Discussion Forum
Evaluation of alternative options
Currently used options:
Service Desk
Wiki:
google forum
discord: https://discord.gg/7mebU575
WhatsApp:
Forum options:
GitHub Discussion (option)
slack (option)
integration into anything from atlassian
most developers use it
Discourse (self hosted/SaaS):
https://free.discourse.group/
What happens if I exceed the limits? If you exceed our bandwidth limit (for several consecutive months) you have two options: We’ll help you move to self-hosting, either on your own server or any Docker compatible cloud (a $20/month Digital Ocean droplet should suffice). Alternatively, you could upgrade to our Standard hosting plan at 50% off.
Examples: Atlassian, Zoom, GitLab, openAI, Rubyonrails, Docker, ….
Zulip
Feature requests for the forum:
Feature | Google Groups | GitHub Discussion | slack | Discourse | Zulip | Discord |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
account-less access without login at least for reading | No yes as mailing list only | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
user feeling: no fear to break something |
| Yes |
| standard UI
| exotic UI | need a client no DNS config possible |
voting functionality |
| Yes |
| Yes |
|
|
categories | tbc | Yes |
| Yes |
| Channel |
threads | thread view | Post/topic | Yes | Post/topic | Yes | Yes |
client-free option vs. being on peoples phone |
|
|
| Both | Yes |
|
sustainability for the initiative | free |
| limit to 3 months old message in free version | free scheme limit: 50k monthly view / 5GB storage | free scheme |
|
integration into existing landscape | in use as mailing list & file share |
|
| Yes (can send emails notifications etc.) |
|
|
Enrollment | self sign in with account mailing list only without account | Need repo access |
| self sigining (any email provider) | self sigining |
|
Fundamental Questions
Do we want to have a world visible forum?
documentation, how-tos, FAQs etc are either in the Wiki (for general audience) or in github (for developers) - nowhere else to avoid fragmentation
forum discussion in a semi- hidden forum (no crawlers fro search engines & AI bots) grant a bit of a safe space for discussants
Reactions/comments:
1. That’s precisely the purpose of a Forum for opensource iniatives. From the multiple discussions, there’s seems to be consensus on the need and benefits of a Forum.
1.a Documentation, how-tos, FAQs, can stay in Wiki and could be referred to in Forum answers. The idea of the forum is that Questions are answered by the community and they become a sort of FAQ.
If needed, it is possible to have different areas in Discourse, dedicated to users and developers
1.b In Discourse it is possible to have threads which are “Private“ and only accessible to restricted groups of users.
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