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
Play: ThePickards
Work: Public Sector Forums
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?
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
Play: ThePickards
Work: Public Sector Forums
I've been wanting that for years. So I'd like to be in...if it actually happens.
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Ben "Cerbera" Millard
Working as sdesign1's front-end developer. Playing at Project Cerbera.
A public repository, ie: sourceforge -- i could lend a hand.
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
Play: ThePickards
Work: Public Sector Forums
I'm able to help, but not in a huge way due to work commitments. Happy to continue moderating at the moment too.
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.j, a.k.a. Jon Gibbins :// dotjay.co.uk, Grow Collective
I've added rss feeds on another phpbb forum I run.
If the admin needs a hand, I'm willing to help.
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:
Figuring out what is actually useful will help us avoid a Failed Redesign.
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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Ben "Cerbera" Millard
Working as sdesign1's front-end developer. Playing at Project Cerbera.
I'm happy in a server. The problem may be the facilities available to us on the existing hosting environment.
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.j, a.k.a. Jon Gibbins :// dotjay.co.uk, Grow Collective
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
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
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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.j, a.k.a. Jon Gibbins :// dotjay.co.uk, Grow Collective
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
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
Currently there is a development version of FluxBB that seems stable - but I don't know enough regarding security to be able to pass judgement - but so far as I know its ok.
I have one punBB, pre 1.3, going and one fluxBB, which will shortly become 2, under my direct control. There are some minor bugs, but I have an ongoing extension to which I'll be adding things as and when I come across them. It is very easy to extend!
One small problem might be transferring things from this forum to any new forum - I don't think FluxBB has anything written, but I could be wrong.
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my mind is on a permanent tangent
Re: converting from phpBB to FluxBB - Looks like it may be possible to migrate. More info here.
Also some stats on forum software usage. A.k.a. a good list of forum software.
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
Just a suggestion, but I'm thinking maybe we can continue to use the current software?
Obviously not as is, but it could be further developed.
Maybe it's a crap idea, new forum software will no doubt have much richer features, but downfalls too, and this software works well, it just needs work (which I will be doing - although help would be helpful 
).
I don't want to dictate about what's going to happen with the forum, I'd prefer a group of us who are interested to discuss it.
A wish list? What do we want?
We want:
Should we be using CAPTCHA on the registration form? I've been against it in the past, and still don't like it. It's a barrier that shouldn't be there and I don't like hurting new users because of spammers. But the spam is hurting all users and it's not too much pain to do CAPTCHA for most people, but can it be made painless for everyone? I'll look into this.
I like Cerbera's suggestion of filtering posts, although I'm concerned about the filter getting it wrong. Perhaps the filter could not delete or prevent the posts but flag them for checking, in a suitable place that all mods can see?
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
As dotjay mentioned in another post, akismet for phpBB may be worth looking at, if we decide to stick with phpBB.
Akismet Spam Butcher 0.1.0:
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
well it look like there may be a phpBB akismet plugin. There is definitely one for PunBB, which when I get chance I'll port over to FluxBB.
I've also got an extension based on an old PunBB mod. The extension allows admin to limit the number of links and characters that new posters and guests can post. It also adds in feature a currently missing from FluxBB - checking guests email addresses against the bans list. Finally it creates the ability to hide posts if they are reported ‘x’ times.
Last time I looked phpBB was getting better, but still a PITA the theme. Hopefully its improved on that side recently.
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my mind is on a permanent tangent
Don't allow images to be posted until someone has made x number of genuine posts (say 50).
That will turn of the NSFW stuff quickly, as I can't imagine a spammer getting to 50 posts without being noticed...
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Jack Pickard
Play: ThePickards
Work: Public Sector Forums
I have created a page to keep a list of our requirements, rather than having it scattered around in threads.
Rich, that sounds like a useful feature of FluxBB, I'll go take a look at it soon.
Jack, I added it to the requirements list, but maybe with better spam prevention it wouldn't be necessary?
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
JackP wrote:Don't allow images to be posted until someone has made x number of genuine posts (say 50).
That will turn of the NSFW stuff quickly, as I can't imagine a spammer getting to 50 posts without being noticed...
Perhaps I could just turn off images completely for the time being? Until we decide what to do?
This has been suggested before and it was pointed out that people can always link to images instead of putting them directly into their posts.
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
FluxBB sounds and looks good.
However, it sounds like 1.3 is a way off and extensions will be hard to get hold of. So I'm in two minds about it's suitability right now.
Maybe 1.2 is up to the job? I'm assuming that migrating to 1.3 will be easy from 1.2? Rich, any suggestions?
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
If I may offer what might be a quick win.
I did some work some time ago in making phpBB more web and accessible with the phpBB WASO. (Here's a preview of the WASO in action)
If you are considering sticking with phpBB, then the WASO might be able to help in the interim. I've developed it to be compatible with phpBB 2.0.23, so I'm very familiar with the set up of the templates and front-end. If you do want to go this route, I'd be more than happy to help out with it.
But, if FluxBB is the way the forums are going to go, I'm cool with that as well. Whatever keeps the forum going
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Crazy Bat Designs
Home of the phpBB WASO
Helping you reach the most people possible.
Nigel Peck wrote:FluxBB sounds and looks good.
However, it sounds like 1.3 is a way off and extensions will be hard to get hold of. So I'm in two minds about it's suitability right now.
Depends on what is on the wanted list, there are a fair few extensions written, and I can probably adapt any that are out of date. And yes the final release is pending.
Quote:Maybe 1.2 is up to the job? I'm assuming that migrating to 1.3 will be easy from 1.2? Rich, any suggestions?
yes and no, 1.2 is fine no problem with it but modifications have to be done to the core code. There are tons of mods available as almost all punbb ones will work. But you'll lose all of them when you migrate to 1.3.
But migrating from a standard install of 1.2 to 1.3 is possible.
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my mind is on a permanent tangent
Firstly, I think the requirements document is the right way to mange this.
None of the forum front-ends I've seen are as good as we could make between ourselves. Including WASO, although that is an improvement from the parts I've looked through.
So, in my judgement, all we need is:
Most promising front-end I've seen for a forum system is Forum Deli. The developer made a site critique of forum deli. Simplicity and usability for everyone is at the core of it's design. Unfortunately, that system is not ready, yet. 
He plans to let the community moderate the community. This approach is, in my experience, doomed to failure. The hands-off approach at Accessify has been a key to it's success, imho. But I'm sure those aspects could be given a pair of concrete boots, wrapped in a carpet and thrown of a convenient bridge. And do the same to the advert bot.
Recently, I've been making demos to inspire change in an already excellent IRC logging service. Some of my ideas have already been folded into it and proved popular. I'd like to influence this forum in a similar way. Combine ground-breaking simplicity and convenience with extraordinary attention to detail to create a forum which is a joy to use.
So whatever system we get, I'd want to rebuild the user-facing parts more-or-less from scratch. Using an iterative design and testing process, following the good practices popularised by standards-based blogging systems. Going the whole nine yards.
However, time is money. I doubt I could get funding to do this work, in which case it would be a pet project at best. So, hmm, not sure how much of my ambition could actually be realised.
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Ben "Cerbera" Millard
Cerbera wrote:Firstly, I think the requirements document is the right way to mange this.
Agreed. No use doing a bunch of work for nothing. Better to properly plan it out and figure out what exactly needs to be done, based on what the ultimate needs of the group and users are.
Cerbera wrote:None of the forum front-ends I've seen are as good as we could make between ourselves. Including WASO, although that is an improvement from the parts I've looked through.
Also agree. As much as I'd like to think that the WASO is all that, it was just a quick fix to improve the accessibility end of things.
Cerbera wrote:He plans to let the community moderate the community. This approach is, in my experience, doomed to failure. The hands-off approach at Accessify has been a key to it's success, imho. But I'm sure those aspects could be given a pair of concrete boots, wrapped in a carpet and thrown of a convenient bridge. And do the same to the advert bot.
Ugh. Karma and mod points? It'll turn into a popularity contest, IMHO.
Cerbera wrote:So whatever system we get, I'd want to rebuild the user-facing parts more-or-less from scratch. Using an iterative design and testing process, following the good practices popularised by standards-based blogging systems. Going the whole nine yards.
I'd want to also add that we should consider using a typical user-centered design approach when it comes to this type of iterative process. Basically, coming up with personas, use cases, multiple usability tests, etc.
Cerbera wrote:However, time is money. I doubt I could get funding to do this work, in which case it would be a pet project at best. So, hmm, not sure how much of my ambition could actually be realised.
That's the catch with me as well. We all have our jobs/contracts/lives/etc. I think we need to figure out the availablility of the people involved. This way, we'll know what skills we can bring to the table. More importantly, we'll know what the expectations are for change. My $0.02 CAD
Home of the phpBB WASO
With a combination of forum software that already does most of what we need (reasonably accessible and usable, necessary features) I'm sure we can come up with a highly accessible and usable front end, either based on the software's existing one or designed from scratch, without an unachievable time requirement. I'm very much up for simplicity in the front-end design.
Cerbera, are you up for committing some time to coding the front-end?
crazybat, are you able to offer any commitment to some form of usability study/testing?
As far as I'm concerned, the responsibility to see this through lies with me. Whatever time any of you can offer will be very much appreciated, but if you commit to helping and then can't when it comes down to it, no hard feelings. I will see to it that this project gets completed and any help along the way will be great
More for the requirements list...?
Cerbera, I paraphrased your list into the requirements document.
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
Nigel Peck wrote:crazybat, are you able to offer any commitment to some form of usability study/testing?
Count me in. One of the important things to determine with a user-centered design approach is to make sure we understand the needs of all involved. Not just the members of the team involved with the redevelopment of the forum, but (most importantly) the end users.
I can already see the personas being broken down into two categories:
If we are going to look at the front-end, it's important to look at it and (most importanty) validate it from the user's perspective. This way, you assure that the work you're doing is in the best interest of the individuals who use it.
This is certainly not a complete list of all UCD-related things to do. It's just off the top of my head. I'll write up more as it comes to me.
--
Crazy Bat Designs
Home of the phpBB WASO
Helping you reach the most people possible.
crazybat - sounds great. Maybe a list of external end-user tasks would be useful to compile, so they can be analysed?
Here's a start...
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
Here are 8 user categories, based on frequency of use and type of user:
I wrote a set of requirements and tasks to study near the start of this topic.
I've just completed a 6-month research project and fancy a change. I'll spend some time over Xmas making some static demo pages, like I did for that IRC logging service. Then we'll have something physical to iterate ideas with and gather feedback from Accessify members.
Some general ideas I had for the front-end:
Browsers the front-end must support (provisional):
Oh, another technical requirement for the forum system (which could just be the current system with lots of adjustments):
I'm doing Xmas shopping today. But I'll make a start on demos soonish. I'll create a Site Critiques topic for them, so it's separate from the high-level organising taking place in here.
Exciting times!
(EDIT) Added mobile browsers.
--
Ben "Cerbera" Millard
Working as sdesign1's front-end developer. Playing at Project Cerbera.
Cerbera wrote:Breadcrumb trail on each page.
Yes, definitely.
Cerbera wrote:Unique <title> for each page. For example the page I'm writing this from says Accessify Forum : Post a reply. I'd say Reply: Accessify Forum Developer's Group - Accessify Forum.
Yes I prefer that style.
Cerbera wrote:Fewer categories!
...
I'm not at all sure about changing the fora, the site has worked well with them as they are, there's no good reason to change this. If it ain't broke don't fix it. If I'm way off on this, and you all think they do need changing, then I certainly don't think it should be done at the same time as a redesign. Regular users need something to give them continuity, it will be enough to get used to the new site without new fora. What do others think about this?
Cerbera wrote:Staff accounts should automatically use "moderator mode" all the time. So the controls for selecting messages or topics and doing stuff to them are always there.
Yes.
Cerbera wrote:No metadata, like post counts and join dates. Remove all but the essentials: name, date and message. (Name would still link to a Profile page with these details.)
Hmmm, not too sure, it's useful info to make an assessment of someone's credibility (to a point). What do others think?
Cerbera wrote:Don't paginate topics. Scrolling is easier than navigating. By using efficient markup, a massive new page will use fewer bytes than one small old page anyway.
Not sure, shorter pages are easier to digest and remember which page number a certain post was on that you are looking for. Long pages with loads of posts could get ridiculous.
However, this would be great as an option (saved against the user's account), maybe a drop down:
Posts per page:
Cerbera wrote:Don't use tables for everything! Forum Deli, good blogging systems and good e-commerce sites use the more natural heading-then-details pattern.
Yes, the use of tables needs to be looked at closely.
I added some of this to the requirements document. Please don't anyone think that that means it is no longer up for discussion, just trying to keep track.
More later, great to see this moving forward.
Cheers,
Nigel
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Nigel Peck
MIS Web Design
Cerbera wrote:Here are 8 user categories, based on frequency of use and type of user:
- Frequent guest/member. (About 5 days per week.)
- Regular guest/member. (About 1 day per week.)
- Occasional guest/member. (About 1 day per month.)
- First-time guest/member. (Up to 5 visits.)
I wrote a set of requirements and tasks to study near the start of this topic.
Good start.
I'd also want to incude a admin and moderator type of persona as well. If we're reworking the forums from the ground up, it's important to make it a good experience for the folks behind the scenes.
I think we should also look at specific accessibility needs to fit in with the personas. (e.g.: visual, mobility, etc.)
As well, we should look at the typical screen readers (e.g.: JAWS, Window Eyes, etc.)
Cerbera wrote:I've just completed a 6-month research project and fancy a change. I'll spend some time over Xmas making some static demo pages, like I did for that IRC logging service. Then we'll have something physical to iterate ideas with and gather feedback from Accessify members.
Sounds great. I can take a crack at coming up with refining these personas and, more importantly, the use case tasks that would best reflect the usual activity involved with a forum. I'll do this over the holiday break.
Cerbera wrote:Browsers the front-end must support (provisional):
- IE6
- IE7
- Firefox 2
- Firefox 3
- Opera 9.5+
- Safari ?.?
- Lynx 2.8+!
We should also consider mobile browsers as well. (e.g.: Blackberry, iPhone, etc.)
Cerbera wrote:Oh, another technical requirement for the forum system (which could just be the current system with lots of adjustments):
- Merge Topics! With fewer categories it should be less of a problem, but from time to time we get parallel discussions. Or a topic is inactive for a week and someone makes a new topic about the same thing.
Good. I can see this as one of the typical use cases of a moderator. Let's say we have Cindy, the moderator as a persona and we want her to perform the task above. When it comes to the early prototyping of the design, it's important to agree on the personas as well as the use cases in mind. This is typical for the UCD process. This way, there's less chance of a failed redesign as we're designing according to what the different types users do. I'll have a look at what you wrote previously as there's some good stuff there. I'd also be curious if we have any current logs on how the forums have been used. It would almost be like a "heat map" of the typical tasks being performed.
Cerbera wrote:Exciting times!
Indeed! Good to see things churning along
--
Crazy Bat Designs
Home of the phpBB WASO
Helping you reach the most people possible.
Nigel Peck wrote:crazybat - sounds great. Maybe a list of external end-user tasks would be useful to compile, so they can be analysed?
Here's a start...
- Browse Fora
- Browse Topics
- Read Topic
- Create Post
- Create Topic
- Simple Search
- Advanced Search
- Manage Own Profile
- View Member Profile
- View and Manage Private Messages
- View Private Message
- Create Private Message
Cheers,
Nigel
Good tasks for the typical users. As mentioned in my last post, I'll also be looking for tasks related to the moderators/admins as well.
etc, etc, etc. I'm in the process of writing this all out now. I'll update it in a more formal form...
--
Crazy Bat Designs
Home of the phpBB WASO
Helping you reach the most people possible.
Nigel Peck wrote:I'm not at all sure about changing the fora, the site has worked well with them as they are, there's no good reason to change this. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Having read just about every message made here for over a year, here's a summary of why I think it deserves revising:
Going area-by-area, my current thoughts are:
The fora have been re-arranged once before. Conversely, that's when most of these redundant and overlapping areas were added. But I fully agree it should be done very rarely and very cautiously. "Do it once, do it right!" as my old man says.
Nigel Peck wrote:[...], it will be enough to get used to the new site without new fora.
The categories, if widely agreed on, could be changed within the current system. Long before the new one goes live.
Nigel Peck wrote:Cerbera wrote:[...] (Name would still link to a Profile page with these details.)
Hmmm, not too sure, it's useful info to make an assessment of someone's credibility (to a point).
You would still get that information by clicking the person's name. The quality of a message speaks for itself, imho.
Nigel Peck wrote:Cerbera wrote:Don't paginate topics.
Not sure, shorter pages are easier to digest [...]
Actually, scrolling is easier than navigating. Even in long articles and essays.
Nigel Peck wrote:[...] and [easier to] remember which page number a certain post was on that you are looking for.
I tend to remember a message by who wrote it and what it said. Sometimes I can't even remember what topic it was in. Which reminds me:
And, while writing this message:
Nigel Peck wrote:Long pages with loads of posts could get ridiculous.
For multi-megabyte pages, yes. But such topics are either rare or non-existant here. The moderator mode doesn't paginate topics, so you could try it yourself.
Nigel Peck wrote:However, this would be great as an option [...]
Users don't change the defaults, so adding an option is rarely a solution. If the default is set to 100 messages per page, that might be the best of both worlds.
Nigel Peck wrote:Please don't anyone think that that means it is no longer up for discussion, just trying to keep track.
Agreed. Maybe add the list of volunteers in a "Potential Contributors" section?
All with the caveat of when they have time available.
Crazybat, I'm glad to see the essential first step of planning the usability being thought through so dilligently.
(EDIT) Updated possible role for Rich Pedley.
--
Ben "Cerbera" Millard
Working as sdesign1's front-end developer. Playing at Project Cerbera.
Cerbera wrote:Agreed. Maybe add the list of volunteers in a "Potential Contributors" section?
- dotjay (server stuff)
- JackP
- Cerbera (front-end, demos, research)
- Rich Pedley (if we go the PunBB route?)
- crazybat (experience customising phpBB, organising usability work)
All with the caveat of when they have time available.
I'm honoured to be mentioned, but ... Basically its the PunBB thing, these days I wouldn't suggest it for anyone. I have had increased Russian spam to a PunBB board since a Russian firm took PunBB over, which doesn't bode well in my book. So I haven't kept upto to date with PunBB development since fluxBB was released.
My major PunBB running on 1.2.x :
but I wasn't overly concerned with accessibility issues for that particular site so haven't tweaked that much from the basic. I will be moving that to FluxBB as soon as I can replicate all the modifications I've done to it!
If however you look at and decide FluxBB is useful, then I'd be more than happy to help. Possibly the same for punbb, but I wouldn't be as enthusiastic about it,
--
my mind is on a permanent tangent
Cerbera wrote:Having read just about every message made here for over a year, here's a summary of why I think it deserves revising:
- The current categories overlap each other.
- None of the areas are really active. We don't need to spread the traffic around.
- We get parallel discussions. (Very similar subjects discussed in different areas at the same time.)
- Some areas go inactive for weeks (or even months!) at a time.
- Topic creators sometimes start their topics with "Not sure if this is the right area" or words to that effect. (Quite a big hint!)
- Topics sometimes don't quite fit in an area, but aren't a good enough fit to move elsewhere. This leaves moderators in a quandary about whether to move something.
- There are 2 levels of fora. 1 level would be simpler.
This is good. We need feedback like this from you, as well as our other users. Why? See my next comment...
Cerbera wrote:Going area-by-area, my current thoughts are:
- Web Accessibility Forums:
- Site Building & Testing: Useful. Could be generalised as "Making Stuff Accessible".
- Legal Issues & Web Standards: Overlaps with Site Building & Testing.
- News & Resources: A new topic in the relevant forum makes this area redundant.
- Site Critiques: Useful. Perhaps generalise it to "Website & Project Reviews".
- Beginners: Vague, since we are all learning. Besides which, new members usually indicate their skill level when they ask their first question. So this area is redundant.
- Project Specific Forums:
- Accessify Forum: Useful.
- XStandard Accessibility Forum: Inactive. Would be covered by a "Website & Project Reviews" area, though.
- General:
- Introductions: Useful but excessive to have it's own area.
- Coffee Break: Useful. Could invite introductions here.
- Web Technology: Overlap with Site Building & Testing as well as Legal Issues & Web Standards. (For example.) Chatter about technology could go in Coffee Break, which is not busy.
- Accessibility Off the Web: Inactive but worthwhile. Could be covered by generalising other areas.
- Commercial Events & Services: License to spam! Events can be announced in the area which covers the subjects that event is about, so this area is redundant.
The fora have been re-arranged once before. Conversely, that's when most of these redundant and overlapping areas were added. But I fully agree it should be done very rarely and very cautiously. "Do it once, do it right!" as my old man says.
Since you're touching on the IA (Information Architecture), here's my thoughts. Just as we're looking at personas and use cases, we should have the same type of validation from the users involved that the IA of the forum is appropriate to meet the needs. We have the advantage with this as you've mentioned the challenges above that you (and others) have encountered. This is something to keep in mind if the IA is to be changed. Basically, what I'm saying is to assure that your suggestions above make sense to all involved.
Cerbera wrote:Maybe add the list of volunteers in a "Potential Contributors" section?
- dotjay (server stuff)
- JackP
- Cerbera (front-end, demos, research)
- Rich Pedley (if we go the PunBB/FluxBB route?)
- crazybat (experience customising phpBB, organising usability work)
All with the caveat of when they have time available.
Crazybat, I'm glad to see the essential first step of planning the usability being thought through so dilligently.
Sounds good to me. UCD is something I'm very interested in, so I'm glad to do it. As well, if it weren't for these forums, I wouldn't be where I am today. So, it feels nice to give back
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Crazy Bat Designs
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