Discussion server options - Revision history

Robbie Morrison at 23:44, 19 December 2016

2016-12-19T23:44:42Z

Robbie Morrison at 23:44, 19 December 2016

2016-12-19T23:44:00Z

Robbie Morrison at 00:08, 10 December 2016

2016-12-10T00:08:35Z

Robbie Morrison: /* Gitter */

2016-12-10T00:07:44Z

‎Gitter

Clemens Wingenbach: /* Hubzilla */

2016-12-07T06:46:00Z

‎Hubzilla

Clemens Wingenbach at 06:38, 7 December 2016

2016-12-07T06:38:04Z

Robbie Morrison at 19:31, 6 December 2016

2016-12-06T19:31:46Z

Robbie Morrison at 19:30, 6 December 2016

2016-12-06T19:30:28Z

Robbie Morrison: Created page with " This page is for technical information relating to the proposed software solutions, including features and limitations. The discussion page can then be used to debate the rel..."

2016-12-06T19:24:59Z

Created page with " This page is for technical information relating to the proposed software solutions, including features and limitations. The discussion page can then be used to debate the rel..."

New page

This page is for technical information relating to the proposed software solutions, including features and limitations. The discussion page can then be used to debate the relative merits of each and to narrow down the field.

See the original [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cNkUp_qgv1c3rfHzOqg6GWSeG7IykViFcofK_NR2kXc/edit?usp=sharing google doc] by [[User:Bryn Pickering|Bryn]].

<br/>

== Preamble ==

Wikipedia distinguishes between the following classes of discussion software:

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_chat online chat]
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software internet forum software]
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collaborative_software collaborative (or team communication) software]

Quoting loosely from Wikipedia: an '''internet forum''' (or message board) is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from '''chat rooms''' in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived.

My (Robbie) reading of the discussion thus far is that each of these classes is represented by a lead contender, respectively: Gitter, Discourse, and Slack. Let's focus on these products and only introduce new candidates as the need arises.

Key '''policy''' questions:

*public or private? — few (if any) reasons to be private?
*what is our attitude to paid hosting — if required for a good solution?
*what about additional google groups instead?
*would an institution be willing to host services for us?
*to what degree should we plan for growth?

<br/>

== Gitter ==

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitter Wikipedia page]
*[https://gitter.im/ website]

Gitter is an instant messaging and chat room system for developers and users of GitHub repositories.

Alternatives: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat IRC] and the KiwiIRC client

The [https://billing.gitter.im/ billing page] shows that private rooms are limited to 25 users per private room (that must be the total number of users registered to a single chat room?). Payment entails $5 per person per month which is non-trivial and certainly a barrier to entry. I suppose we would use public rooms exclusively in any case? So disabled services are not an issue.

Features/limitations:

*simply register to start
*GitHub logins are directly usable
*IRC bridge (beta) for easy access from your favourite chat client
*gitter.im/openmod isn't available so it would have to be gitter.im/openmod-initiative

<br/>

== Discourse ==

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_(software) Wikipedia article]
*[http://www.discourse.org/ homepage]

Discourse is a internet forum and mailing list management software application.

*self-hosting looks like the only option
*could easily migrate email list from Google Groups to this service
*accepts [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown Markdown] and HTML (together) for rich-formatting
*has a revision history
*supports so-called "wiki posts" — one can mark a post as collaboratively editable by trusted members
*community-based moderation and administration (to share the admin load)
*default discussion license is Creative Commons
*browsers before Internet Explorer 10 (released September 2012) not supported (unlikely to be a problem)
*works well on mobile devices
*rather than a large hierarchy of forums and sub-forums, uses categories instead (like Stack Overflow)
*just like other forum systems, Discourse offers a user profile page (another one!)
*the website at [http://discourse.org discourse.org] is very much set up to push you towards hosting with them — as of 2014, plans start at $200 per month, apparently
*supports anonymous posting — do we want to enable that? (on first take, I think not)

<br/>

== Slack ==

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack_(software) Wikipedia page]
*[https://slack.com/ website]

Slack is a cloud-based team collaboration tool.

Alternatives: Ryver, Mattermost, Rocket.chat.

Features/limitations:

*the free version keeps only the most recent 10 000 chat messages
*cannot be self hosted
*closed house: messages cannot be referred to from outside and are not indexed by search engines

@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 In addition:
-*Markdown can be translated to Wiki markup using [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoc Pandoc]
+*Markdown can be translated to Wiki markup using [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoc Pandoc] for transfer to a wiki
 == Slack ==

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 See the original [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cNkUp_qgv1c3rfHzOqg6GWSeG7IykViFcofK_NR2kXc/edit?usp=sharing google doc] by [[User:Bryn Pickering|Bryn]].
 == Preamble ==
@@ Line 17: / Line 15: @@
 My (Robbie) reading of the traffic thus far is that each of these classes is represented by a lead contender, respectively: Gitter, Discourse, and Slack. Let's focus on these products and only introduce new candidates as the need arises.
 == Policy questions ==
@@ Line 29: / Line 25: @@
 *would an institution be willing to host software for us — quite possibly?
 *to what degree should we plan for growth — witness the rapid rise in projects in just five years?
 == Additional Google Groups ==
@@ Line 39: / Line 33: @@
 *very easy to implement
 == Gitter ==
@@ Line 59: / Line 51: @@
 *IRC bridge (beta) for easy access from your favorite chat client
 *gitter.im/openmod isn't available so it would have to be gitter.im/openmod-initiative
 == Discourse ==
@@ Line 83: / Line 73: @@
 *supports anonymous posting — do we want to enable that? (on first take, I think not)
-<br/>
+In addition:
 == Slack ==
@@ Line 99: / Line 91: @@
 *cannot be self hosted
 *closed house: messages cannot be referred to from outside and are not indexed by search engines
 == Hubzilla ==

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 <br/>
 == Additional Google Groups ==
@@ Line 40: / Line 39: @@
 *very easy to implement
 == Gitter ==
@@ Line 60: / Line 61: @@
 <br/>
 == Discourse ==
@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 <br/>
 == Hubzilla ==

@@ Line 91: / Line 91: @@
 <br/>
 == Hubzilla ==
@@ Line 96: / Line 97: @@
 *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Hubzilla Wikipedia page]
 *[https://hubzilla.org/ website]
 Hubzilla is a platform for creating interconnected websites featuring a decentralized identity, communications, and permissions framework built using common webserver technology.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page is for technical information relating to the proposed software solutions, including features and limitations. The discussion page can then be used to debate the relative merits of each and to narrow down the field.
+This page is for technical information relating to the proposed software solutions, including features and limitations. The discussion page can then be used to debate the relative merits of each and to narrow down the field.<br/>
 See the original [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cNkUp_qgv1c3rfHzOqg6GWSeG7IykViFcofK_NR2kXc/edit?usp=sharing google doc] by [[User:Bryn Pickering|Bryn]].
@@ Line 89: / Line 89: @@
 *cannot be self hosted
 *closed house: messages cannot be referred to from outside and are not indexed by search engines

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 Quoting loosely from Wikipedia: an '''internet forum''' (or message board) is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from '''chat rooms''' in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived.
-My (Robbie) reading of the discussion thus far is that each of these classes is represented by a lead contender, respectively: Gitter, Discourse, and Slack. Let's focus on these products and only introduce new candidates as the need arises.
+My (Robbie) reading of the traffic thus far is that each of these classes is represented by a lead contender, respectively: Gitter, Discourse, and Slack. Let's focus on these products and only introduce new candidates as the need arises.
 <br/>

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 My (Robbie) reading of the discussion thus far is that each of these classes is represented by a lead contender, respectively: Gitter, Discourse, and Slack. Let's focus on these products and only introduce new candidates as the need arises.
 Key '''policy''' questions:
-*public or private? — few (if any) reasons to be private?
+*what about some additional google groups instead?
 *what is our attitude to paid hosting — if required for a good solution?
-*what about additional google groups instead?
+*would an institution be willing to host software for us — quite possibly?
-*would an institution be willing to host services for us?
+*to what degree should we plan for growth — witness the rapid rise in projects in just five years?
 *to what degree should we plan for growth?
 <br/>
@@ Line 43: / Line 47: @@
 *simply register to start
 *GitHub logins are directly usable
-*IRC bridge (beta) for easy access from your favourite chat client
+*IRC bridge (beta) for easy access from your favorite chat client
 *gitter.im/openmod isn't available so it would have to be gitter.im/openmod-initiative