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digitalmars.D - enhancing forum features: 1click upvote, sorting, 1click duplicate etc

reply "timotheecour" <thelastmammoth gmail.com> writes:
I just stumbled upon http://sublimetext.userecho.com/ which hosts 
a forum (integrating ideas, discussions, questions, news, feature 
requests etc) for a text/code editor (sublimetext, which seems 
nice btw, and supports D :-) ). It is powered by userecho.

(disclaimer: I am NOT affiliated in any way with either userecho 
or sublimetext).

I was wondering whether there would be any interest in migrating 
towards something more feature rich than the current dlang forum, 
possibly userecho, or at least enhancing a bit the features of 
the current forum.

Here are some things that it provides, compared to the dlang 
forum:

integrated bug report, feature request etc (dlang has 2 separate 
websites for bugs (http://d.puremagic.com/issues) and other posts 
(http://forum.dlang.org/)

1 click upvote/downvote for ideas/questions/feature requests 
(dlang only has it for 
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/enter_bug.cgi and it's not as easy 
therefore sparsely used, and one has only 10 votes)
We actually want to encourage easy voting to pop up interesting 
questions/bugs/requests, and vote down spammers or dumb 
questions. Currently it's easy to get lost for popular posts.

1 click to report as spam or duplicate (especially the latter 
would be very useful for bug requests)

ability to post videos which could be useful for tutorials etc 
(eg : 
http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/59029-code-folding-doesnt-work-if-code-isnt-indented/)

ability to sort posts by top rated/newest/most commented etc.

good searching, and statistics functions
etc.


Another nice feature would be to allow forum users to enter 
editable/runnable code sections as in the http://dlang.org/ front 
page. That would be very useful to report bugs or answer usage 
questions. That would encourage users to post working code.
Jul 27 2012
next sibling parent reply Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg gmx.com> writes:
On Saturday, July 28, 2012 07:31:49 timotheecour wrote:

 I was wondering whether there would be any interest in migrating
 towards something more feature rich than the current dlang forum,
 possibly userecho, or at least enhancing a bit the features of
 the current forum.


Is it built on top of NNTP? If not, then it's a no-go right off the bat. 
forum.dlang.org isn't really a forum in the normal sense. It's merely a web 
interface for a newsgroup, and many of us access it either through newsreaders 
or as a mailing list and never use the web interface at all.

Also, it's a big deal for us that forum.dlang.org is written in D. It's 
actually attracted a fair bit of attention for D as well -  due primarily to 
its speed.

Maybe some other features can and should be added to it, but we're going to 
want to continue to use a web interface written in D. It would just plain look 
bad to switch to something else now, especially when what we have has been 
getting such positive attention.

Also, I'm not sure that there's much point in adding much in the way of 
features that would have no effect on anyone accessing the newsgroup through a 
newsreader or the mailing list. For instance, voting of any kind would only 
happen from those using the web interface, so that would skew things 
considerably and might make them useless, depending on what they're used for.

Any features suggested for forum.dlang.org should take into account the fact 
that it's only an interface for a set of NNTP newsgroups, and that only a 
portion of the posters use that interface.


 integrated bug report, feature request etc (dlang has 2 separate 
 websites for bugs (http://d.puremagic.com/issues) and other posts 
 (http://forum.dlang.org/)


There's only one place for bug reports: http://d.puremagic.com/issues

Bugs merely reported in the forum are likely to be ignored. It's not the place 
for reporting bugs.

- Jonathan M Davis
Jul 27 2012
parent reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On 7/28/2012 2:53 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:


 Is it built on top of NNTP? If not, then it's a no-go right off the bat.
 forum.dlang.org isn't really a forum in the normal sense. It's merely a web
 interface for a newsgroup, and many of us access it either through newsreaders
 or as a mailing list and never use the web interface at all.


This is why I've never liked the 'forum' moniker being used here. 
Regardless of what it means in the real world, the word means a very 
specific thing in web parlance. And I'm sure that many newcomers aren't 
going to realize that the web interface actually is a web interface to 
an NNTP server. That inevitably is going to lead to comparisons with 
existing web forum packages, which really aren't relevant. Of course, 
it's possible to implement such features on top of what already exists, 
but given that those sort of things can't propagate to the NG or the 
mailing list interface, it's rather pointless.

I would have been happier to see a real forum in the first place (way 
back when). For several years now, the D newsgroups have been the only 
reason I keep a newsgroup client installed. But we really shouldn't be 
calling the web interface a forum, because in internet terms it really 
isn't.
Jul 28 2012
parent Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2012 16:44:36 +0900
Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> wrote:


 On 7/28/2012 2:53 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
 

 Is it built on top of NNTP? If not, then it's a no-go right off the
 bat. forum.dlang.org isn't really a forum in the normal sense. It's
 merely a web interface for a newsgroup, and many of us access it
 either through newsreaders or as a mailing list and never use the
 web interface at all.


 
 This is why I've never liked the 'forum' moniker being used here. 
 Regardless of what it means in the real world, the word means a very 
 specific thing in web parlance. And I'm sure that many newcomers
 aren't going to realize that the web interface actually is a web
 interface to an NNTP server. That inevitably is going to lead to
 comparisons with existing web forum packages, which really aren't
 relevant. Of course, it's possible to implement such features on top
 of what already exists, but given that those sort of things can't
 propagate to the NG or the mailing list interface, it's rather
 pointless.
 
 I would have been happier to see a real forum in the first place (way 
 back when). For several years now, the D newsgroups have been the
 only reason I keep a newsgroup client installed. But we really
 shouldn't be calling the web interface a forum, because in internet
 terms it really isn't.


I see it as being the same thing, the only real key difference is
whether the backend happens to be through SQL or NNTP, and that's just
an implementation detail.
Jul 28 2012
prev sibling next sibling parent Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2012 07:31:49 +0200
"timotheecour" <thelastmammoth gmail.com> wrote:


 I just stumbled upon http://sublimetext.userecho.com/ which hosts 
 a forum (integrating ideas, discussions, questions, news, feature 
 requests etc) for a text/code editor (sublimetext, which seems 
 nice btw, and supports D :-) ). It is powered by userecho.
 
 (disclaimer: I am NOT affiliated in any way with either userecho 
 or sublimetext).
 
 I was wondering whether there would be any interest in migrating 
 towards something more feature rich than the current dlang forum, 
 possibly userecho, or at least enhancing a bit the features of 
 the current forum.
 
 Here are some things that it provides, compared to the dlang 
 forum:
 
 integrated bug report, feature request etc (dlang has 2 separate 
 websites for bugs (http://d.puremagic.com/issues) and other posts 
 (http://forum.dlang.org/)
 


A few additional notes, beyond what Jonathan said:


 1 click to report as spam


The few spams we get end up getting deleted quickly anyway. We wouldn't
really gain much from this.


 1 click upvote/downvote for ideas/questions[...]
 
 1 click to report as duplicate

 ability to sort posts by top rated/newest/most commented etc.
 
 and statistics functions


These are just "bells and whistles" frills. I really don't see much
need for them. And yea, voting on posts is the "in" thing these days,
but that doesn't mean we need it.

Of course, if Vadimir added this stuff to DFeed then fine, even great,
but they're far too trivial to be reasons to switch.


 good searching, 


startpage.com
Query: site:forum.dlang.org foo

(Or use google directly if you like Big Brother watching)


 
 ability to post videos which could be useful for tutorials etc 
 (eg : 
 http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/59029-code-folding-doesnt-work-if-code-isnt-indented/)
 


There's already a way to post videos. It's called the Internet ;)

Off the top of my head:

- Attach file
- Torrent
- Post URL from:
   - HTTP/FTP server
   - Filesharing service
   - YouPoop or YouPoop competitor


 
 Another nice feature would be to allow forum users to enter 
 editable/runnable code sections as in the http://dlang.org/ front 
 page. That would be very useful to report bugs or answer usage 
 questions. That would encourage users to post working code.
 


There's already a couple sites that do that for D. Like with the videos,
I don't see any point in it being integrated into a forum. That'd be
like duct-taping a screwdriver to a phone.
Jul 27 2012
prev sibling parent Russel Winder <russel winder.org.uk> writes:
On Fri, 2012-07-27 at 22:53 -0700, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
[=E2=80=A6]

 Is it built on top of NNTP? If not, then it's a no-go right off the bat.=


=20

 forum.dlang.org isn't really a forum in the normal sense. It's merely a w=


eb=20

 interface for a newsgroup, and many of us access it either through newsre=


aders=20

 or as a mailing list and never use the web interface at all.


[=E2=80=A6]

Another activity I am involved with (which shall remain unnamed to
protect the guilty) moved from a pure mailing list (which annoyed those
who think forums are great and that email is so last millenium) to a
pure forum with no email list capability (which really pissed of those
of who are mail oriented and think forums are spawn of the devil and
should be nuked).

To preserve an online community you have to have a system that services
those who like forums and those who like email.

Sadly most of the new cloudy forum systems think email is something
people had to do in 1980 but no longer need. This arrogant disdain of
personal work flow is just as bad as saying forums have no place in the
world.

Newsreaders are a different issue ;-)

--=20
Russel.
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=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Jul 28 2012