Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Modernizing the Libreplanet Community Infrastructure

[Hellekin O. Wolf]

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 11:31:56PM +0200, John Sullivan wrote:
> A couple quick things:
> 
> 1) have you looked at Mailman 3? Has web forum features.
>

Mailman3 remains a mailing list software with a Web interface.

What you can gain with Discourse is a lot more interesting:

- you can split and merge threads
- you can turn posts into wikis
- you can use fine-grained and dynamic notifications to follow threads
- you can use groups, especially working groups
- you can edit and recompose threads for collaborative editing
- you can limit threads to a working group to work on contents, then make it 
public
- you can upload photos to a thread straight from your mobile phone (Discourse 
will rewrite it, make a thumbnail, etc.)
- you can automatically turn Web links into previews (including video players) 
without affecting the email experience
- etc.

> 2) mission of wiki is not just geographic groups. Maybe we need to make that 
> clearer. It's also intended, and has been used for, a space to collaborate 
> around issues and actions.
> 

I hope the above sample list of features highlights strengths of Discourse for 
preparing actions and collaborating on issues.

I want to add that for free software promotion, which is often a task done by 
non-hackers, having a suitable tool for a larger public helps.
More importantly, Discourse is being adopted across the board, from distros 
(e.g., Manjaro), to interest groups (e.g., OpenSourceDesign), to 'citizen 
engagement platforms' setup by institutions (e.g., the European Union). That 
means it's a tool that's increasingly popular with users, and thus a good one 
to have in your toolbox if you want them to support you.

There's not reason why a Discourse for LP would prevent us, mailing list + IRC 
aficionados, from participating normally. OTOH it's really an opportunity to 
bring in more people, especially younger ones.  Actually I had a similar 
discussion with Matthias Kirchner (from FSFE) this morning as I thought to 
reuse in a larger context the category split I made for Devuan two years ago 
based on the 4 freedoms: USE, STUDY, SHARE, HACK.  I find it's a great way to 
segment users according to their engagement and interests, and having this 
scheme for the free software community in general would prove more useful than 
for a single distro.

Therefore I support the idea put forth by Connor.

==
hk