Forums Proposal

[marcpare]

There is a forums proposal on the discuss list[1] and on it we have proposed a forum category for this list[2]. There are 2 major sections to the LibreOffice Forums, there is a "User forums section" and a "Contributor forums section". The "contributor" section of the website is where serious contributor work gets done for the project -- a clear distinction from the "user" section which is there to help users in need. The contributor forums mirror those of the mailing lists and these are to give the option to those mailing lists who would prefer to use the forums instead of mailing lists or would like to test the members' response to a possible move to the forums. * Note that both sections will be open to public; we are hoping that this will help promote the contributor side of LibreOffice and to encourage those who are interested to move to contributor teams.

We are hoping to hear from a lead in this list (after discussion with your members) as to whether you would like to:

* move the list to a forum (there would be a short transitional period where the mailing list/forums would exist together and then the mailing list would be closed. OR

* not use the forums at all (at which point the forum would be deleted from the forums site). OR

* test-try using both the forum and this mailing list for a period of time after which you would decide on which one to keep. A test-period of perhaps 6-9 months may be enough to accomplish this.

Feel free to respond on this thread or to any of the co-coordinators should you have any questions.

The LibreOffice Forums co-coordinators: Jonathan Aquilina, Lucian Oprea, Joel Madero, Marc Paré, Jean Spiteri

[1] http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.discuss/8319
[2] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At9lOM8_6gsLdDBmOUJVOURpM0hmNTgySWxCV0VzVWc#gid=0

[Hazel_Russman1]

Personally I prefer forums to mailing lists as I don't really like
having my mailbox cluttered up with posts that often don't concern me.

[Mark_Stanton]

In the "discussions with your members" section, my two penneth worth
is that, for me, I use forums for when I have a problem that I need
to solve *now*. Mailing lists are general reading and background.
The upshot is I would read a forum much less often than a mailing
list.

2c well spent?

Is there really no option to use a forum that has a "receive by
email" email option? I know the advertisers & marketing people don't
like this, but that's no excuse.

Regards
Mark Stanton
One small step for mankind...

[jfn]

Think so.

Like Mark, I think there are two uses of internet questionning:

1. One-shot questions

John Doe often has a question s-he wants to solve right now. In this POV, mailing lists are often bothering the casual questionner: necessity to subscribe, overflooded mailbox because of a lack of knowledge of what a mailing list is, difficulty to unsubscribe, etc.

2. Long-term discussions

A mailing list brings the messages directly to the personnal mailer, where they can be read and kept for as long as necessary for future reference. Moreover, the mailer software allows for sorting and organizing the threads.

To jump on Mark's shoulders (if he doesn't mind ;), and WRT this *documentation* list, I see two uses:

-- the casual questions "is there a doc about Base?" which resorts to a forum. The question at hand being: do we need a forum for that alone? IOW, would a general purpose forum not fit the bill? Side note: shouldn't this be clearly answered on the web pages?

-- the long run discussions about a doc in progress, which, IMO, better belongs to a mailing list such as this one.

So, as you guessed, my opinion *about documentation* is to keep the list as it is now and not have a forum at all.

My 2 euro-cents.

[jeanweber]

For people working on producing documentation, I think a forum often
works better for discussions about a doc being planned or in progress,
because people (particularly newcomers to the group) can come into the
discussion and more easily find earlier comments on a forum thread
than by checking the archives of the mailing list (where discussions
are more likely to get broken into multiple threads).

But for immediate announcements like "this doc is ready for reviewing"
or "this doc is now published" or "Ping Jean: xxxxx" it's handy to
have the mailing list. I also want to use the blog for this purpose
(among others) and get a LiboDocs Twitter account (and perhaps a
Facebook page or G+ page) to reach other people. No one would need to
subscribe to more than one medium in order to receive announcements,
but the number of people with write access to the blog and Twitter
account would be more limited and thus they would not be a primary
means of communication... more a chance to reach people who might not
otherwise see the info.

Yes, I realise people use different tools to track and sort
discussions, and in fact I often find a forum extremely difficult to
use because my only access may be a slow phone connection (with small
display screen), sometimes for days or weeks at a time. So,
personally, I prefer a mailing list but only for that reason.

My vote at this point would be to have both for Docs and try them
out... see how it works in practice for the majority of the group.

--Jean