>]

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Yves wrote:

>> The one problem I can see is posting a question to the news groups
>> without subscription.  Anonymous email may not work if the user does not
>> know where the answer will be seen.  Although currently possible.
>
> People usually subscribe or say they did not subscribe and would like to 
> be in CC for the answer.
>
>> I would like to consider a user forum in wiki a little further, as a
>> second support mechanism.  Let me list (in no order) some reasons:
>>
>> 1 Keeps users close to FAQ and other helpful information.  They may see
>> the answer before the 'dump post' we all hate making :)
>
> You can (additionnaly) edit the web page where you explain where to 
> subscribe and add that users should read on wiki.perfparse.org before 
> asking for something.
>
>> 2 Easy anonymous posting of a question.
>
> There is always a way to post an anonymous question :) Besides this, in 
> some countries, you (as the maintainer) would be responsible for the 
> contents of anonymous posts. Flo, where is wiki.perfparse.org hosted ? 
> Any idea about what the law says ?

It's in germany, and i have to be aware of what people write there. But 
every user has to register and needs a valid email for that. so chances 
are that we don't get to much rubbish there. We had bad experiences with 
totally anonymous questions. to many links to porn pages were posted.

>
>> 3 Email alerts possible for the rest of us.  (Check, is this possible?)
>
> I prefer a form that send the question directly to the mailing list and 
> returns to the user that some answers may be found on the mail archives. 
> I prefer it this way in order to centralize everything in the mail 
> archives.
>
>> 4 Keeps posting/viewing/searching on the same server.
>
> mail archives :)
>
>> 5 Ensure entire PP project in same look/feel, when style sheets agreed.
>
> You cannot do it because of the mail archives :)
>
>> > This is something we have to decide : how do we provide support ?
>> > Because our support is free, we have to find a way not to spend too
>> much time on it.
>>
>> See point (1) and (4).  The user in search of an answer can access lots
>> of information in same location.  Then they can post an anonymous
>> question.
>
> We can do this another way : everywhere the mailing-list appears, 
> prepend "Read the FAQ on wiki.perfparse.org before" :)
>
> This should be done even if you choose to use the forums.
>
>> At the moment we are too disconnected.  The information may be on one of
>> three web sites, or in an email archive.  This may lead to replication
>> of information and confusion by users.
>
> This is my best argument to reduce the number of communication channels.
> 1/ www.perfparse.org
> 2/ wiki.perfparse.org
> 3/ mail archive
> 4/ mailing-lists
>
> Adding a forum would be a 5th channel even if hosted on wiki.perfparse.org.
>
>>
>> > We have the mailing-list and the html archives. If you insist on
>> html, the only missing
>> > part is a form to send a mail to the mailing-list and say that the
>> answer will probably
>> > be in the archives :)
>>
>> Totally agree.  One solution is a CGI program to accept a question, post
>> it to our groups and send them to the archive.  But I can see two
>> problems with this:
>>
>> 1 There is no mechanism to let them know of an answer.
>
> This is the cost of anonymous posting on somewhere nobody can be 
> connected : with mails, the mail comes to you. With forums, you go to 
> the forum but nothing comes to you.
>
>> 2 It requires a http server which is not part of the archive http
>> server, which is closed to us.  So you cannot link from the archive back
>> to the question page.  So users viewing the archive will not know of
>> this nice page we provide to add to the archive :)
>
> Maybe that's too complex ? Should we do things simpler and stupid ?
>
> Yves


Tikiwiki has a forum build in (but i don't know how good it is) and this 
forum can be feed by a mailinglist (sourceforge mailinglist). But as you 
said: keep it simple. If a user wants support, he has to do something: 
register at sourceforge, wiki or whatever. If not, he has to read the 
source :-)

Yes. don't open to many channels.

Flo