Hi all,

Am 12.11.2011 um 22:35 schrieb drew:
> I believe there are pros and cons to type of platform:
> - the more 'traditional' BBS style 
> - the tag/rank based platforms, as here
> 
> and each package within a group
> - shapedo, stackoverflow, question2answer …

I have setup a stackoverflow-like q&a system on 
http://osqa-test.libreoffice.org.
It uses Askbot as platform, simply because the framework it uses is well-known 
to me and the development is quite fast-paced.
Everyone feel free to start playing around / start using it, you can login 
either by creating a local account or using the provided authentication 
backends.


> I really think that the different platform type come at delivery
> features in rather different ways and maybe cater to somewhat different
> user types (personas) - specifically a difference between people that
> prefer to browse for information vs assisted search [assisted here
> meaning use of a search box] and even then there are difference types of
> browsing interactions - drill down vs jump to, is how I would name two
> patterns.

When I look at many active forums with many topics, new users very often ask 
duplicated and duplicated and duplicated questions, and one of the main answers 
of moderators is a tutorial on how to use the search function. The ofter 
problem I observe often is the inability of users to stick to the category 
layout, so moderators often have to move topics around. And finally long topics 
often get so confusingly long that the answer to the question is on page 25 of 
39.

Thats why I strongly prefer using a rated Q&A system for _problems_ the user 
has: A Question is asked, if necessary refined and edited. The best answer is 
voted and selected, and immediately appears after the question.
Users who work constructively gain points ("karma") and consequently more 
rights. So the whole thing is a lot more self-sustaining than traditional 
forums.
When creating a new question, comparable questions are automatically searched 
for, so the user sees immediately: There might already be a question similar to 
mine that has already been answered.

Of course, a Q&A system also has weaknesses, e.g. its layout assumes the 
structure of questions and answers and not a flow of discussion.

> So, I would suggest that, for just the moment, we try to look at package
> pros and cons within it's group, as if we where going to setup one of
> each - pushing back a final decision to one of, which type would be
> implemented.

That's a good idea, also because forums and q&a system both have unique pros 
and cons…. I'll prepare the vm for the setup of a forum when I find time to do 
this.

Cu,
Alex
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