Re: [libreoffice-website] choice of forum software

On Wed, 2011-11-30 at 03:08 +0100, Christian Lohmaier wrote:

> What would you want to extend it with? 

Some features to consider - just ramblings at the moment..

==== hey hey, not so fast =====

For new registrants:

Meter post frequency - for instance, minimum of 5 minutes between posts
_until_ 3 posts or 30 days after registration, whichever comes first
(just an example, so please don't start discussing specifics on exact
counts/periods here) - this will kill most serious spamming attacks in
the least intrusive way possible.

Meter search frequency  - defense against the poor man's DOS attack -
usually tied to new registrations again.

======= You use what ==========

Custom user profile fields - i.e. Version of the application and OS used
- nice to be able to flag these fields as required during registration
time
- custom fields display in public profile on posts
-- cuts way down on the 'what are you using because you didn't tell me',
pre-question, question exchange, quite a bit.

===== do the bump or disco lives =====

[a bump means to push an existing question that has received zero
responses back to the top of the list, as if it where a new question]

bump delay, this is the minimum period of time that must pass before the
original poster (or moderator) can manually bump the topic - haven't
seen the acp for JForum so don't know if this has it or not.

Ability to set auto bump and length of time before this happens - really
nice if the auto-bump can be forum specific - cause you really don't
care in a general chit chat list, but have a fairly long wait period for
say a coding list and a short period for an install help list.

[I'm used to seeing systems that limit the number of bumps for any
single question to two]

===== a rose by any other name ===

karma is called ranking in some systems - though it can also be handled
with custom groups - it is considered important by most people that use
web forums often - but again almost all forums handle it in one way or
another.

What ever system used it is best if it is not tied only to post count, 
- all forums (web or email) tend to have a few energetic individuals,
heavy on posts, light on useful content 
-  think about the effort that went into the karma rules on the osqa
test platform.

==== smile for the camera =====

avatars, well, I don't care that much but I guarantee you others do.

gravatar - please no - but that is my personal preference

Smilies - no idea why this matters so much to some, but it does - so
adding custom ones is a nice, very nice, feature.

==== exit stage left =====

anyway - a few quick thoughts of the top of the head

I've sent some emails out to people whose opinion I value on this
subject...not much feedback yet..

So - just to let you know, tomorrow I will be putting forward the idea
that you should go ahead and launch the AskBot site - but not a BBS
style forum at this point - my suggestion, make the decision 1 week from
today.

//drew


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