> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nico Morrison > On 30/07/07, James Cridland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 7/30/07, Nico Morrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > But for heavens sake BBC - put a proper forum up, not this manky > > > 'messageboard'. > > The manky messageboard is the BBC's "DNA" system, which talks > > correctly to the single sign-on service, and does other > useful fancy > > things. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes; > much of what > > I see of the BBC's current web infrastructure (now I'm > inside) is very > > Web0.5, but that's being sorted. Don't panic. (That > previous sentence > > was, I note, an unintended pun, given that 'DNA' is > actually based on > > the H2G2 engine.) > There are several scalable, user-friendly forum software > packages, with the facility to login externally from another > sign-on service. > They can also connect to web pages news/articles - often > called 'talkback', much superior to blog comments, as they > connect news articles to an automatic forum topic and the > article can also be founs from the forum.
For many years in a previous life, I worked on the predecessor to the DNA engine, Howerd 2 (named after Frankie Howerd because a funny thing happened on the way to the forum - you might guess that Howerd 2 was the successor to Howerd) One of the problems the BBC has had with its forum software in the past is the /sheer/ scalability that such software has needed in the past - it's far more than most people imagine. Millions of users, at one point nearly 100 different themes, a requirement to moderate across different forums easily. And ultimately software that doesn't crash every lunch time under the enormous weight of board office workers :) Last time it was looked at, external software was looked at and discounted because nothing was scalable enough - hence a bespoke solution was built. Indeed most large sites of the scale of the BBC have had bespoke solutions over the years. In the meantime the forum industry has continued to improve their offering. Next time there's a requirement for a software refresh of the forum software, then it might just be that an off the shelf offering is suitable. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
