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1. edmittance
   Administrator

   Hi all,

   Happy 2010 - I hope it brings you much cheer, many vegetables, renewable energy sources, two Transition conferences and a shiney new Transition Network website...

   This is a quick post to point you to an update on the web project and share our thoughts on forums.

   Latest news on where we are at:
   http://transitiontowns.org/webprojectblog/2010/01/20/website-launch-update/

   I've just got off a skype conference with the Transition Technologists and it's looking very close. Our goal is for a 'soft' launch on Monday the 1st Feb, and if not then, then soon afterwards. And we'll need some help getting in there and beta-testing so hope you can come and give it a go when we say 'go'. We have imported all the subscribers to the newsletter so if you read the newsletter, you will be primed and ready to log in following launch. But more on that in due course...

   In the meantime, this is specifically about Forums:

   Part of the new web platform is new forums. These will be more accesible and have better functionality than our much loved yet ever-so-slightly-out-of-date ones we see here.

   We would like your help/support/advice/beta-testing - you have been here for some time, are familiar with what does and doesn't work, which threads were the most popular, which subjects were the most significant, how the 'structure' of the forums worked etc.

   The new forums will be integrated with the rest of the site which will mean we can track our activities, get email alerts when new comments are made, see other commenters' profiles, have forum threads appear in wider searches across the 'transition themes' with other content etc.

   Sadly we cannot migrate the content from these forums to the new ones; a combination of budget and 'it being amazingly complicated' means we have to say farewell to these. We're sorry about this but there aren't any alternatives.

   We will keep them online for a good few months yet, but the focus of activity will move to the new site.

   Ben and I want to start really simple so that we can make the most of what we've learned on these forums and work outwards with your support or advice if possible.

   We reckon we'd start with:

   Transition Themes - one forum per theme
   Technical help - space to help people with logins, updating their initiative profiles etc.

   What do you all reckon?

   Posted 7 months ago #

2. benbrangwyn
   

   FYI, for those who don't know, Ed Mitchell is the Web Coordinator for Transition Network, in charge of setting up our new website and the web-based infrastructure that is designed to support the growth of transition initiatives everywhere.

   Ben.

   Posted 7 months ago #

3. SteveAtkins
   Member

   Re: "Sadly we cannot migrate the content from these forums to the new ones; a combination of budget and 'it being amazingly complicated' means we have to say farewell to these. We're sorry about this but there aren't any alternatives."

   Will all the posts in this forum still be accessible? (but static).

   Posted 7 months ago #

4. edmittance
   Administrator

   Steve - yes we will archive this forum - keeping the posts and related links but no discussions...

   Posted 7 months ago #

5. SteveAtkins
   Member

   Have you got a list of the main themes? eg

   ~ Transport ~ Energy ~ Food ~ Peak Oil ~ Climate Change ~ Heart & Soul ~ Media ~

   Will forum users be able to create there own main themes and/ or sub-themes?

   Posted 7 months ago #

6. SteveAtkins
   Member

   I thought of something else to ask as well, but now I've forgotten it. What was it please?..errrrr, dddddddddghd, begins with, website forum login rss. RSS, that's it!

   Q: I haven't got a clue about bolting RSS into websites, do you have any instructions for setting up, or got any links to explain??

   oh, and another question...

   Drupal... http://drupal.org/project/Themes
   Q: Themes can be downloaded from the main Drupal website and I'm wondering if there'll be a Transition theme available to download?

   Posted 7 months ago #

7. edmittance
   Administrator

   Steve - we are starting with the following themes: Arts & Crafts, Business and Economics, Education, Energy, Food, Health, Heart & Soul, Housing, Local Government, Transport.

   Rather than pre-can a set of forums as originally suggested, we're going to enable forum users to choose whichever theme they think is suitable to their topic (could be more than one) and hence enable a bit more 'bottom up' style organisation (will become clear when the design's done).

   As well as this, forum users will be encouraged to add their own tags - after a while we will review the tags and see if there are emergent themes to add to the main site taxonomy.

   A: RSS: errr. You might have to be a bit clearer - we're also going to have a 'technical' forum in the new forums to help people resolve issues like that.

   A: Transition Theme: hmm good point. I'll bring it up with Laura the designer - again that's something you'd share across the technical forum

   Good questions :)

   Posted 7 months ago #

8. SteveAtkins
   Member

   Cool. The technical forum will be helpful.

   Got another Q: I presume there will be a search box for the new forum; Will searches include results from the old forum?

   Posted 7 months ago #

9. Tim Swann
   Member

   Hi
   I'm looking forward to the new forums. At the moment a lot of our Calon Teifi email is almost personal ads, e.g. "Does anyone know of a good builder?" "Is anyone else going to the xxx meeting in London?" etc. This is fine: it helps build a community. But I want people to use a forum rather than email via me. However I can't see it working if the forum has posts from people all round the world.
   Does this mean we will have to get a forum for just Calon Teifi on some other website? Or can we somehow use the new Transition Forums with posts limited to just our Transition Group (or local groups)?
   Tim Swann

   Posted 7 months ago #

10. edmittance
    Administrator

    @SteveAtkins: the new site will be searchable including the forums, yes. I think it is very unlikely we will be able to search the old forums from the new ones - I'll ask the technologists though...

    Posted 6 months ago #

11. edmittance
    Administrator

    @Tim Swann: you are right - although we can't say exactly how the new forums will evolve (it being made up of people, and use hoping they will take a steer on how it pans out), we are imagining that the TN forums will have a relatively 'high-level' focus. The Community microsites enable members of those groups to post news through the system, but that's not forums or the more casual communications we see on email lists (which get straight into people's inboxes). We explored adding email lists to the community microsites but that is on the list for 'further potential developments'. So for now the options are (a) considering whether a forum in the system would be worthwhile or (b) a third party mailing list like 'mailman'... How many people do you get emailing you with these types of requests?

    Posted 6 months ago #

12. nchadborn
    Member

    For the names of the themes - could I be picky and ask 'Health' to be 'Health and Wellbeing'. Wellbeing is a 'trendy' word within mainstream health in UK (ie NHS) at the moment and it also indicates a holistic view. It could be seen as a slight overlap with Heart and Soul, but I think this is a good thing.
    Cheers, Neil Chadborn, Health and Wellbeing Group, Transition Town South Liverpool

    Posted 6 months ago #

13. edmittance
    Administrator

    @nchadborn: we've set it to 'health' on the new site, but we will monitor how people want the themes to emerge...

    The new site is looking good, by the way - the initiatives are adding their own initiative profile details, and we'll be inviting all newsletter subscribers to join the site next week. We have not opened the forums up yet, but will let all know when that happens...

    Posted 5 months ago #

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