Talk:What a New System Should Have
Serious Evaluation of Big Tent (etc)
- 1756 From: Paul Thompson
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 8:31 am Subject: Serious Evaluation of Big Tent (etc) paul_in_ascot
With the recent wobbly that Yahoo has thrown us (see Edward's message on Central), I think it would be prudent for us to do some serious evaluation of Big Tent and other possible pre-built solutions that we might be able to move to.
The techies that have commented here seem to agree that writing our own is likely too big of a project. However, piggy backing on another, more modern web platform, has a hope and a prayer at least.
How would such an evaluation best be done? Should we develop a list of evaluation criteria?
Thoughts?
Cheers, Paul Thompson
1757 From: sixmum
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 4:45 am
That's a good idea Paul. I'm up for trying anything out.
I like this idea, it would carry through whatever we were considering.
- Got to cope with large volumes of traffic
- Large membership lists
Carole
1758 From: Esther Reeves esther.reeves
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 10:41 am
I know nothing about Big Tent but I do think we should at least look at other options. Is Drupal worth looking at? Again I know nothing about it really apart from the fact the Transition Town forum has been talking about them as a possible for transition town groups to run their on-line presence on.
I'm a sort of sudo techie.. in that I have worked in computer support and so on but mostly I know enough about a wide variety of things to understand what techies say and translate or to test any new system as I'm good at finding the bits that don't work and systemically poking at all the corners :) so if those with more knowledge want to look at such things I'll happily poke any trial set up.
Esther
1760 From: Trafford Freegle sueandjean
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:25 am
I don't know how these things work, but someone on FC Next has got a world wide groups up and running for recycling, then Ecomodo seem to have a very good site but with a slow growth rate. Is there some way we could piggy back on this type of group? It makes sense to join one that is built with similar aims to me.
The downside is that I have joined a few groups and because they are non Yahoo I tend not to visit them. Will our members do the same? On Yahoo's new format I presume we will be listed on Yahoo and be able to spread the word easier, members will have quick links to their groups if they have an account, and more will probably have an account if it ends up catching on.
Jean Trafford
1764 From: Paul Thompson freeglepaul
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:18 am On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Esther Reeves wrote: > Is Drupal worth looking at?
Nope. Drupal is a content management system... Not at all what we need.
But a side point based on your suggestion, it is worth looking at Open Source Software available....
Cheers, Paul Thompson Ascot Freegle
1761 From: Chris Cant chriscant
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:24 am
Drupal is an open-source general purpose Content Management System (CMS) that lets you build web sites. As an admin you can add and edit pages. It lets users register etc. There are oddles of (free) modules that do useful stuff, eg blog and forums come bundled with the basic installation. There are major extensions such as CiviCRM that is a Customer/Constituent Relationship Manager. I'm working on a couple of Drupal projects at the moment; the (paid-for) tool Artisteer is good at making themes, ie the appearance skin.
While Drupal is good, it may not have the modules or particular functionality that we would need to run a Freegle group.
I presume Big Tent and others are specifically set up to run a re-use group.
If we pitch our tent in someone else's field, then there's always the risk that they suddenly rearrange the furniture.
As I understand it Paul was suggesting that we work out some criteria for what we want in any system.
Even moving to someone's else existing will require a lot of time/energy.
If we don't find something suitable and we wished to start from scratch, then that will require even more energy. That said, Drupal may be a suitable starting point.
Chris Penrith
1762 From: Esther Reeves esther.reeves
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:37 am On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Chris Cant wrote:
Drupal is an open-source general purpose Content Management System (CMS) that lets you build web sites.
Thanks I now now much more than i did about it!
As I understand it Paul was suggesting that we work out some criteria for what we want in any system. That would certainly be a good place to start.. have there been any threads on this before or are we starting at the beginning?
Esther
1766 From: Paul Thompson freeglepaul
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:13 pm On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Esther Reeves esther.reeves wrote:
As I understand it Paul was suggesting that we work out some criteria for what we want in any system. That would certainly be a good place to start.. have there been any threads on this before or are we starting at the beginning? We've randomly chatted about the prospect of replacement systems (either pre-built or building from scratch). But we've not properly talked about real criteria for such a system.
To do this properly, we need to be quite thorough. I would suggest first defining some high level categories, then breaking into those and adding some detailed criteria. For instance....
High level categories:
- Implementation - how does setting up groups and migrating groups work?
- Capabilities - what do we need the system to do?
- Dependability - could the system disappear one day? what sort of uptime can we expect?
- Flexibility - is there any chance for adding on features we need, sort of like you can enhance Facebook by adding Facebook apps?
Lots to consider here. And these are just the ones I came up with briefly.
I wonder if facebook would even remotely be a usable platform... Hmmnn.........;)
Cheers, Paul Thompson Ascot Freegle
1767 From: David Freegle Mod davidfreegle
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:28 pm On 01/09/2010 14:13,
Paul Thompson wrote:
Lots to consider here. And these are just the ones I came up with briefly. As a non techie: I think one of the main criteria will be to initially offer an "alternative" to yahoo and make it optional as we don't want to repeat the mistakes TFN made with MY Freeceyle
Open source is also important although I do like the Ecomodo site which I believe was done with MS products and took them a couple of years. Just out of interest I could ask them how long that took and what resources they used as I seem to remember a couple of them took a few years
I would also say that allowing photos of items would help a lot
And consider some form of member rating system even if it was just a I had a successful transaction with this member and /or some way of identifying how reliable a member is
I can see that in plugin in that the no of offers /wanteds a member posts so I suppose a recent posts of member may help Very much random thoughts as I assume we are talking years ahead here and first priority will be to work with new yahoo system but would be handy to collate thoughts on this and maybe we could do a google survey when we have more time
Regards David
- David*
- Reading Freegle*
1768 From: Trafford Freegle sueandjean
Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:44 pm
As a non techie: I think one of the main criteria will be to initially offer an "alternative" to yahoo and make it optional as we don't want to repeat the mistakes TFN made with MY Freeceyle Regards David Yes I agree with most of this. There is no harm going down this route as it may be possible to ask Yahoo to implement some of what we want anyway, if it turns out to be viable on their new platform.
I was wondering if we could somehow run a simple separate system to run alongside Yahoo groups with maybe just a list of emails going to and from members for those who want to opt out of Yahoo?
Jean
Trafford
1777 From: Trafford Freegle sueandjean
Date: Thu Sep 2, 2010 2:59 pm
Sorry if my contributions are not relevant.
This website I have seen recommended and it does seem adaptable. It is open source.
Jean
Trafford
1781 From: Esther Reeves esther.reeves
Date: Thu Sep 2, 2010 11:39 pm
So are we meant to be discussing it here still or on the wiki I'm confused now and aware there are similar discussions in multiple places.
The main thing I would want in any platform I'd seriously consider moving to is that it was easy to use both by email and on line.
Ideally I'd like a hybrid of a mailing list and a forum but I've never seen one that worked well. The reply to sender thing is critical.
In other words I'd like to be able to set up the website side of things so it looked and worked like a forum and had different sections for different things ie offers, wanteds and the ability to have a chat group directly there but separate. Ideally I'd like to be able to divide the offers and wanteds into sections ie household, kids etc but I can't get my head round how that could work with also being able to use it as a mailing system.
Many of my members just want to be able to email the group when they have something to offer or request and to get everything someone else posts come into their inbox and to be able to decide if they get individual emails, digests or nothing. I've seen forums where you can chose to get replies to specific threads but not ones where you can email things in.
As I say I've never personally come across something I thought would work well like that but I am much more experienced in running mailing lists than forums so I am willing to admit i may just have missed it.
Esther
