From opoudjis@optushome.com.au Sat Dec 21 22:27:59 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: opoudjis@optushome.com.au X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_2_3_0); 22 Dec 2002 06:27:59 -0000 Received: (qmail 35652 invoked from network); 22 Dec 2002 06:27:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m4.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 22 Dec 2002 06:27:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail019.syd.optusnet.com.au) (210.49.20.160) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 22 Dec 2002 06:27:58 -0000 Received: from optushome.com.au (c17180.brasd1.vic.optusnet.com.au [210.49.155.40]) by mail019.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id gBM6Rvs32066 for ; Sun, 22 Dec 2002 17:27:57 +1100 Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 17:27:57 +1100 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v551) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: BPFK: Call for volunteers: discussion board setup To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <82942DAE-1576-11D7-92D7-003065D4EC72@optushome.com.au> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.551) From: Nick Nicholas X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=90350612 X-Yahoo-Profile: opoudjis Lojbanists, as you know, the BPFK per my definition on the wiki is to transact limited discussions on particular cmavo/paradigms, with freer discussion moving off to jboske . As anyone who has been anywhere near jboske in the past three months can tell, jboske is unmanageable now, and will get worse, not better. Since we cannot wait for the Elephant, and we need a more general solution anyway, I call on people with savvy about discussion fora to find out which discussion board software fulfils the following criteria, and can be set up on lojban.org to host threaded discussions. This will in the short term solve the jboske problem (well, a jboske problem), in the medium term serve as discussion infrastructure for the BPFK, and in the long term help whenever all discussion on Lojban matters blows up. The main concern is that threads going at the same time and in different directions do not allow people to follow who said what where, and what is currently debated. The solution is to be able to browse one thread on one page. I believe discussion fora are the answer. I have some specific requirements I think we need for such software: All the content on one topic is in the one place, and is threaded. Preferably there is some hierarchical structure of topics (so there are subtopics and trees) There is some way to flag posts as being of particular kinds (proposed solutions, chat, whatever) There is some way of extracting the text of discussion into an archive readily. New posts to the board can be forwarded to a mailing list. If anyone knows of software meeting these criteria, please let me know. I'll review, and pass on which I think make sense to Robin, to put up on lojban.org, on a trial basis. If noone knows off hand about good discussion forum software, and has much too much time on their hands, they can start trawling through a list like http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/forumsoft.htm . Obviously, we're really only interested in Unix, OpenSource, freeware programs. -- Dr Nick Nicholas [Stephen] King published _The Green Mile_ as Research Assistant the first serialized novel since the 1920s, French & Italian in a gesture that was meant to recall the University of Melbourne serial work of Dickens. No doubt, King is the Australia Dickens this century deserves. nickn@unimelb.edu.au -- Richard von Busack, _Metro Santa Cruz_, http://www.opoudjis.net Dec. 8-15 1999, p. 29.