New TSRDU Web Site

From TechShopWiki

Contents 1 New TechShop Forum 1.1 What and Why 1.2 Progress 1.3 Who 1.4 Features and Requirements 1.4.1 Needs 1.4.2 Wants 1.4.3 Other ideas 1.5 Potential solutions

[edit] New TechShop Forum

[edit] What and Why

Members of the TechShop community have expressed dissatisfaction with the current web forum technology. We're hoping to replace the current system with one which provides the currently missing features and provides a superior community experience. See the original proposal posted to the current forums for some history.

[edit] Progress

I (Todd) am currently in the process of rolling out a new website layout, which includes exceptions for loading phpBB3 inline via the phpbbforum integration module. As this will involve replacing the comment system with phpBB, Erick is currently looking into migrating the content. My test installation is running phpBB 3.0.7-PL1 with integration module 6.0-2.0-beta12, so if anyone has suggestions on further integration features (such as the mailing list integration mentioned) this is the environment we're aiming for.

[edit] Who

People who are actively working to bring better forums to TechShop:

• Erick Saxon -- TechShop's very own webmaster and DBA, best resource for information on the current system
• Todd Saxon -- TechShop's marketing and site designer (Ie. The one to blame)
• Jeff Schornick (User:jcs) -- ex-sysadmin who hates to see technology done badly
• Mike Whitehead (User:sushinut) -- security professional and project manager
• Alwyn Smith (User:Paladin) -- somewhat experienced Drupal admin planning a phpBB migration of his own

This is primarily a volunteer effort, so please jump in and help out. Ideas, experience, and actual tech help are gladly accepted. Feel free to email Jeff if you want to get in touch with someone directly.

[edit] Features and Requirements

[edit] Needs

• Personal messaging (PMs)
• RSS feed
• Mailing list integration. Some people prefer mailing lists, some prefer web forums. Let's not force these groups to live in separate virtual communities.
• Reasonable iPhone/mobile experience
• Edit posts

[edit] Wants

• Unified login. Forums, wiki, etc?
• Allow controlled access to SBU documentation for those who are authorized (Mike W discussions with Scott... will provide more details later) (added by Sushinut 01:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC))

[edit] Other ideas

• Combine with HQ. Noble, but we have already had trouble getting things moving. Adding another layer of management/approvals/coordination isn't going to help. Not to mention HQ has had 3 years to build their online community and have little to show for it. They're not actually an asset here. Let's show them how it's done.
• Allow users to see which SBUs/classes they've taken (i.e., I should be able to see which ones I've taken). This would be integrated with the "access-controlled SBU 'want'" above. I'd like to see how the front desk knows who has taken what SBUs... if it's recorded in the front desk's membership dbase, we should be able to integrate with that data set. (added by Sushinut 01:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC))

[edit] Potential solutions

• phpBB2 + Mail2Forum 1.2
  • Pros: A common, well-tested combination.
  • Cons: Older version of phpBB has less features.
• phpBB3 + Mail2Forum 2.0 (alpha)
  • Pros: Latest, greatest.
  • cons: Much less stable mailing list integration.
• FUDforum