Forum-planning

''This project has been discontinued. Even though TDF has no official forum, any queries can be sent to the Ask LibreOffice page (here), which is a Q&A-style website. However, this webpage will remain available for historic purposes. ''

This wiki page is meant to collect all information regarding the planning of launching a forum. https://www.mail-archive.com/marketing@global.libreoffice.org/msg05840.html gives some idea about what is needed.

It includes items (not limited to):
 * Finding/Naming someone as coordinator (i.e. one or two people who will be responsible in filling the gaps in this page with concrete data)
 * Agreeing on an initial set of Categories and Forums
 * Finding/Naming Moderators for the different areas of the forum ("specialists" if you want)
 * Deciding whether it makes sense to close a few mailinglists completely when most activity is moved to the forum

NOTE: Please read Bjoern Michaelsen's suggestions on this thread: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentation.libreoffice.marketing/5933. He has some really good advice. (Marc)

Forums Solution (Software )
jforum will be used on TDF servers. This installation is based on the fork/maintenance version whose home is http://code.google.com/p/jforum2/ - with associated forum at http://jforum.andowson.com/

Coordinator(s)

 * Jonathan Aquilina (eagles051387@gmail.com) - co-coordinator (CET Malta)
 * Joel Madero - (jmadero.dev@gmail.com) - co-coordinator (PST, United States)
 * Lucian Oprea (oprea.luci@gmail.com) - co-coordinator (Romania)
 * Marc Paré (marc@marcpare.com) - co-coordinator (Canada)
 * Jean Spiteri ([mailto:beimaginativeegroup@gmail.com beimaginativeegroup@gmail.com]) - co-coordinator (CET Malta)

Co-Coordinator To-Do List
 * gather team of co-coordinators
 * make sure all co-coordinators have admin privileges to the forum
 * divide up tasks and talk of responsabilities (also discuss tasks with regards to moderators -- oversee; problem solving, liaison etc.)
 * make sure you have added your country of origin, this may make a difference with scheduling meetings
 * make sure that you tag the "Watch this page" at the bottom of this page (in edit mode). It will notify you of any changes through email


 * Competition for the forums logo site (rules for the competition)
 * Competition for the lounge forums (rules for the competition)
 * Terms and conditions / Rules and Regulations
 * Create a user FAQ forums for "common questions about using the forums" (this was mentioned in Joel's Rules text ->bottom sentence)]
 * Moderator Procedures to implement the rules -- "Junk"
 * Agreement Rules for new user accounts
 * Spam Control on the Threads
 * Moderators -- approach people to see if they are interested -- Marc ongoing process
 * Grow Forums Community
 * Create a welcoming Stcky for each forums
 * Sticky pointing to people who submit patches

LibreOffice Forums Moderators
All below-mentioned forums should be covered by people with dedication in moderating them, and, at least in the beginning, also to provide answers to questions posted into those categories. Purely administrative skills are not enough; we also need people who prevent the Forum from becoming a place where clueless people give advice to even more clueless people -- a Forum where you only find questions, but no satisfying answers. Ideally all forums are double-covered (it is also OK for one Moderator to cover multiple areas).

LibreOffice Forums Moderator Role

 * promote the free flow of information
 * promote conversation and free speech
 * answer general questions about the forum
 * move/delete/merge threads where needed
 * add "Stickies" to a forums when needed
 * make sure users observe the code of conduct as well as rules and regulations of the LibreOffice forums
 * respond to complaints
 * move spam posts
 * where, after sufficient warnings have been submitted to a user, a moderator may move post(s)
 * where, after sufficient warnings have been submitted to a user, a moderator may submit a user's name to the LibreOffice Forums Admin, which may later result in the banning of a user from the LibreOffice Forums
 * the role of the "forums moderator" is, above all, to maintain the daily flow of interactions of the forums and its management

Moderator Member List
''Feel free to add yourself if you're interested. Please add your contact email and country of origin''


 * Marc Paré (marc@marcpare.com)(Canada)
 * Jonathan Aquilina (eagles051387@gmail.com) (CET Malta)
 * Jean Hollis Weber (jeanweber@gmail.com)(Australia) (Documentation)
 * Christian Lohmaier (technical/administration related stuff)
 * Jean Spiteri ([mailto:beimaginativeegroup@gmail.com beimaginativeegroup@gmail.com] (CET Malta) (marketing and other general things)(Malta)
 * Joel Madero (jmadero.dev@gmail.com) (United States) (administrative/some technical/QA/willing to get involved with UX)
 * Florian Reisinger QA etc.
 * Lucian Oprea (oprea.luci@gmail.com) (Romania) - setup/use/translation/promo/presentation LibreOffice
 * Fabian Rodriguez (Canada)

Coordinator "Moderator" To-Do List


 * define the job description of moderators
 * start to gather team of moderators for specific categories
 * ask for moderator help from various lists. If you know of someone who would fit the job description, contact off-list. Please inform other coordinators or cc, this will avoid us spamming potential moderators for the forums. Note that there should be at least 2 moderators per category.
 * make sure they have added their country of origin, this may make a difference with scheduling meetings.
 * Define rules for the LibreOffice Forums users (TBA)

LibreOffice Forums Categories
Coordinator(s)' job is to drive the discussion in the mailinglist and more importantly make sure that the results will be recorded here. Don't forget to add a pointer to the relevant discussion(s) to have an answer to people that ask "Why is there no Category X?" or "Why did you add Forum Y?" Note that the forum shouldn't be end-user-support only. Ideally both end-users as well as people driving the LibreOffice project should meet in the forum.

After going over all of the opinions (collected during the period of Sept. 27 - Nov. 15 2012), here are the results of the choice of categories (below). Unfortunately, in our (coordinators') assessment, there just did not seem to be enough support for starting out small (with breaking out more categories as the need becomes apparent), but, more support for categories as based on the LibreOffice modules. If,after a trial period (as of yet undetermined ), "dead" categories develop, we can always collapse these "dead" categories into compatible categories. However, we do have a clear determined commitment on the part of the 5 co-coordinators (Jonathan Aquilina, Lucian Oprea, Joel Madero, Marc Paré, Jean Spiteri) to make the forums categories work.

General Forums

 * Announcement News (NO NEED FOR MODERATORS -- READ ONLY)
 * General Discussion (Moderator(s): Marc Paré; Fabian Rodriguez)
 * LibO Goes Social (category name is only temporary) (Moderator(s): Jean Spiteri; Marc Paré)

Installation & Configuration of LibreOffice

 * Installation on Win (Moderator(s): Florian R.)
 * Installation on macOS -- (Moderator(s): Jonathan Aquilina)
 * Installation on Linux -- (Moderator(s): Marc Paré[.rpm]; Jonathan Aquilina[???]; Fabian Rodrigues [.deb])
 * Installation on others -- (Moderator(s):Jonathan Aquilina[android])

LibreOffice Applications

 * LibO Writer -- (Moderator(s):Lucian Oprea; Jean Hollis Weber)
 * LibO Calc -- (Moderator(s): Lucian Oprea)
 * LibO Impress -- (Moderator(s): Lucian Oprea)
 * LibO Draw -- (Moderator(s): No Moderator Yet)
 * LibO Base -- (Moderator(s): Jean Spiteri)
 * LibO Math -- (Moderator(s): Marc Paré)

Extensions LibreOffice

 * Extensions -- (Moderator(s): Marc Paré)
 * Templates -- (Moderator(s): Jean Spiteri)
 * Macros and UNO API (and any other) -- (Moderator(s): Marc Paré)

Contributor categories

 * No contributor categories until there is a formal request from a contributor list. Note that "Marketing" and "QA" were the only contributor lists where some of their members spoke clearly in favour of having their category on the forums.

Administrator Categories

 * forum for admin (NO NEED FOR MODERATORS)
 * forum for moderators (NO NEED FOR MODERATORS) :-)
 * forum to test (NO NEED FOR MODERATORS)

Coordinator "Categories" To-Do List
 * establish an initial set of categories. Hold discussions on the discuss list. Do we include the mailing list categories? LibreOffice categories for user help (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math, Templates, Extensions, Installation, General)?
 * after discussion, post the list of categories on the discuss/projects mailing list for transparency.

Meetings
Coordinator "Meetings" To-Do List
 * establish the first meeting of coordinators and moderators
 * establish frequency of meetings and medium (irc, Skype, etc.)

Design
Coordinator "Design" To-Do List
 * design wiki page for the LibreOffice Communities with historic details; list of coordinators/moderators (email contact)
 * ask design list if they could create a new logo for the LibreOffice jforum (the squirrel is the mascot for jforum)
 * establish color scheme for the forum

Marketing
Coordinator "Marketing" To-Do List
 * find ways to advertize the LibreOffice Forums to the contributors/community

Native Language (nl) Groups Forum Support
"One of the few things that was decided upon during the forums evaluation, is to create separate forum instances for any interested nl-projects where the login is shared (so you only have to register once, but can use that login to use all forums), but are otherwise separate.

Some smaller nl-projects noted that they'd be too small for [their] own forum, and would be happy with a single sub-forum on the main site." (Christian Lohmaier, website dev/maintainer[1])

"Native language forums are planned to be launched a little after the English. small nl-projects that don't want to have their own forum but instead are fine with having one single forum for all questions in that language [on the EN forum site]. Big nl-projects (Big = those who want/need different categories, different forums) will get a separate instance forums, Forum-Coordinator's job does not cover defining the structure for nl-Projects, Native Language projects will decide for themselves what categories and forums they need. Whether they decide by nominating a coordinator ... is up to them and strongly depends on the size of the nl-project." (Christian Lohmaier, website dev/maintainer[2])

Native Language Moderators
Moderators for non-English forums (Note that this is not an official list, but just a placeholder for now for the names of people who do wish to add themselves.)(Please add your language code and name with email; also please keep the language list in alphabetical order. I have added myself solely as an example for FR)


 * DK -- Leif Lodahl (leiflodahl@gmail.com)
 * EL -- SimmacOSenitellis (simosDOTlistsATgmailDOTcom)
 * FR -- Marc Paré (marcATmarcpareDOTcom)
 * GL -- Antón Méixome [meixomeATcertimaDOTcom]
 * PT-BR -- Rogerio Luz Coelho (dr.rogerioluzcoelho@gmail.com)
 * RO -- Lucian Oprea (oprea.luci@gmail.com)

[1] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.website/8547 [2] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.website/8572

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