I second this. This is a great idea. Distilling information is a very
valuable excercise.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonas Sundström" <jonas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 1:44 PM
Subject: [openbeos] a rant on improving the web forums
Hi everyone!
Interesting discussions lately! I hope we're not getting too heated up.
It's good to try to enable participation, and to try to make everyone feel part of the whole. I'm sure there are things that can be improved, but this post is about the web forum(s).
I would like to share some thoughts on how to improve them. This might be weird coming from one who has a hard time enjoying them. Or maybe that's just logical.
/* Web forums, blogs, newsletters and mailinglists have different strengths and weaknesses. IRC and real life conversations are quite ephemeral (unless someone's recording the conversation). At the other end we have archived mailing lists, source code commits (if they can be considered communication), and of course, the non-interactive, set-in- stone newsletters.
Web forums are a bit weird. The have the potential of being long- lasting archives, veritable sources of wisdom, yet people treat them as if they were instant messaging systems, with the same low-latency / info fragmenting, snippeting / poor quality communication, IMO.
While I recognize the need to socialise, the seemingly opposed goal of ending up with quality *information*, which can be searched, read and * used* later on, must be prioritized, at least on the official Haiku website. */
So, anyway. Here's what I suggest: (or cheer on, if it's already being done)
1. - Ban graphics and signature lines. -- The message is the most important data. -- Graphics steal attention, especially looping gifs. -- Your nick (linked to your account page) is enough.
- Simplify the layout even more
- Remove any data that is repeated needlessly, -- user activity level, location and number of posts, ...
- Don't allow subjects on individual posts -- The thread already has a subject.
- Remove time stamps -- or make them less exact. who cares, really ---- All I need to know is: "What's new?", What haven't I read yet?
2. Encourage quality. (How?) -- Not number of posts. Voting isn't the answer. It rewards those who express the consensus, but suppresses both the crap -and- the ingenious. (But the world isn't perfect no matter what we do.)
3. Recycle dead threads, resolved issues, but keep quality information around.
4. Collect and refine information. (Move info to FAQs, write articles, wiki stubs, etc.)
Anyway, personally I'd much rather hang out in BeShare or IRC, and discuss information stored in a wiki or in svn even, than to keep up with changes in a web forum. Too much "noise" both visually, data- and interaction-wise.
Phew! That was long. I hope this isn't too nuts.
I suppose I can't expect you guys to hack the forum back-end, but I had to share these thoughts.
/Jonas Sundström. www.kirilla.com
