Our current State Caucus forums are inartful, and the committee by blog arrangement suffers from a reliance on third party services that fundamentally require using multiple log in processes to participate in our proceedings.
I strongly believe that the establishment of a phpBB forum at a sub-domain of Convention USA would provide a significant improvement over existing methodologies, and provide a structured way for future development.
I have examined the carnage of the previous attempt at a forum. This suffered from a severe lack of use of permissions, leading to the forum becoming over-run with spam posts. It also had minimal use of sub-forums to effectively organize content, and no use of groups to allow different sub-forums to cater to different groups. Further, it was housed at www.ConventionUSA.org, so all of its content was presented as representative of the convention as a whole.
I strongly believe that the content of www.ConventionUSA.org should be reserved for official statements and resources approved by the convention or, when appropriate, its officers. To this end I would house the forum at forum.ConventionUSA.org, making use of our hosting company's free sub-domain service.
It is my hope to unify the log in process, so that logging in to ConventionUSA.org will automatically log in verified delegates to the forum. It is possible that I will be unable to accomplish this, requiring a seperate log in for the forum. Regardless, it could be unified by a professional web consultant once we grow to have funds available to fund the consulting fees.
If no objections are raised, I will begin building the forum I envision on February 19th, with the aim of having a working draft, able to support standing committees and states electing to move to the new forum, available by the end of the month. Limited access to this forum would be open to any delegate requesting access.
Feel free to post here if you would like to help, or to raise an objection to the forum. Alternatively, feel free to contact me by E-mail.
Ben Prather
Internet Committee Chairman
internet@ConventionUSA.org
No objection. A beta version should be tried asap and if you like I will ask for permission from the TN Caucus to be the beta testers. Let me know.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that you inform those that do not know what "phpBB" is.
ReplyDeletephpBB is stands for php Bulletin Board. It is the leading implementation of web forums.
DeleteIt is an open source forum solution, written in the PHP programming language (as is most of our existing website.
It has an extensive database of safety tested open source custom modifications, and formal coding standards that any extensions we contract to a third party should satisfy.
At the bottom of the next page you will find the “Post a Comment” box. Under that you will see “Comment as:” If you choose “OpenID” the next dialog that comes up reads “OpenID URL:” Please insert your Name and Delegate ID in that box so the everyone else knows where the comment came from and will not dismiss it as spam. You will receive NO follow-up notifications if you do it this way and will have to check the forum manually to see other comments. It is suggested that you use “Google account” instead. When you choose that the next website that comes up is a “SIGN UP” (top right) or a “Sign in” section. If you have a Google account you would like to use, Sign in. Google accounts are free and Notifications can be forwarded to existing email address if preferred. After Signing Up you may come back to the Internet Committee Blog and choose “Comment as: Google Account”, be sure to click “Subscribe by email” (in blue) bottom right to receive notifications of future Comments, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis will work at all ConventionUSA Blogs as well in the future, as long as we use blogspot.
"next page" should read "this page" sorry.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using a forum instead of blogs for the committee discussions. It will help keep things more organized and then can discuss multiple topics without too much hassle. I say no objections and would begin building it as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteCharles Fischer
IN 004
I may be able to be of some help. I have experience with programming in PHP, and can usually make mySQL do what I want it to do. In particular, I have done a fair bit of work in WordPress.
ReplyDeleteIf any of what I say has already been addressed, I apologize. I just registered yesterday.
It seems to me that whatever technology we use would go hand-in-hand with the rules of order. Do we have any sense of how our online deliberations should work? Do we foresee any need for special functionality that might require customization?
Ben, how familiar are you with phpBB? (I am not familiar with it at all.) Do you recommend it over other open source solutions for particular reasons? Do you know anything about it's extensibility?
From what I can determine, it looks like extending phpBB requires modification to the core files, which means that updating will require that any modifications be re-incorporated into the new version's code.
MyBB on the other hand uses a plug-in/action-hook model, which allows for the installation of extended functionality without touching the core code.
FL050
MyBB and phpBB appear to be similarly capable tools. Further MyBB has a tool to convert a phpBB forum to MyBB if we decide to change technologies at a later time.
DeleteRegarding updating the forum software, phpBB has an AutoMOD tool for loading code modifications maintained in the format required by their extensive Modification Database.
https://www.phpbb.com/mods/automod/
Here is what appears to be an independent review of the leading forum technologies.
http://www.forum-software.org/forum-comparator/mybb-vs-phpbb3-vs-simple-machines-2
Based on that site, the primary tradeoffs are the MyBB plug-in capabilities you mentioned, plus the availability of wysiwig editors; for phpBB's better functionality with smart phones.
My primary interest in phpBB, however, is that there appears to be a much more robust verification process than MyBB. Admittedly, verification is much more critical when you are modifying the core code than plugging in a peripheral extension.
Mods in this database must meet coding guidelines to ensure forum security and reliability. These guidelines should be met in any code we develop, and they should be validated by the phpBB modification team.
https://area51.phpbb.com/docs/30x/coding-guidelines.html
https://www.phpbb.com/mods/team-overview/
I do see the need for special functionality, basically adding buttons to automate and simplify the rules of order processes. This is a long term goal. My immediate goal is to create an inviting environment for delegates to begin forming a sense of community.
I am certainly open to discussion on this.
Welcome Warren... sounds to me like you are volunteering your services to the Internet Committee and I motion to accept you as a member of this committee, what do you think? before I ask for objections...
ReplyDeleteI don't see the need for a motion.
DeleteWarren, if you wish to offer your services, I will e-mail the Chairman of my intent to accept you as a member of the Internet Committee.
I would be glad to help.
DeleteI agree for no need for a motion here as the Chair can approve appointment. I was just wanting to be sure Warren wanted to join the comittee.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I do to help? Unifying the login? I'm not bad a graphics.
ReplyDeleteIt would be tremendously helpful having someone to bounce ideas off of, if the goal of unifying the login process and verification processes turn out to be harder than I anticipate.
DeleteIdentifying styles for the look and feel of our forum would help, as this is somewhere my skills are lacking. Left to my own devices, we would end up with something like:
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/softwood/demo/
Would it be possible for me to to get a copy of the code for the current site so I could play around with it locally? Is it based on on an existing software package or is it built from scratch?
DeleteRegarding the look of the forum, I would suggest that conventionusa.org should have a unified look throughout.
I have access to the code for the current site. The creation of an outside test bed is compelling. Particularly for collaborating on coding changes before implementation.
DeleteThere will be no immediate visible changes to www.ConventionUSA.org. It is a custom built site, but uses AJAX, CKEditor and a Database abstraction layer.
Do you have the skills needed to create a custom theme for our forum to match our front page? I have no interest in personally developing a custom theme.
My thinking would rather give the forum a behind the scenes look, to help contrast it with our website. This would also help establish the difference in purpose of the two sub-domains.
I imagine that it is coded in PHP?
ReplyDeleteBased on a little poking around, these are my assumptions on conventionUSA.org hosting. It is hosted with bluehost, uses a cpanel interface, runs on a linux os (probably CentOS) and an apache server (hopefuly 2.0 or better). I also assume that we have access to the nameserver.
I have a Virtual Server hosting account with godaddy. I we pointed some-sub-domain.conventionusa.org to my IP (173.201.180.11), I could copy the entire bluehost account over in one fell swoop (details) and if everything goes as expected, it would be fully functional out of the chute. (I've done this before)
While I don't know the specifics, I'm am sure I could sort out a custom theme. I prefer that we nail down which forum software we are going to use first. A behind the scenes look to the forum makes good sense, but I would still suggest that they share a visual continuity.
I am not sure the purpose of this post. I would expect the manager of a home web hosting company to have access to this information, and the ability to transfer websites between hosting companies.
DeleteI agree that discussing a theme is premature, when the discussion on which forum to use is not settled.
I don't follow.
DeleteYou wrote "The creation of an outside test bed is compelling. Particularly for collaborating on coding changes before implementation."
I'm saying that if my assumptions are correct concerning conventionusa.org hosting (likely but not certain), we could easily copy conventionusa.org as it sits, to an account on my server, thus providing an outside test bed where we could muck around with the existing code with an eye to integration.
Peace.
Ok. I plan to spend one week building an initial forum, and a second week integrating it with the existing code.
DeleteIf log in and verification integration are not resolved by March 12th, I will seek your assistance. I may ask you to review my code changes, regardless.
I would be concerned about transferring the databases, and all the delegate information we hold in confidence within them, to any location.
Ben
The Convention USA Chairman has established criteria for the establishment of a forum testbed.
ReplyDeleteCombined with the support offered here, the discussion will now shift to which forum software we should adopt.
See "Forum Software Options" top right of this page.
ReplyDelete