On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 10:11 AM, Reizinger Zoltán <[email protected]>wrote:
> The forums have link to the terms of use: > http://openoffice.org/terms_of_use > This link was on all the time while the forum runs. > For my best knowledge, never was problem wit that. > > Now it is contain ASF 2.0 license for codes, I see no problems to > licensing. > Usually no source codes submitted to forums. > > Zoltan > I think this is a "architecture follows organization" versus "organization follows architecture" question. If the forum admins and moderators want to be part of the Apache OpenOffice.org project, then we should look for a way for Apache to host the phpBB instance for the forums. If the forum admins and moderators want to be remain independent, then they would need to find some other arrangement, such as a link, from the Apache project page. In this case you would need to find a server to host the forums. IMHO, I'd like to see the user forums become part of the project. I think user support is traditionally a function of an Apache project. Although it is most commonly done with a user list, that is just an implementation detail, not the essence of the function. Since OOo has so many users, the list would never scale. The traffic would be too heavy and would make it useless for users. So an Apache hosted phpBB instance makes the most sense to me. One way for this to work would be for the current forum admin(s) to volunteer at Apache Infrastructure, to provide the expertise for installing, customizing and maintaining phpBB, as well as porting the existing data. Moderators would clearly be welcome as project members. Their contributions are important for helping the users work well with the product, but also to direct them to bug reports, etc. They also would serve an important role in community development and recruitment. Another important aspect is this: If the forums are part of the project, then all project members can also participate in the forums. We're not segregating roles, but encouraging a valuable way for direct communications between users and all project members. I heard some discussion of whether some other way of supporting users would work well, maybe something like StackExchange. IMHO, that is an implementation detail. Let's first agree on whether the user support function should be an integral part of the Apache OpenOffice project or not. If we agree it is, and I hope we do, then we can discuss the best way to implement that function going forward. -Rob
