MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

Several peple very active in Talk have been mentioning here and there that MeeGo needs a forum. Let's Talk first here. ;)

What scenario do we wish?

1. Empty Drupal in the lines of http://drupal.org/forum (meego.com sits on a Drupal CMS so this is the easiest solution).

2. Empty vBulletin (the software used here at Talk) for some reason to be detailed. I guess this would come with some help from Reggie since the web team probably is not familiar with it. Single Sign-on to be investigated.

3. Rename talk.maemo.org --> talk.meego.com. There might be some legal problems moving accounts with private data under another domain (no idea). Another problem, perhaps bigger, is to move all this crew there, leaving nothing for those not interested in 'MeeGo' (from strict N900 users not that interested in platform etc to people with a strong opinion about MeeGo for some reason, OS2008 users, etc).

There might be more sane solutions but none comes to my mind now. Some insane do come but I don't even dare to write them down. ;)

My preferred? Start from scratch with a Drupal forum.

I don't see what features are so great in vBulletin and can't be found in Drupal's forum, but if you know them please share.

Just renaming this maemo.org Talk forum with a new theme sounds like a good idea when you first think of it. But then you keep thinking and imaging it and... it starts becoming scary. Like the internettablettalk.com move but multiplied exponentially?

Besides, there is a good point that we have started to learn after the N900 launch which is that a nice % of people are happy with Device X and wants to meet others discussing about Device X. Imagine that there is nn successful and diverse MeeGo devices within a year. What then?

Anyway. Thoughts?

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

personally prefer vbulletin - but don't feel we are using many of the features that we could be using, so with that in mind drupal will be fine :)

I think the focus needs to be around the single sign on...

Talk Forums -> Linked to:

• Wiki
• Development
• Bugs
• Mailout / bulletins
• News pages / blogs
• downloads
• community

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

Some days I wish there was a way of giving more than one 'thanks' per post.

This is exactly what I've been waiting to hear. There is already talk around about various fan-run MeeGo options. For me, the important thing about t.m.o. is the integration with the full community.

A few thoughts: it might be terribly tempting to avoid the 'noise' that we get at t.m.o. by either not having a forum at Meego, or by not allowing the endusers in. "Let them go and create their own noisy fan-based places." Personally, I think that would be a mistake. The Noise is the price paid for an awful lot of energy, enthusiasm, willing testing, feedback, ideas... we may look like a horde of elephants, but actually we committed end users have our uses.

It might also be tempting to just fold in/carry over/rename what we have here into Meego. After all, this is good, no? I think that too would be a mistake. What we have here is an opportunity to redesign the talk forums from the ground up to create a good, safe space for the legacy devices and platforms (including moblin, actually, as well as the maemo devices!), a solid integrated space for developers to interact usefully with their users, and hopefully something that channels the noise to where it can be least harmful (and maybe most fun, as a result).

I have a head full of ideas - was planning to blog about this this evening!

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

Thanks Quim for starting this thread.

I would think there should be a separate forum so discussions are not one-sided. By one-sided I mean not just maemo.org folks talking about MeeGo. We need to bring in folks from the Moblin community as well.

I don't think option 3 is a good solution as if I understand it correctly, Maemo and Moblin will still have their own unique devices and stores and enthusiasts loyal to each brand might want an 'official' forum of their own. Plus I fear Moblin folks getting intimidated to register or join the discussion here in this current forum.

With regards to Option 2, I can setup a MeeGo vbulletin forum in less than an hour. I can set up a forum only site for the meantime (say meegotalk.com) so both camps have a common discussion board as we sort things out.

I would like to hear other suggestions however.

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

you could import a current moblin into vbulletin (Not merging)
you have two separate vbulletin sites then...

After that you have the ability to link them, or merge them.... But the two forum idea i also prefer, but, keeping the single sign-on process allows you to log into both with the same login ;)

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

this is the right step, by moving the forums straight to meego it eliminates any need for us users to do anything and they will be acustomed to the new site etc

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

Option 2 all the way. I've used Drupal forums from both ends in the past, not a fan. We already have all the features we want in vBulletin and we have at least one expert who knows how to use it.

Choice seems pretty clear to me. ;)

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

The only drawback with a separate moblin vbulletin is that there isn't one. Moblin peoples haven't communicated in this way (by choice?) so expecting them to suddenly start doing so might be a challenge.

I also think we need to look hard at the structure to make sure we encourage people a) to seek support in the right place and b) to be noisy in the right place. By and large, we operate a 'serious thread v chat thread' breakdown here, which most of us more or less 'get' instinctively. But we could certainly use something which enabled people who only want the serious stuff to find it quickly. And I'd love to see a space dedicated to providing the sort of speicalist help and support we've become known for where giving help was properly affirmed.

Edit: suggest we let Reggie open some sort of vbulletin place asap, with just a few areas for discussion. I'd like to hear the moblin people's views and they aren't here.

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

Absolutely, keep it separate for now please. Thanks Reggie for the alternatives if MeeGo mailing list isn't sufficient.

QGil properly said let the community decide. Well, maemo.org may decide to remain independent of meego. (I don't think it necessarily should) You should respect that option IMHO and let maemo.org decide what it wants to do and allow time for it to decide what to do. N8xx users already feel pushed out at times and using t.m.o for discussions on MeeGo uniquely will only marginalize them further.

I appreciate the motivation to try to get the community coalesced around the merger, but the merger decided to move forward without a priori maemo.org support. IMHO, we need to wait and let maemo.org support come forward on its own terms and on its own
time schedule.

Re: MeeGo forum? (maemo.org round)
 

But are we going to need those features there? Karma, thanks, and all that... how is the MeeGo community going to function?