Revive DiasporaForum.org in order to properly support users and podmins

Oh! is very clear why the lists do not work, it’s a real nonsense we use google products, a hybrid between forum and mailing list simil google groups seems to me the best solution, but never depending on google, I have observed that there are not many supporters wordpress. why if we work the domain DiasporaForum.org on mailman? Mailman is mailing list , discussions may be available on web, I’m not sure if can answer via web.

No, mailman doesn’t allow replies via a web form.

Proposal: Create a discussion forum to help support users and podmins

I propose creating a forum as a visible online presence for Diaspora community members to support each other. Properly run, a forum could complement the current channels for help and support and I believe that a forum would improve the levels of support offered to both users and podmins.
It will also enable users to search the archive for previous answers to their problem before asking for help.
I would be happy to host this forum myself using the open source YAF forum suite on my existing enterprise level Microsoft servers, with no third party adverts and no third party analytics.


Outcome: N/A

Votes:

  • Yes: 12
  • Abstain: 3
  • No: 7
  • Block: 1

Note: This proposal was imported from Loomio. Vote details, some comments and metadata were not imported. Click here to view the proposal with all details on Loomio.

I would love to see diaspora* improved (complete and improve wording of the help section, better tags federation, possibility to make queries to search old post) to allow support inside diaspora*.
And I definitly want to move mailing list outside of google. We need someone to deal with that.

@jonnehass Was the original closing date for the proposal not long enough?

@rich1 I always try to include at least two weekends.

@jonnehass Cool, thanks, I’ll do the same on future proposals

@davidmorley That’s one of the issues with forums in general really - they’re only as useful as the content posted within and the interaction from the members. If nobody posts questions on the forum, it’ll die out. If nobody answers questions on the forum, it’ll die out.

As mentioned in discussions on this subject in D*, if you’re a podmin looking for help and your D* pod isn’t working properly then D* isn’t the place to host that support option. A forum would be a good alternative in this instance.

There are good points and bad points to every option available to us and we as a community should be working towards whichever provides the best outcome for the end product user.

In other words, just go for it @rich1 - unless you did mean an official forum and not just a forum?

If it’s not official, why do we vote about it?

@jonnehass exactly. I see no mention in the proposal about creating an official forum :stuck_out_tongue:

I think that’s implicit by the fact that we have a proposal here. If it’s just to check the community’s desire, the place to ask such a question (it’s not even formulated as a question btw.) would be diaspora itself or the mailing lists.

I’m extending this by a week to clarify this - @rich1 can you please clarify the proposal on whether you intended that the forum should be officially supported and possibly maintained by the project and maybe situated at forum.diasporafoundation.org OR if you mean to create a forum that would be not officially maintained by the project in any way?

I think it’s important to make this distinction - it would affect many votes here.

(and of course in the case of the latter - there is no need to vote, just feel free to go ahead and set a forum up - of course it’s good to discuss things first on what kind of forum would suit most. but since you are keen on hosting one you have the end choice in how to do it :))

This proposal needs to be for an officially supported forum.

To clarify the level of official support required from DHQ, the forum would need:

  1. A link from the Foundation web site to the forum
  2. The links in the right hand “Need Help?” section of Diaspora updated to include a link to the support forums
  3. Endorsement / mentions / reshares by the DHQ account in order to spread the word

An unofficial forum wouldn’t need to be on Loomio as anyone can/could set one up on any domain and platform they choose.

Perhaps a new (and clearer) proposal is in order? I wouldn’t want people voting for something they could potentially have not understood correctly.

An official forum is extremely necessary, just embarrassing use google gorups. If no agreement for an official forum, must be independent, but we must do.

@rich1

To clarify the level of official support required from DHQ, the forum would need:

A link from the Foundation web site to the forum
The links in the right hand “Need Help?” section of Diaspora updated to include a link to the support forums
Endorsement / mentions / reshares by the DHQ account in order to spread the word

Looks like a good proposal to me! :slight_smile: First decision for the need for a forum, then we can talk about how and where to host it. IMHO I’d close the current one and start a new proposal along the lines you wrote above, which clearly indicates what is voted on.

I’d like to see a forum available again for help. I don’t see any need for it to be ‘officially supported’, certainly not from the outset. I don’t see any reason why Rich can’t go ahead and set up a forum on his own servers using the DiasporaForum.org domain as suggested in the original discussion, and see how it goes. This forum can certainly be mentioned from ‘official’ sources such as Diaspora HQ without actually endorsing it, so that people who want help can find their way there. If it gains traction and proves useful as a means of mutual support and help, a proposal could be made then to move this from a resource provided by a community member to an ‘official’ forum, if that was thought to be preferable.

I was going to vote ‘yes’ because I thought the proposal wasn’t for a forum to be officially supported; now I’m not sure what to vote, so I’ll leave it there. But, Rich, how about just setting up DiasporaForum.org as you originally suggested, as this seems to have a lot of support? Then, if it proves a success, we could have a discussion about making that forum ‘official’ at that point.

Hi, @Rich, if you’re not open another proposal, I would like to contact with you to think where we’ll continue discussing your interesting project.

juansantiago@joindiaspora.com
juansantiago@diaspora.net.gr

Hi everyone.

I think the plan will now be along the lines of Goob’s suggestion.

I’ll make a start on setting up a community-run discussion forum and we’ll see how it goes.

Anything more formal at a later date will come back here for decision :slight_smile:

@juansantiago I’ve just added you now, get in touch, I’d love to hear your thoughts :slight_smile: