<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16587" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Well it looks like we have two sets of needs.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>1) Neighborhood usage: Simple management, fast, low
bandwidth. - Possibly punBB</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>2) Global usage: More feature rich management for global
scalability, fast, low bandwidth. - Possibly phpBB </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>This brings up the question of whether we should consider
one forum software product for all needs.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I've loaded punBB on my FC8 system. </FONT></DIV>
<OL>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>It is very simple to use. </FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>It appears to only have six developers. Will security
issues be fixed quickly?</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>There is no way to switch off the memberlist and the
visibility of website URLs to guests (SPAM)</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Banning users cannot be done using lists, only one user
or address at a time.</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Plugins are few and primarily for administrators <A
href="http://punbb.org/downloads.php">http://punbb.org/downloads.php</A></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Lots of language packs (Primarily european
languages)</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Lots of themese / styles</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>There is no way to add a user without registration (not a
big thing)</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>There is no way to set registration defaults (eg. not
showing email addresses in your profile, or posts)</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Modifications outside of the admin plugins are similar to
that of phpBB. To get the feature set of phpBB would be very
difficult.</FONT></LI></OL>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Anyone have personal experience with punBB? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>At first glance I'd go with phpBB for the main forum and
something punBB-ish for smaller scale deployments.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Peter & Diana</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=maburns@gmail.com href="mailto:maburns@gmail.com">Michael Burns</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=peter.harrison@bigfoot.com
href="mailto:peter.harrison@bigfoot.com">Harrison - Schaaffe</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=olpc-open@lists.laptop.org
href="mailto:olpc-open@lists.laptop.org">olpc-open</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, January 12, 2008 10:20
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Going forward with the
community forum</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Worth throwing out all our options. In my complaining of
phpbb3's mod system (via manual core file editting), punbb was pointed out. It
has language support (and we can probably connect it to Pootle to get some
great mixups going), has some drop-in modules for Administration, at least,
and is meant to be lightweight. All good things so far, right? <BR><BR>It has
import tools for both vbulletin3 (<A
href="http://olpchelp.org">olpchelp.org</A>) and phpbb2 (<A
href="http://olpc.osuosl.org">olpc.osuosl.org</A>). Worth glancing over. More
simple/hackable code is preferable to complex/less hackable code, if we aren't
losing any critical features. <BR><BR><A
href="http://punbb.org">http://punbb.org</A><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Jan 12, 2008 1:33 AM, Harrison - Schaaffe <<A
href="mailto:peter.harrison@bigfoot.com"
target=_blank>peter.harrison@bigfoot.com </A>> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Hello everyone,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I have installed a test copy of phpBB3 on a FC8 system
at home. The features are improved. They have some importable modules for
admin control panel menuing systems, but the rest remain as direct template
modifications.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>Wonderful. I will be doing the same for a Internet-reachable site this
afternoon. Will share the link around...<BR> <BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The quantity of available mods for phpBB3 is still
very small.</FONT><FONT face=Arial> </FONT><FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php?i=browse&mode=group:phpbb&sub=3"
target=_blank>http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php?i=browse&mode=group:phpbb&sub=3
</A> or <A
href="http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php?i=browse&mode=group:phpbb"
target=_blank>http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php?i=browse&mode=group:phpbb</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR> Agreed.</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>It now has CAPTCHA built in for registration and guest
posting. Hooray! It also has a better admin control panel search utility for
finding users, not just by email address.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>phpBB3 may be suitable for small installations due to
its cost, and the volunteer base to modify its language packs, but it still
lacks the ease of modification features of vBulletin. Some simple things
like adding a user account from the admin control panel is a
modification!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>If we were to go with it, I'd strongly recommend
minimizing the modifications to the skin/style and header. That way the
inevitable upgrades will be much less of a pain to do. There are no phpBB3
styles on <A href="http://phpbb.com" target=_blank>phpbb.com</A>, probably
because it is so new. The default one, prosilver, would have to
modified. <A
href="http://www.phpbb.com/styles/db/index.php?i=browse&mode=group:phpbb"
target=_blank>http://www.phpbb.com/styles/db/index.php?i=browse&mode=group:phpbb</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Does anyone know of anybody who could create a header
image with a transparent background for the forums, a gradient
tint image and four corners for effects? 10 images max, most of
them tiny.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I'd also suggest the following for the new
forum:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>1. Have email verification as part of the
registration process (SPAM)<BR>2. Allow auto subscription to threads by
default. This helps to remind people to come back and see if their post has
been answered.<BR>3. Don't allow users to edit posts for an indefinite
time after they have posted (SPAM)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>4. Don't allow users to contact each other by email.
(Can send e-mails in phpBB3) It exposes the email address to
SPAMmers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>5. No guest posting</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>6. Hide the member list whenever possible (Server load
for robots and possible URL SPAM trap)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Put me down as a volunteer for phpBB3 testing
on the <A href="http://olpc.osuosl.org/"
target=_blank>olpc.osuosl.org</A> test/dev database. Add a forum to it
specifically for this thread so feedback and findings can be more easily
tracked. How long should the feature evaluation period be? I'll work on
creating a phpBB2 export of OLPChelp.org, give me an scp account somewhere
and I'll upload it for you to do a test phpBB3
import.</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Peter & Diana</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">-----
Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: rgb(228,228,228) 0% 50%; FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial"><B>From:</B>
<A title=maburns@gmail.com href="mailto:maburns@gmail.com"
target=_blank>Michael Burns</A> </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>To:</B>
<A title=peter.harrison@bigfoot.com
href="mailto:peter.harrison@bigfoot.com" target=_blank>Harrison -
Schaaffe</A> </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Cc:</B>
<A title=olpc-open@lists.laptop.org
href="mailto:olpc-open@lists.laptop.org" target=_blank>olpc-open</A>
</DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Sent:</B>
Friday, January 11, 2008 9:17 AM</DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Subject:</B>
Re: Going forward with the community forum</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Jan 11, 2008 11:54 AM, Harrison - Schaaffe
<<A href="mailto:peter.harrison@bigfoot.com"
target=_blank>peter.harrison@bigfoot.com</A>> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Michael,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I must admit I am very wary of phpBB2, for the
reasons I stated, but the feature set with phpBB3 seems greatly
improved. I chose vBulletin for the feature set when the open source
product at the time couldn't deliver what I needed. I used phpBB2 for
about 4 years.</FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>Let me tell you, I've said some not nice things about phpbb2 this
month, and don't want to rely on it for more than the time required.
A logical upgrade path is welcome, and I would like to learn toward a
phpbb3 installation (there is beta work on the mailing list software,
which gives us a nice option if we want to take it. The software looks
solid without it as well). <BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I understand the desire to stick with open source
for deployment of similar platroms around the world at the local level.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Is there a plan to migrate to phpBB3, or is it in
use already? If v3 can do what it promises, then it would be best to
upgrade before the forums get too big.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>There is not a stated goal, as nearly all of the admin work on
the forum has been in my free time, with assistance from good Phil
Bordelon and his sysadmin skills to assist along the way. I don't want to
flip the switch on the site until we have a full running system
(regardless of waht software package we land with. a BETA forum running in
tandem for users to stress test with the production system seems like the
best way to go. Agreed? <BR> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I'm assuming it would import phpBB2 databases, can
it import vBulletin natively? If not a vBulletin export to phpBB2 format
should be able to be done with a built in
utility.</FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>It is very much intended to support upgrades from phpbb2
databases. No experience with vBulletin, but an intermediary step to
phpbb2 seems good to me. I've streamlined the backup process, so we can
play around with db snapshots and not worry about data loss. Whee! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I'm going to assume phpBB3 will be the planned
platform for the unified forum. </FONT><FONT
face=Arial></FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>I want to echo the concerns overs file-level modifications to
install MODs. That really isn't a manageable way to keep software packages
up to date, both the phpbb base software as well as updates to the mods.
Proper support of MODs/Addons/Extensions is really important in going
forward. <BR> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Please also send a login for the <A
href="http://olpc.osuosl.org/" target=_blank>olpc.osuosl.org</A> forum.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>Will get you a login account as soon as possible. Should be
tonight at the latest, will try and get it sooner (weird issue, don't
ask).<BR> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>As I said previously I figured that <A
href="http://olpchelp.org" target=_blank>olpchelp.org</A> would have a
lot of non-technical members, and it does. As a result of this I
chose a theme that would be attractive with limited use of graphics.
Bandwidth can be an issue on low speed links, so I have used a 30 day
expires header on all images to cache them on the client side.
The <A href="http://olpc.osuosl.org/"
target=_blank>olpc.osuosl.org</A> forum seems to taken a different
approach by stripping out most of the the default phpBB subSilver
template images. Is there a phpBB theme out there that is judicial in
its use of graphics, attractive and could be easily modified to match
the OLPC brand / feel?</FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>The low use of images on the site was a fortunate hack. Few
images the better, if only for rendering quirks and page loading, but
proper cache option settings is a very good thing, and I think we can find
a nice middle ground. As you can tell, I don't have the best artistic
touch, so ripping out subSilver images in place of CSS background colors
where it made sense was just a look-and-feel hack I threw together.
<BR> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> This is an area in where technology,
form and function could come together for the relaunch of the combined
forums. For me this is very important in attracting membership. It's
never just the technology, it's people and process
too.</FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>And not necessarily in that order! :)<BR><BR>I'm glad we're
starting to find a path to start going forward on. I can get a BETA phpbb3
install for us to work on with a snapshot of our db at the <A
href="http://olpc.osuosl.org" target=_blank>olpc.osuosl.org</A> server
(some unique url will be sent out to interested testers in the community)
and we can evaluate how it will work for our combined uses with a hands on
approach. Tomorrow looks like a good hacking day. Anyone care to join the
fun? <BR></DIV></DIV><BR>-- <BR>Michael Burns * Student<BR>Open Source
{Education} Lab </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR
clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Michael Burns * Student<BR>Open Source {Education} Lab
</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>