Why No Discussion Forum?
Hi, I'm a mere newbie here so I apologise for shooting my mouth off ...again.... I'd like to ask the question, why is there no Koha Discussion forum? It's standard practice all over the web, a super efficient, proven paradigm. Are mail lists not a bit archaic in this day and age? I think one of the biggest problems with the current archived list is that it's not searchable and that its organisation is just time-based, rather than being subject/topic based. I't very time consuming to read back through 100's of postings to find out if anything has been posted previously on various issues, epecially for newbies. Koha's not an easy bit of software, but truly wonderful when its up-and-running. It deserves much more exposure. It deserves the best possible support forum. I would imagine the vast majority of folks are just give up on it after tinkering a bit. And putting out the appropriate word-of-mouth 'advertising'... If there is a lack someone willing provide the webspace I'd be prepared to host 'forum.koa.org' Apologies if this has been discussed before. Bo
I'd like to ask the question, why is there no Koha Discussion forum? It's standard practice all over the web, a super efficient, proven paradigm. Are mail lists not a bit archaic in this day and age?
At this point in Koha's development I think it's up to how the Koha developers prefer to communicate. We're still at the point where the base of experienced Koha users is small enough that most of the help we're getting online is from the folks who are actively developing Koha. I disagree with the statement that forums are super efficient. I find it more time consuming to try to keep up with forum posts that I do with email. I think it's harder to keep track of all the new posts in a forum. That would put the developers in a more difficult position in terms of trying to make sure questions got answered.
It's very time consuming to read back through 100's of postings to find out if anything has been posted previously on various issues, epecially for newbies.
The mailing list archive can be searched, just as a forum can. In fact, the mailing list can be read as a forum if you wish. See the options here: http://koha.org/community/mailing-lists.html -- Owen
Thanks for the responses and personal perspectives. My thoughts were primarily in relation to making Koha more accessible to 'library people' around the world. Online forums are the tool of choice for online communities, the fora of many famous projects have become information repositories of great value. People are hugely webcentric these days. In the short time I've been here, I've seen numerous single posts by people who asked one question and then simply vanished. -"Koha? Looked good but, too hard!" I would venture that over time these translate into much lost opportunitiy to build a stronger, more vibrant Koha community. Just some thought from a newbie...hopefully no offense taken.
The mailing list archive can be searched, just as a forum can. In fact, the mailing list can be read as a forum if you wish. See the options here:
I've been using the web format a lot, finding the threading a lot easier to follow AND I must apololgise: I did not see the *search* function at the bottom of the page. Thanks Owen! That solves my personal issue of making sure I do not burden the list with topics discussed previously. Best Regards, Bo
----- "Bo Schafers" <bo@weavebrain.com.au> wrote:
Thanks for the responses and personal perspectives.
My thoughts were primarily in relation to making Koha more accessible to 'library people' around the world. Online forums are the tool of choice for online communities, the fora of many famous projects have become information repositories of great value. People are hugely webcentric these days. In the short time I've been here, I've seen numerous single posts by people who asked one question and then simply vanished. -"Koha? Looked good but, too hard!" I would venture that over time these translate into much lost opportunitiy to build a stronger, more vibrant Koha community. Just some thought from a newbie...hopefully no offense taken. None take here. I think we'd certainly be willing to point forum.koha.org to a forum that you manage. One challenge will be finding folks to check it.
The mailing list archive can be searched, just as a forum can. In fact, the mailing list can be read as a forum if you wish. See the options here:
I've been using the web format a lot, finding the threading a lot easier to follow AND I must apololgise: I did not see the *search* function at the bottom of the page. Thanks Owen! That solves my personal issue of making sure I do not burden the list with topics discussed previously. While it may seem that a forum is the 'modern' way to interact, and some library communities do prefer it, the fact is, it's a matter of
Most of the core developers for for companies that have to spend most of their time helping paying Koha customers ... we work on the Koha project and answer questions people have in our spare time. In the business world, some open source projects have reached a point that the users hire people to work on the project itself. I have high hopes that will happen in the library community as well. Ultimately Bo, this is _your_ project too, so feel free to make suggestions like this, and get actively involved, it's much appreciated. preference. Email and forums were invented at nearly the same time, and people have been arguing about which is better for decades :-). Bo, if you think having a forum for the Koha community would be a good idea, and you've got the resources to host and maintain it, I say lets do it. Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf@liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS
"Joshua M. Ferraro" <jmf@liblime.com> wrote: [...]
While it may seem that a forum is the 'modern' way to interact, and some library communities do prefer it, the fact is, it's a matter of preference. Email and forums were invented at nearly the same time, and people have been arguing about which is better for decades :-).
Actually, I think email distribution lists date from at least 1977 (RFC 733) while forums must date from after the first web page in around 1990 http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#Examples Anyway, that's not why I'm emailing. Please, if anyone puts up a forum, can it have the following features: 1. Some sort of bridge to koha.lists.katipo.co.nz, either gmane-like or summaries being sent back and forth; 2. RDF Site Summary (RSS-1) feeds of latest threads/topics; 3. Follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - in particular, no eyetests for registration or posting. ? Thanks, -- MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Experienced webmaster-developers for hire http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ Also: statistician, sysadmin, online shop builder, workers co-op. Writing on koha, debian, sat TV, Kewstoke http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
----- "MJ Ray" <mjr@phonecoop.coop> wrote:
"Joshua M. Ferraro" <jmf@liblime.com> wrote: [...]
While it may seem that a forum is the 'modern' way to interact, and some library communities do prefer it, the fact is, it's a matter of preference. Email and forums were invented at nearly the same time, and people have been arguing about which is better for decades :-).
Actually, I think email distribution lists date from at least 1977 (RFC 733) while forums must date from after the first web page in around 1990 http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#Examples Right ... I guess I meant more the format of a forum, which has been around since the old BBS systems ... but anyway ...
Anyway, that's not why I'm emailing. Please, if anyone puts up a forum, can it have the following features: 1. Some sort of bridge to koha.lists.katipo.co.nz, either gmane-like or summaries being sent back and forth; 2. RDF Site Summary (RSS-1) feeds of latest threads/topics; 3. Follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - in particular, no eyetests for registration or posting. Good ideas ...
Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf@liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS
"Joshua M. Ferraro" <jmf@liblime.com> wrote:
Actually, I think email distribution lists date from at least 1977 (RFC 733) while forums must date from after the first web [...] Right ... I guess I meant more the format of a forum, which has been around since the old BBS systems ... but anyway ...
First BBS 1978-02-16. http://foldoc.org/?BBS I'll get my goat. -- MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Experienced webmaster-developers for hire http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ Also: statistician, sysadmin, online shop builder, workers co-op. Writing on koha, debian, sat TV, Kewstoke http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
Dear BO / All Discussion forum is good idea. Koha community may easily and effectively communicate through such forums. As far as list is concern, all emails are searchable. You can visit http://www.nabble.com/Koha-f14380.html for all emails there. Regards, Ata On 6/5/07, Bo Schafers <bo@weavebrain.com.au> wrote:
Hi, I'm a mere newbie here so I apologise for shooting my mouth off ...again....
I'd like to ask the question, why is there no Koha Discussion forum? It's standard practice all over the web, a super efficient, proven paradigm. Are mail lists not a bit archaic in this day and age? I think one of the biggest problems with the current archived list is that it's not searchable and that its organisation is just time-based, rather than being subject/topic based. I't very time consuming to read back through 100's of postings to find out if anything has been posted previously on various issues, epecially for newbies.
Koha's not an easy bit of software, but truly wonderful when its up-and-running. It deserves much more exposure. It deserves the best possible support forum. I would imagine the vast majority of folks are just give up on it after tinkering a bit. And putting out the appropriate word-of-mouth 'advertising'...
If there is a lack someone willing provide the webspace I'd be prepared to host 'forum.koa.org'
Apologies if this has been discussed before. Bo _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On 6/5/07, Bo Schafers <bo@weavebrain.com.au> wrote:
I'd like to ask the question, why is there no Koha Discussion forum?
Koha lists are archived and searchable through google, which gives hits here: http://www.nabble.com/Koha-f14380.html http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.misc.koha I don't know about others, but here's my take on this. I do not use forums. I don't want to have to remember to go to a site and log in to something else. E-mail comes to me. I have a clear way to filter, sort and archive my email unlike most forums I've interacted with. Maybe this is less so these days, but probably true among many Koha users around the world still: e-mail is faster and more lightweight for those on slow, expensive or inconsistent internet connections. Forums would not serve this segment of the Koha community as well as an active email list. --Jason
Hey, Bo! I guess you are using e-mails in a web-based way. Give some Mail User Agents (e-mail clients) a try, such as Thunderbird[1] or Mutt[2], you will find the power of mailing lists:) But of course, they may take some time to understand how they function. [1]http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ [2]http://www.mutt.org/ Bo Schafers wrote:
Hi, I'm a mere newbie here so I apologise for shooting my mouth off ...again....
I'd like to ask the question, why is there no Koha Discussion forum? It's standard practice all over the web, a super efficient, proven paradigm. Are mail lists not a bit archaic in this day and age? I think one of the biggest problems with the current archived list is that it's not searchable and that its organisation is just time-based, rather than being subject/topic based. I't very time consuming to read back through 100's of postings to find out if anything has been posted previously on various issues, epecially for newbies.
Koha's not an easy bit of software, but truly wonderful when its up-and-running. It deserves much more exposure. It deserves the best possible support forum. I would imagine the vast majority of folks are just give up on it after tinkering a bit. And putting out the appropriate word-of-mouth 'advertising'...
If there is a lack someone willing provide the webspace I'd be prepared to host 'forum.koa.org'
Apologies if this has been discussed before. Bo _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
-- 续本达 Xu Benda Fundamental Science of Mathematics and Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R.China, 100084 tel:86-10-51531861 http://learn.tsinghua.edu.cn:8080/2005012177/index.html
Hero_xbd!.RRR wrote:
Hey, Bo!
I guess you are using e-mails in a web-based way. Give some Mail User Agents (e-mail clients) a try, such as Thunderbird[1] or Mutt[2], you will find the power of mailing lists:)
But of course, they may take some time to understand how they function.
Can you enlighten me here? I'm using Thunderbird but see no good way of reading mailing lists that is different from ordinary mail reading. I get my inbox spammed and revert to nntp (in Thunderbird) if available.
I guess you are using e-mails in a web-based way. Give some Mail User Agents (e-mail clients) a try, such as Thunderbird[1] or Mutt[2], you will find the power of mailing lists:)
Can you enlighten me here? I'm using Thunderbird but see no good way of reading mailing lists that is different from ordinary mail reading.
I'm not sure what the original poster had in mind, but to me the nicest feature of both Thunderbird and Mutt with regard to mailing lists is the ability to sort by thread. That lets you easily go back and forth through a conversation without having to resort to extensive quoting to keep track of what everyone is talking about. Combine that with a filter that puts all your mailing list traffic in a separate folder, and you've got a setup that's easy to read and keeps out the non-list traffic (and spam). In Thunderbird to view messages by thread choose View -> Sort By -> Threaded. -- Owen
participants (8)
-
Ata ur Rehman -
Bo Schafers -
Hero_xbd!.RRR -
Jason Ronallo -
Joshua M. Ferraro -
MJ Ray -
Owen Leonard -
Thommy M.