Ushahidi Mailing Lists

Re: Forums / End User Support

I agree with Ed - moderation is a big part of the equation - but so is
answering questions. There seemed to be some good help about a year
ago - but it has tapered somewhat.

On the first (Moderation):

I see the forums are run on BBpress - which is highly extensible.
Beefing it up might be easier than migrating systems... Some Plugins
that probably exist already:
-- ) auto-close old topics (no reason to revive a 2 year old thread -
even if on a related topic...)
-- ) IP blocker
-- ) Akismet
-- ) Stronger registration requirements

On the front end - I think the forum could use a face-lit as well - to
make it easier to navigate / find what you are looking for. <---
'nother discussion.

Re the second issue (Answers):

Just a quick appeal to developers / power-users: Us little people ask
stupid questions. Taking 2 minutes to answer a stupid question (even
for the 10th time - even if it involves linking to where the same
stupid question was last answered) helps us to start asking smarter
questions. So, swing on by: http://forums.ushahidi.com -- might even
be fun.

(As a veiled threat: if someone more knowledgeable than me doesn't
start answering questions, I'm going to keep trying... and lord knows
where that might lead a new user ;)

Thanks for hearing me out,

Loren Bell
Independent Pot-Stirrer
twitter.com/lbell




On 6/14/12, Heather Leson <hleson@...> wrote:
> HI Loren and Pablo, thank you kindly for the braining on this topic.
>
> As you can tell, we need to do some re-thinking about support models as a
> small Open Source organization. This means also clear communication on our
> wiki and website to help people get connected. Your insight into this is
> well-noted.
>
> There were already some plans in the works to do an overhaul, so you have
> given us more fodder and reason to dig in. Thank you.
>
> I could use a hand on the Forums to clean up all the open items. You are
> absolutely correct that we can do that better. Thank you.  If anyone would
> like to help out, this is greatly appreciated.  I've been thinking a lot
> about feedback loops. Personally, I think that we need better Forum
> software, but the root cause remains - overwhelming communications channels
> to be improved and opportunity to better respond to community growth. For
> this, I hear you loudly.
>
> Pablo, I would be very happy to talk with you more on this topic. Loren,
> thanks for also reaching out off-list.
>
> Heather