On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 8:12 AM, Prasoon Shukla <prasoon92.i...@gmail.com>wrote:
> Hi Sam, > > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Sam Parkinson > <sam.parkins...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I agree, Discourse looks amazing! Just a few ideas to chuck around: >> >> - >> >> I think it would be nice to try to make the forums automatically >> login when using sugar. This could be done by storing a uuid and a key on >> the computer. When you go to the forum it could automatically log you in >> with your sugar username and uuid (but let you use a different account if >> you wish). I think this would be useful since: >> - Users probably want help quickly and this would mean less hoops >> - Keeping a uuid or key of some sort would still allow >> communication with the user. This could be just a little script that >> used >> the upcoming notification system >> >> Yes, exactly. I was thinking of developing a python-ruby authentication > bridge for discourse. We will need to get an account created though. This > could be done the first time the user accesses social help. From then on > however, we can save the session (much like a browser) instead of writing a > script to log them in - so that we don't actually need to log them in - > they'll already be logged in when they open the the help. I'll ask around > the discourse community for the viability of this idea. > >> >> - >> - >> >> Also is Discourse real time / do you instantly get the updates >> without having to refresh? That would be cool >> >> Yes. See this thread from a year ago (when discourse was still beta) : > https://meta.discourse.org/t/real-time-updates/5151 > >> >> - >> >> I am really interested in this and would love to help. >> > Why, thank you! I'll let you know if anything comes up :) > >> Sam >> >> >> On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 3:30 AM, Prasoon Shukla <prasoon92.i...@gmail.com >> > wrote: >> >>> *Note : I sent this message once before but it was moderated because it >>> was too large. So, I'm replacing the inline images with links to the >>> images/links to pages. I hope that this will be enough of a reduction in >>> size.* >>> >>> Hi. >>> >>> I talked to Walter on the IRC a few days ago regarding the social help >>> project. We decided that I should explore FOSS forum software that is >>> actively maintained for the social help project. So, I tried looking at >>> some popular alternatives. The ones I found worth exploring are *phpBB* >>> , *Discourse* and *bbPress. *I selected these specific forums because >>> of their ease of use, functionality and the ease of getting a forum up and >>> running. >>> >>> To summarize things, Discourse *appears* to be clearly ahead of the >>> other two in all things except in terms of the ease-of-installation. >>> However, it has became much easier to install discourse now than it was a >>> few months ago. In fact, they now provide a docker image that can be used >>> to install discourse with relative ease. That said, bbPress wins in terms >>> of ease of installation with a WordPress like setup process. phpBB is easy >>> just as easy. Nevertheless, I think that this is a minor disadvantage in >>> the bigger scheme of things. >>> >>> Now, once installed, phpBB and bbPress are quite similar in >>> functionality - so I'll just compare Discourse with phpBB instead of >>> comparing with both. >>> >>> >>> - phpBB is *very badly cluttered. *This, I think, is especially bad >>> when we're talking of getting children to use this software. A single >>> line >>> posted by a user is presented together with a whole bunch of useless >>> information : >>> >>> See http://picpaste.com/pics/forums1.1394467977.png >>> That's one single line of information with quite a lot of clutter. >>> The topics page is even more cluttered. See this popular phpBB forum: >>> http://forums.gentoo.org/ >>> >>> Now I know that with years of use, most of have gotten used to tuning >>> out the uninformative parts but that won't be the case with children. >>> Discourse does much better at this. See a sample discussion here: >>> http://discuss.atom.io/t/custom-atom-icon-with-packages/2341 >>> That in itself is good enough reason to use Discourse. But, I'll point >>> out few more. >>> >>> >>> - The one time registration is much *much* simpler in Discourse. >>> Just take a look at this: >>> - *phpBB* : >>> http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=register&agreed=true >>> - *Discourse*: http://picpaste.com/pics/forums4.1394468652.png >>> >>> Of course, we'll need to modify core Discourse according to our needs as >>> well. But in any case, the registration will be much easier with Discourse. >>> >>> >>> >>> - Making an actual post is much more difficult in phpBB. Again, this >>> is because of too much unnecessary information - dealing with tags, bunch >>> of miscellaneous options at the end and posting permissions. This causes >>> much grief when your long written post just refuses to go through. >>> Discourse is simpler. See this: >>> http://picpaste.com/pics/forums5.1394468781.png >>> >>> >>> Aside from these three very fundamental things, there are few other good >>> parts: >>> >>> >>> 1. No arbitrary page breaks, which I think is quite nice. Often I'll >>> be immersed in reading a thread and the page just abruptly ends, which I >>> quite dislike. >>> 2. A great reply system - where you don't have to strain yourself >>> to read that 6 level deep nested comment. More reading by Jeff Atwood >>> here: >>> >>> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/12/web-discussions-flat-by-design.html >>> 3. Active development ongoing so we're likely to see some great >>> upgrades in the coming out in the near future. >>> >>> So, I'll vote for discourse. >>> >>> Anyway, if we're willing to discuss proprietary options, then Moot ( >>> https://moot.it/) seems *really *nice. But then again, it's not open. >>> However, Moot does provide both free and non-free options with a very easy >>> setup. So ... >>> You can explore Moot here: https://moot.it/prasoon2211/ (it's my >>> personal forum). >>> >>> Anyway, that's my take on the social help feature. Comments are welcome. >>> >>> Prasoon Shukla >>> >>> PS: While proofreading this, I realized that this post reads like an >>> advertisement for Discourse. >>> Oh well. >>> >> There is a Sugar Network, http://network.sugarlabs.org/context?page=1 http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Network that can provide social help and other services. It would be good to consider how any new social help development could join, integrate with, or improve this ecosystem. --Fred
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