Moving to googlegroups

[mmusgrov]

Forums hosted at developer.jboss.org will become read-only archives at the end of this month so I am replacing them with one or more google groups. We currently have a dev space and a user space and I can think of three ways of using googlegroups for our purposes:

1. Replace the current dev and user forums with a single "Question and Answer Forum" (a web forum with extra features enabled to support the experience of asking and answering issues. Topics can be marked as resolved or be rated by users. In addition, you can use categories to organise questions within the forum. People must post through the web interface, but can still receive updates via email).
2. Replace the current dev and user forums with separate  "Question and Answer Forums"
3. Replace the current user forum with a "A Question and Answer Forum" and the dev forum with a "mailing list group" (a mailing list group allows users to post from the web or by email)

I think option 3 would be okay but if people would like a different option then would you let me know by Monday 24th. I will then create the group/groups on Tues. Thanks.

[mmusgrov]

The pros of option 1 (having a single Q&A forum) is that there will be a single email address ([e-mail]) to subscribe to instead of two ([e-mail] and [e-mail]). Note that posting to a single forum should be manageable since there are only about 50 subscribers to the existing forums. Also note that [e-mail] is in use (though I created that for another purpose so I could free it up if required).

[tomjenkinson]

I was probably thinking of an option 4) two separate mailing lists - but having read your list, I think your suggestion 3) looks as though it would be better (in my opinion).

[ochaloup]

I would go with the option 1.

I agree with Mike that there are not many subscribers and not so many questions. Merging the dev and user forum is manageable and it makes sense to me.

[mmusgrov]

I have created the new group and called it narayana-users (and there is an announcement on the old forums directing new and existing users over to it).

[ochaloup]

mmusgrov  I'm not sure if I do somethig wrong but I can't access the forum. It says me:

This group either doesn't exist, or you don't have permission to access it. If you're sure this group exists, contact the Owner of the group and ask them to give you access.

[mkunwar1]

mmusgrov I also don't have access to the forum. Getting the same error as mentioned by ochaloup

[mmusgrov]

It should be accessible now.

[ochaloup]

mmusgrov I'm able to acces the forum but it tells me that I'm applying to join the group. Would not be better to leave it open without a need for any applicaiton (e.g. how WildFly forum does)? By me it's more friendly to developers asking questions and lower the barrier to ask.

[tomjenkinson]

I agree, I think the group should be readable without needing to join

[mmusgrov]

It is readable by anybody. But to post you need to join otherwise we would open ourselves up to being spammed.

I modelled it on how we setup permissions on the jboss forums. So the permissions for this googlegroup are:

Group visibility: Anyone on the web

View topics: Anyone on the web

Post: All members of the group

Join the group: Anyone can ask

[ochaloup]

I think as we are not worried about to be spammed with many developer questions I assume we don't need to be worried to be spammed. I think joining the group is additional barrier for the community to share doubts and ideas.

For example for the WildFly forum the joining was automatic without this need to be approved.

For Narayana it could mean with a pessimistic case  - I have a question,  I go to forum, I ask to join, I'm waiting for somebody approve it, I forgot what I wanted to ask and never get back.

[tomjenkinson]

I was thinking that the group was not readable without logging in, so long as anyone can see the topics (which it looks to be the case) I think we are good for now.

[tomjenkinson]

I might have misunderstood something ochaloup was saying. I think Ondra may not be thinking it unnecessary that someone needs to join to post, rather that the join request needs to be approved?

[ochaloup]

I think it's unnecessary for anybody to wait for our approval. For posting the person needs to be signed to google groups. Then asking for other approval to joining the group seems to me unnecessary.