Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
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- Rikku
- Posts: 365
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 2:09 pm
Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
I think discussion forums should start to be made public much faster, ideally as the set becomes clear. Having set discussions go public with a set would allow for future editors/writers to read current set discussions, allow at-home or at-practice scrollbowlers to comment on sets before they're too old for comments to be useful, etc.
I'd like to propose that set owners or head editors ask the admins to make their forums public as soon as a set is clear. I know nothing of the making of private forums or of making them public, and I hope none of this comes off as demanding unreasonable things of forums admins. Mike Cheyne pointed out in discord that it's a hassle for admins to constantly be abreast of which forums could be public now. Shifting responsibility to set owners would save the admins any work of keeping track of when sets go clear. I have no real idea what form this would take (pming admins? a form pinned to one of the subforums?), because I don't really know the behind-the-scenes process. I therefore also don't know how simple what I'm proposing is. The decline of the forums as a discussion hub is obviously no secret, and I'd like to think this could help.
Is this a feasible solution? If not, are there other ways to approach this? are there ways non-admins could help in having forums go public quicker? I'm obviously happy to part of anything that needs doing, if there are things that need doing.
I'd like to propose that set owners or head editors ask the admins to make their forums public as soon as a set is clear. I know nothing of the making of private forums or of making them public, and I hope none of this comes off as demanding unreasonable things of forums admins. Mike Cheyne pointed out in discord that it's a hassle for admins to constantly be abreast of which forums could be public now. Shifting responsibility to set owners would save the admins any work of keeping track of when sets go clear. I have no real idea what form this would take (pming admins? a form pinned to one of the subforums?), because I don't really know the behind-the-scenes process. I therefore also don't know how simple what I'm proposing is. The decline of the forums as a discussion hub is obviously no secret, and I'd like to think this could help.
Is this a feasible solution? If not, are there other ways to approach this? are there ways non-admins could help in having forums go public quicker? I'm obviously happy to part of anything that needs doing, if there are things that need doing.
Emmett Laurie
East Brunswick '16
Rutgers University '21
East Brunswick '16
Rutgers University '21
- meebles127
- Tidus
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
Would it be possible to perhaps have a ticket system or google form, so owners of private forums can submit a 'ticket' to get their subforums made public when their sets are clear?
Em Gunter
Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals
Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System
"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals
Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System
"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
- Whiter Hydra
- Auron
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
At the moment there are discussion forums from 2015 that are still private. At the very least it would make sense to make discussion forums public at the end of the academic year, except for the rare cases where mirrors are planned for multiple years.
Harry White
TJHSST '09, Virginia Tech '13
Owner of Tournament Database Search and Quizbowl Schedule Generator
Will run stats for food
TJHSST '09, Virginia Tech '13
Owner of Tournament Database Search and Quizbowl Schedule Generator
Will run stats for food
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
I suspect the problem here is that there's a bunch of busywork involved in setting up and maintaining forums. Ideally, we could create a solution that's more self-serve since it's the set editors who care most about this for their sets. Whether such a solution is feasible in PhpBB or not, I don't know.
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
- Auks Ran Ova
- Forums Staff: Chief Administrator
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
I think this makes a lot of sense and I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before. Just sending a second email to [email protected] when the set is clear will alert the admins that the forum can be made public, and should allow us to respond with the same relative alacrity that we're generally able to manage with forum creation, neatly obviating the major issues right now (we can't possibly keep track of when every set becomes clear, and at the end of the year it becomes a relatively low-priority task that can easily get pushed aside by, among other possibilities, our other quizbowl responsibilities). I'll add a note to the private forum request guidelines shortly (EDIT: done).Votre Kickstarter Est Nul wrote: ↑Tue Feb 15, 2022 1:12 pm I'd like to propose that set owners or head editors ask the admins to make their forums public as soon as a set is clear.
Set owners/head editors can expedite this process by including the name of their tournament in all of their private-forum threads, whenever possible; it makes for a much more navigable archive when there's not 100000 indistinguishable threads named "Specific Question Discussion", and saves us time from having to manually change them all ourselves.
Rob Carson
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
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- Rikku
- Posts: 365
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 2:09 pm
Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
Thanks for the quick response Rob! I'm glad to see it could be resolved so easily. At the risk of creating a little surge of work, I hope editors of some sets cleared from this year take advantage of this.
Emmett Laurie
East Brunswick '16
Rutgers University '21
East Brunswick '16
Rutgers University '21
- Stained Diviner
- Auron
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
Is there an alternative other than emailing that address? I have sent several emails to that address over the course of several years asking for private forums to be dealt with, and nothing has happened.
- Stained Diviner
- Auron
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
It's fixed! Thank you to the person who did it.
- Auks Ran Ova
- Forums Staff: Chief Administrator
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Re: Better Procedure for Making Discussion Forums Public
You're welcome.
As noted above, please email [email protected] when your set is clear, and we'll endeavor to make the forum public as soon as possible; otherwise, we'll try to do a sweep during the relative slack time each summer.
Rob Carson
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT