Re: [libreoffice-website] choice of forum software

Hi Drew, *,

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 5:11 AM, drew <drew@baseanswers.com> wrote:
> 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..

OK - those you listed don't sound like you'd need a big extension or
something, but let's walk through them nevertheless.

> ==== 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.

Don't think this will stop spam. JForum already integrates with
stopforumspam, that is probably a more efficient way. It also has a
forced delay between postings, but the default of 15seconds (and
milliseconds as units) indicate that this is more targeted to prevent
user-accidents.

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

It's using lucene as index - and lucene is seriously fast. So
requesting random (and thus non-cached pages) would more likely cause
a DOS probably.

What could easily be done is to have new users be on moderation only,
but the promotion to "can post without moderation" has to be done
manually, so too much work unless the spam really is a problem.

> ======= 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

Don't agree here, as those mentioned are more or less useless, and
don't fit many users anyway. Many use both Windows and Linux, and
while they are using 3.4.1 when registering, they soon after install
3.4.2, then 3.4.3, then 3.4.4, and don't bother to update their
profile.

> - 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.

This is what I hate most about forums. The unrelated information added
to each and every post that makes web-searches for a specific product
useless.
It is nice to know that <someuser> owns the device, but I don't give a
damn when he talks about his cats in the posts.

Rather than this, I'd modify the enter-a-post page to show a big hint
regarding giving the necessary version and OS information.

> ===== 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.

Hmm - as there is no special "bump" feature, a topic is "bumped" by
sending a reply. I don't want to limit people from providing
additional information that they found out about. And I don't want to
hinder people from posting a solution they found out themselves just
after hitting "send". (Often enough when explaining your problem to
others, you see "openings" for a solution). So I cannot think of a
sensible way to prevent this/make it useful.

If the time is short - it is likely in the new posts anyway, if much
time has passed, then bumping the topic is legitimate. Also I wouldn't
limit it to posts with no reply, there are enough forum posts with a
reply, but no answer. So it is not really feasible.

> 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.

If a user didn't get a reply/answer for two weeks, and doesn't provide
more info, asks for more details - what makes you think a bump will
change the situation?

Honestly, instead of auto-bumping it should be
auto-moved-to-trashcan/the category for unanswered posts.

I doubt the usefulness of this. And once you get to the point where
you have 20 or 30 unanswered posts, if all of them get auto-bumped you
will create a worse situation, since new questions will me moved out
of the active-topics-viewers sight. Automatic bumping only creates
noise (IMHO).

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

Did in your opinion the auto-bumping help at all? (well, surely
depends on the amount of postings in the forum, and the topic of the
forum, but still - did it help?)

> ===== 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.

Karma = the user's reputation, determined by the score of the person's postings.
i.e. you can rate a user's posting, and the user's karma will depends
on the ratings he received for his posts.

> 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

Yes - I fully agree - there is the possibility to define Rankings by
post-count, but I don't plan on using them.

> ==== 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.

All check. you can use avatars, and you can use gravatars (don't
really see the difference, as you either got a gravatar account and
your avatar hosted, or you get a created logo that is used as avatar -
unique image to distinguish between users...)
And also check for smilies - it's possible to extend the list at will.

ciao
Christian

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