I agree with Alex - a good spellchecker would be great. 

Hit reply and use the thumbs-up smiley.

Mendalla

There will be such a forum but it will likely be an open forum. If we are to be a user/community run site, then all users need access to discuss forum issues.

There will likely, however, be a closed forum for moderators and administrators to consult each other and another for governance discussions among officers of the council, administrators, etc.

No, this would not be a phase 2 thing. You would report an offending post and include your comments about the user in the text of the report. There may also be a report option on the user's profile for reporting concerns about the profile. These will be live day 1 as they are necessary for moderation to function properly. Chansen can confirm.

Mendalla

I see we're veering off into forum names. May I remind that there is a thread for this already.

Thanks,

Mendalla

Mobile friendly

 pondering if I would want chat

Confirmed.

On all devices please. Not limited to only Apple and Android.

Phase 2, I think. I want to focus on the web version first.

It's clearly an option. Do we want it? I think so.

Also, see what I did above, by quoting Pinga's two posts in my one post. Here, we have to copy a quote into the second quoted reply. The new site will allow multiquote, where you check the posts you want to quote, and they'll all be waiting for you when you reply.

John and I, in particular, will love this.

Things will change day 1. There will be no doubt of that. It is completely new software and no matter how much we skin it, it won't be completely the same as Wondercafe. It will, IMHO, be better. Of the forums I am currently active on, WC is my most favorite for the community and discussion but least favorite for the software environment, a feeling shared by the rest of the team. One of our goals is fixing that.

Mendalla

I would like posts to be be frozen after a few hours, if only to stop some of the massive multiple edits. On the other hand, I know that sometimes the light  of day makes editting a good thing.

 I appreciate people being able to add attributes. One attribute could be something like religion 'denomination

I think that we can go as far as testing it on mobile browsers in phase 1. Pinga has a Surface and a late model BB and I have access to at least 3 Android devices. Surely some around here have iPads and iPhones to test them.

A version that is fully optimized for mobile would, however, be phase 2.

Mendalla

If we go with an app, it will likely by Tapatalk or similar, which are often paid apps. I don't want to go Tapatalk because they insert ads and your forum gets no ad revenue, on top of the app making money per download. Evil bastards.

The second option is a mobile theme, so you're using your native browser, independent of platform, as you're requesting, Jae. But, as I say, I want to get the WC2 theme working first, before I install another theme.

Basically, mobile is on the back burner for now.

Me, too. It's a feature of my other boards that I sorely miss on here.

Mendalla

Who buys a Surface? Seriously?

Did she get a free Zune with it?

If only WC had been built on something other than Drupal. It's a very good CMS, but not so good as a forum, which is, what, 95% of the traffic?

Like a Reddit flair?

Actually I do not want a closed forum for WC2, but one in which the user can toggle viewing it on or off. With s default off, that would help new users (and others) explore and feel at home without being put off by the inside nature of WC2 issues. Howver they may toggle it on if the so wish.    The idea is not to make the WC2 disscussion forum exclusive, but to not at the begining have it seem that is main focus (which it will be at times, especially after opening or when deling with hot issues) Those kind of discusion can leave others feeling turned off due to the number of references to past happenings on WC and WC2.

I would buy a Surface if I had the cash to. I have both a Windows laptop and a Windows 8 phone. I love Windows. If we did go with Tapatalk, I can report that it would work on Windows. I already have the app for other forums that I'm on.

If it defaults off, how will they know to turn it on? On most boards, the administrative stuff gets dropped to the bottom of the forum list anyway. I think that would be good enough but we shall see.

Mendalla

Oh goody, so no more kludgy WC quote functioning that may or may not work?...bless you :3

Check your Wondermail. I don't want to derail this thread.

Mendalla

Actually, here's a request for you: I'd like to see your Baptist denomination open a forum, run similar to Wondercafe, but with a more evangelical bent, where a difference of opinion and a well-argued position against the denomination would not get a member banned. That would be something. I would join that forum.

So would I.

I have no problem with editing.  If somneone is playing games and disrupting the community through over use, it can help the mods/admin determine who and who is not a troll.  Also we must remember that by and large this is a community site, Not  place to decide things.  That said, if we can ban editing on certain forums, like the WC2, and not others, like family life.

I would like to see things decided on what is health for community building, as oppose to determining what is or is not right/wrong. (i know this is not well worded, but the idea is to focus on building a heathy, vibrant and diverse community)

The idea is that by running our own sites, we can adjust features accordingly.  What is suitable for one kind of discussion and leads to community building is not suitable or does not lead to community building in another section

I would like to be able to send my photos in PMs and paste them into posts without using Flickr etc.

Keep in mind that a mod can always lock a thread, which prevents editing and new posts. So, a thread in the WC2 forum that is a discussion on a motion could be locked once the voting on the motion opens. IOW, we don't need to do it forum by forum, but could do it thread by thread.

Mendalla

The issue there is storage. If we do that, we need to be able to store all those photos. By having you store them in Flickr, Picasa, etc. and then link, we are able to offload that storage on to the provider rather than tying up our storage with it. IOW, it is technically possible but it is not necessarily the ideal approach when you're running a small, low-budget forum. Again, possibly a phase 2 or later enhancement rather than a day 1 feature.

Mendalla

s'more ideas:

how possible/practical would it be to let each user have their own 'skin' for WC2?

so say right now, instead of typing black letters on white text editor box with that orange background, i could be typing teal letters on a jpeg/bmp wallpaper text editor box with a jpeg/bmp/tiff/whatever background?

and perhaps, being able to choose my own forum names that would only appear that way to myself?  so 'religion and faith' can be 'heads up!' and so on?

and perhaps the same with user names, so 'chansen' can be 'underroofer'? and so forth?

I can bet if you look into it the software already has a mobile version or an app. There are alraedy third part mobile appas, for many types of platforms.  If the templete that is chosen does support mobile versions than we it may be possible to just use the default version, until later.

I like the skins idea. I've seen that done on some other forums. Some sites call them themes.

That is key if we are to make the site accessible to those using various adaptive technologies to overcome barriers related to colour blindness, low vision, or no vision, dyslexia and other conditions.   All of which would be difficult to do so with client side software.

 Shucks, any software will be more mobile friendly than this one in part due to it replacing a 7 year old piece of software.

We could just list the availability of the forum,on the home page and elsewhere with an on off toggle. If the default software does not support users toggling, than the button can send an email to a mod who can turn it on and off. 

Chats are fine except I think that one line chats as on Future United are a bit boring, just  different people saying hello or  thanks.

I can remember trying out on chats. By the time I formulated and typed what I wanted to say the conversation had moved on,  not that I'm slow or anything................ Also we had to be  available at one certain (same)  time for live chat and some   people were too busy elsewhere.  The chat  time had to be planned in advance. Chat  ended  up being very seldom used on some forums.

I can't find a sample right now but some forums had a sticky  thread at the bottom  used sort of for threads or posters that didn't quit fit re a certain topic or who   went cuckoo. Rather than the mods. or Admin making a fuss, complaining and deleting etc. they moved the thread to this area. People who wished to post or participate could continue on it. Others could just ignore it. No punishment, just a place set apart. I presume some of WC's flame wars would have been suitable for it.... sort of hidden from the public. I'll look for the name of the thread.

Actually even 7 year old software without the customisation would be better. It seems to me that the customisation was poorly done, and that is what prevents it from being accessible, or even having an easy to use and functional spell checker in all browsers. 

But we can also assume that any software being published today will be mobile friendly since that is the way most people access the net.

Pinga ignores snide remarks re Surface.

I would like to see how many "views" other threads get.

Some added topics like - Current News Events

                                     - Introduce Yourself

                                     - Events

                                     - Daily Meditations (generic)

I think it might be fun to have a section for debates if someone challenges someone. (with only two posters)

With the understanding that it's perfectly ok if someone politely declines the invitation to debate.

Here's sort of a sample of a miscellaneous  thread I mentioned in my post above that is being used for placing topics the mods. didn't find  a particular category for or perhaps they chose not to. Its kind of a hodge podge.  Of course this is a very tightly moderated Catholic forum.

http://forums.catholic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=77

@waterfall

Debates are great. I watched a lot of them on beliefnet until they changed the format.

When we say chat, do we mean the old-school chat room style, or more like FB style?

I've thought about chats in the FB style.  I don't really have a desire for a full chat room, although I can just stay out if it's what others want :)

Another board I am on offers both forums and chat. I rarely chat save for the odd one-on-one with a "friend". Foruming is more suited to my style, I guess. The main thing with chats is that they are more ephemeral and don't carry on over time the way a forum thread does. Great for chit-chat but not so much for a lengthy, serious discussion as I see it.

That said, I have no objection to WC2 offering the feature. Just don't go looking for me in the chat rooms unless it's a hell of a good chat engine.

Mendalla

Stardust, a long standing tradition on another board is the "Chatty Thread of Doom" (don't ask) which I think is what you are looking for. They don't get stickied though because they tend to hit the board's post limit rather quickly, necessitating frequent new chatty threads with increasingly silly new variations on that title ("The Doomed Chatty Thread of Chatty Doom" and that sort of thing).

Mendalla

(i forsee in the not-so-distant future a WC MUSH...'real time' role-play with yer friends...maybe even a WC area in Second Life...)

Off topic but this is a heart emergency....

Crazyheart

I'm exhausted and I don't think I found your Santa mooning with a heart tattoo. I did find one with a heart on his bum .

Check out this link.

http://photobucket.com/images/Mooning+Santa+2/?page

Is it Christmas yet?

LOL@Mendalla

I think I'll pass up the Chatty  Thread of Doom, thx.

The ability to "pin" a post in a forum for wc2 announcements

Do you mean like a "sticky"? They're good, I've seen them used on forums.

Off topic again....!!!

 Speaking about a  post in a  thread being off topic I think pinga moved a stray  post  in one of the many WC threads into a proper thread. She informed us.

 That makes for  a nice neat thread. No objections except I'm too lazy to scurry over to the thread where its been moved to.  Particularly if there's a lot still to read on the thread I'm on  I won't drop it and run to the other thread so I would probably miss it.

Its not that important to me. I'm only "one" but I don't know if other people feel the same. 

Whoop! Whoop! Thank you Stardust.