Accessify Forum Developer's Group
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Nigel is the forum admin, but doesn't have the time to look into redevelopment at the moment.
However, there may possibly be some redevelopment options being considered - I have been speaking to Nigel about this and will update you all with more detail when I have it...
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Jack Pickard The Pickards Information Services| Blog | Twit
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| JackP wrote: |
| Nigel is the forum admin, but doesn't have the time to look into redevelopment at the moment. |
…or at any time in the years since I joined, it seems.
I'd posit that it's not a lack of time, but a lack of inclination.
If an admin/owner genuinely doesn't have time for almost four years, then it's time he handed over some responsibility (or the forum site as a going concern) to a trusted 3rd party who's willing and able to give the forum the attention its users both request and deserve.
So, Nigel, is the Accessify forum still close enough to your heart to warrant you keeping it? Appearances suggest that it's possibly not.
Is it time to think the unthinkable and ask: Is Nigel the right guy to own/administrate the forum?
Conversely, Nigel, are you certain that you're willing and able to do what's right for this forum, both now and in the future?
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| Bill Posters wrote: |
| …or at any time in the years since I joined, it seems.
I'd posit that it's not a lack of time, but a lack of inclination. If an admin/owner genuinely doesn't have time for almost four years, then it's time he handed over some responsibility (or the forum site as a going concern) to a trusted 3rd party who's willing and able to give the forum the attention its users both request and deserve. |
Yes, he did mention that to me. He was talking about an accessifyforum.com developers group to bring the site on -- I've been meaning to mention it for a while but I forgot.
So, I guess this is the place to register your interest in taking accessifyforum forward (we'll need a small group, capable of putting the time in; there's not much point if you've not got the time)...
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Jack Pickard The Pickards Information Services| Blog | Twit
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I've been wanting that for years. So I'd like to be in...if it actually happens._________________
My CV type thing and my Life of Ben (Blog). Nigel Peck's Accessify Forum Requirements.
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A public repository, ie: sourceforge -- i could lend a hand.
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That's only two people - and even then it's not entirely clear how much development time people could put in...
I've not got the time to get involved in redevelopment myself, although I am happy to continue with admin/mod duties, before during and after any changes to the site.
However I think unless we get more people with a definite commitment to redevelop the site, it will probably have to stay as is for now...
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Jack Pickard The Pickards Information Services| Blog | Twit
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I'm able to help, but not in a huge way due to work commitments. Happy to continue moderating at the moment too._________________
Jon Gibbins :// blogs at dotjay.co.uk, works with Analog.
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I've added rss feeds on another phpbb forum I run.
If the admin needs a hand, I'm willing to help.
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I've worked on hundreds of online projects over the years. Quantity of participants is irrelevant; it's their quality which matters.
I think we would start by studying how the forum has been used so far:
- Which features do people use?
- Are most visitors contemporary or are they search engine traffic to old topics?
- How many messages are added each day?
- Has this rate changed over time? (Long term and short term.)
- How is this activity spread across all the areas?
- How often are topics made in the wrong area?
- What proportion of topics have been removed as spam?
- How quickly were they removed?
- What proportion of user accounts are likely spammers or automated registrations?
- How long does it take to perform forum activities:
- Search for topic, message or member.
- Browse to a recent thread.
- Browse through a recent thread.
- Browse to a particular recent message.
- Add Topic
- Add Reply
- Edit
- Quote
- Move
- Split
- Lock
- Pin
- Search for topic, message or member.
- How often are the pinned topics viewed?
- Are they up to date?
- Is their advice followed?
Working on a new forum in parallel to the current forum seems the best choice, to me. That lets Accessify Forum tick along as normal until the new stuff is completely ready.
I can make the time to work on this. With access to the logs I could start studying how the forums are being used. My PHP skills are very limited and I can't be trusted with SQL. A server-side technology expert would be a real asset.
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My CV type thing and my Life of Ben (Blog). Nigel Peck's Accessify Forum Requirements.
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I'm happy in a server. The problem may be the facilities available to us on the existing hosting environment._________________
Jon Gibbins :// blogs at dotjay.co.uk, works with Analog.
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Hi all,
Thanks for your offers of help. I am up for redeveloping the forum.
I had agreed, mainly with redux, that we would put punBB in place a while back, and set up a dev version accordingly.
It got stalled for reasons I'm not sure of (mostly my fault no doubt).
Anyway, I would like to get it going again. So what do you all think we should do from here?
Cerbera, do you want to get involved in carrying out the study you suggested?
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck / MIS Web Design
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PunBB lost quite most of the original team when it was taken over by a Russian firm. I haven't checked the code of their latest release.
FluxBB is that teams 'fork' but it is still currently in beta. Paul, who is looking after the style for FluxBB is behind schedule with his updates, but once done the forum will be undergoing an accessibility audit. This may not lead to improvements, but at least they will have the information to hand.
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my mind is on a permanent tangent
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| Nigel Peck wrote: |
| Anyway, I would like to get it going again. So what do you all think we should do from here? |
The server seems reliable. Do we have much reign over what it runs? Would you be willing to give select people ssh access? To be honest, I've been a little worried that this forum has been destined for the grave, but I'm up for saving it *if* this developer group is really going to happen. And to make it a better place to be, we need a good system in place where we can easily upgrade stuff and customise it where necessary.
Incidentally, I don't know what other people's views on this are, but punBB was bought by some company a while back. Now this may not be a bad thing, but it didn't sit well with some of the developers it seems, so they forked to create FluxBB, an open source forum.
Jon
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Jon Gibbins :// blogs at dotjay.co.uk, works with Analog.
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| dotjay wrote: |
| The server seems reliable. |
The server is very reliable, backed up daily, 100% uptime network, multiple tier 1 connections. I can't rate Rackspace highly enough.
| dotjay wrote: |
| Do we have much reign over what it runs? |
Yes, full reign, it's my server.
| dotjay wrote: |
| Would you be willing to give select people ssh access? |
Select people, yes.
| dotjay wrote: |
| To be honest, I've been a little worried that this forum has been destined for the grave, but I'm up for saving it *if* this developer group is really going to happen. |
This developer group is going to happen. My life is much more stable now than it has been for a long while and I am able to commit to seeing this through. I want to see the forum continue, grow and improve.
| dotjay wrote: |
| And to make it a better place to be, we need a good system in place where we can easily upgrade stuff and customise it where necessary. |
Yes, I agree.
| dotjay wrote: |
| Incidentally, I don't know what other people's views on this are, but punBB was bought by some company a while back. Now this may not be a bad thing, but it didn't sit well with some of the developers it seems, so they forked to create FluxBB, an open source forum.
Jon |
I don't know much about punBB, it was Patrick's suggestion, I think that may be what stalled it's implementation - that Patrick was concerned because there was uncertainty about it's future.
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck / MIS Web Design
Last edited by Nigel Peck on 11 Dec 2008 11:33 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Rich Pedley wrote: |
| PunBB lost quite most of the original team when it was taken over by a Russian firm. I haven't checked the code of their latest release.
FluxBB is that teams 'fork' but it is still currently in beta. Paul, who is looking after the style for FluxBB is behind schedule with his updates, but once done the forum will be undergoing an accessibility audit. This may not lead to improvements, but at least they will have the information to hand. |
Perhaps FluxBB is worth looking at?
Does anyone else have any experience of this or other forum software?
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck / MIS Web Design
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