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Bobby Approved (v 3.2)
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Copyright ©2000-2004
Online Policy Group, Inc.

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Online Community Forum Feature Specification and User Guide

[Revision 0.72 of February 24, 2002]

The Online Community Forum software provides a robust mechanism for online communication available at no charge to anyone on the Internet without any advertising other than for the system itself.

The project offers the people around the world the opportunity to communicate with each other and organize communities that have the potential for a wide range of activities, including information exchanges, socializing, support groups, and project collaborations, among many other activities.

Since there is no commercialization of this free service, the communications on each Online Community Forum take place without distortions caused by the needs of the commercial enterprises that often host such services, such as inappropriate applications of over-restrictive Terms of Service policies or premature removal of community forums that have evolved over a period of years. The Online Community Forum will have a Terms of Service Policy, Copyright Policy, and Privacy Policy that encourage free speech while protecting participant privacy to the greatest extent permissible by law.

Overview

There are six types of access to the Online Community Forum system:

Participants may set up a participant account with a username and password to provide secure access. Participants may also find a forum, join to become a forum member and leave to discontinue forum membership.

Participants may communicate in the forum in a variety of ways including the following, some of which require logging in to a participant account:

Participants may also do the following:

Forum leader functions include the following:

Super-leader functions include the following:

System administrator functions include the following:

The design of the Online Community Forum software takes into account certain development requirements and strategies and a variety of project resources are available.

Participant

Participant Accounts

The Online Community Forum software provides special access to those participants who log in with a participant account, such as the ability to post to message boards, to view and post photos, and to upload and download files, among others.

Set Up Account

To set up a participant account:

  1. Navigate in your favorite web browser to the front page of the Online Community Forum system.
  2. Click Set Up Account.
  3. Type a username in the Username text input area.
  4. Type a password in the Password text input area.
  5. Re-enter the same password in the Password Confirm text input area.
  6. Type the email address where you want to receive all types of correspondence for that participant account in the Email Address text input area.
  7. Click Create Account.
  8. Note: the system will create your participant account only after you reply to a verification email that the system sends to the email address you used for that account.

Log In

To log in to your participant account:

  1. Click on Login.
  2. Type your username in the Username text input area.
  3. Type your password in the Password text input area.
  4. The system will display your Online Community Forum home page and the Login link will be replaced with a Logout link.

Log Out

To log out from your participant account:

  1. Click on Logout.
  2. The system will display the front page of the Online Community Forum and the Logout link will be replaced with a Login link.

Forum Membership

Joining a forum permits participants expanded access to the forum to post messages and other items and to view member-only items, among other capabilities. A forum leader or system administrator may approve or disapprove participant membership in a given forum.

Find a Forum

To find a forum:

  1. Click Find Forum to display the list of online community forums on the system.
  2. Select the name of the forum you wish to view. If the name is not visible on the forum list, try scrolling down the forum list.
  3. Click Go to Forum to display the main page of the forum you selected.

Join a Forum

To join a forum (you have not yet joined):

  1. Go to the main page of the forum you want to join.
  2. Click Join.
  3. The system should display the main page of the forum with a Leave link where the Join link used to be.

Leave a Forum

To leave a forum (you have previously joined):

  1. Go to the main page of the forum you want to leave.
  2. Click Leave.
  3. The system should display the main page of the forum with a Join link where the Leave link used to be.

Message Boards

Forum message boards are lists of messages created by participants. Forum leaders may select a setting to create threaded message boards. Message boards are linked to email lists with each message appearing both on the web view of the message board and on the email list.

View a Message

To view a message from a message board through the web interface:

  1. Skim the messages on the forum home page to see if the message you seek is listed on that page. If it is, click on the subject of the message and the message will appear.
  2. If the message you seek does not appear on the forum home page, click Messages on the left side of the screen and a list of messages will appear.
  3. Skim the messages in the Messages area to see if the message you seek is listed on that page. If it is, click on the subject of the message and the message will appear.
  4. If the message you seek does not appear in the Messages area, it may be that there are more messages to display than will appear on the that page of messages. Click More Messages at the bottom of the screen and the next older page will appear.
  5. Repeat the prior two steps until you view the message you seek.

To view a message from a message board on an email list:

Either:

  1. [Recommended]
  2. Choose the setting to receive message board messages by email described in the section called Profile Settings below.
  3. Note:You must create a participant account and participant profile before you can configure your participant profile settings.

Or:

  1. [Alternatively]
  2. Subscribe to the email list by sending an email to majordomo@groups.onlinepolicy.org with the following text in the body of the email message:

    subscribe listname

    where listname is the name of the message board and therefore also the name of the email list associated with that message board.

    If you are subscribing from an email address other than the one which you want to subscribe to the email list, then put the following text in the body of the email message instead of the text above:

    subscribe listname emailaddress

    where listname is the name of the message board and emailaddress is the email address you wish to subscribe to the email list.
  3. Note: If you use the second method for subscribing to the email list corresponding to a forum's message board, you will receive an email asking you to confirm subscription to the email list and you must reply to this email to complete the subscription process and get added to the email list.

Post a Message

To post a message to a message board through the web interface:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum which hosts the message board where you want to post the message.
  3. Click Messages and the messages area will appear.
  4. Click Post and a message entry form will appear.
  5. Type in the information required for the various fields in the form, including the subject and text of the message.
  6. Click Post Message to post the message to the message board and its associated email list.

To post a message to a message board from an email list:

  1. Send an email message containing the desired message subject and text to the email address for the email list, for example, to: testlist@groups.onlinepolicy.net

View List of Messages

To view a list of messages on a message board through the web interface:

  1. Skim the messages on the forum home page to see if the message you seek is listed on that page. If it is, click on the subject of the message and the message will appear.
  2. If the message you seek does not appear on the forum home page, click Messages on the left side of the screen and a list of messages will appear.

To view a list of messages on a message board on an email list:

  1. Aside from receiving the digest version of an email list, there is no way to view a list of messages from an email list.

Search for a Message

To search for a message on a message board through the web interface or on an email list:

  1. Navigate to the forum you wish to search for a message.
  2. Click Messages on the left side of the screen and a list of messages will appear.
  3. Type the message text you wish to search for in the Search text input area.
  4. Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
  5. Click on the search result for the message to view the message you seek.

To search for a message from a message board on an email list:

  1. Aside from receiving the digest version of an email list and using the search facility in your email software, there is no way to search for a message from an email list.

Delete a Message

A participant can only delete messages created by that participant. Messages deleted from a message board may still appear in email list archives.

To delete a message on a message board through the web interface:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum which hosts the message board where you want to delete the message.
  3. Click Messages and the messages area will appear.
  4. Click Delete Message and a message list will appear.
  5. Click the delete checkbox to the left of the message or messages you wish to delete.
  6. Click Delete Message to delete the message or messages from the message board.
  7. Click Confirm Delete to confirm deletion of the message or messages from the message board.

To delete a message on a message board from an email list:

  1. There is no way a participant can delete a message from an email list.

View a Message Archive

After a certain time determined by the forum leader or system administrator, message board messages migrate to an online archive.

To view a message board archive:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum which hosts the message board whose archive you want to view.
  3. Click Messages and the messages area will appear.
  4. Click Archive and the message board archive will appear. If there are more messages than fit onto a one-page archive, you will have the option of selecting earlier archives arranged by date.

Photos

View a Photo

To view a photo:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum which contains the photo you want to view.
  3. Click Photos and the photos area will appear with a list of photos including thumbnails of the photos.
  4. Click on the name of the photo you wish to view.

Post a Photo

To post a photo:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to post a photo.
  3. Click Photos and the Photos page will appear with a list of photos including thumbnails of the photos.
  4. Click Add Photo.
  5. Type the entire filename of the photo in the Photo Filename text input area, or browse to the filename by clicking on Browse and navigating the file system to the appropriate directory and clicking on the photo filename.
  6. Click Post Photo and the photo will appear on the photo list for that forum.

Search for Photo

To search for a photo:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to look for a photo.
  3. Click Photos and the Photos page will appear with a list of photos including thumbnails of the photos.
  4. Click Find Photo and the photo search page will appear. To search for a photo in all forums, select the Search All Forums checkbox.
  5. Select or type in search text in each applicable search field.
  6. Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
  7. Click on the search result for the appropriate photo title to view the photo you seek.

Share Files

A forum may include an area for sharing files if the forum leader or system administrator makes the file sharing feature available for that forum. The file upload feature scans files for viruses before adding them to the shared files on the forum.

Note on Terms of Service policy for posting of materials.

Download a File

To download a file from the forum to your machine:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to download a file.
  3. Click Share Files and the file sharing area will appear with a list of files including brief descriptions of the files.
  4. Click the checkbox to the left of the file you wish to download.
  5. Click Download File and the Download Filename popup will appear.
  6. Type the entire filename you wish the downloaded file to have once it has been downloaded on your machine in the Download Filename text input area, or browse to the desired directory and filename by clicking on Browse and navigating the file system to the appropriate directory and clicking on the desired filename.
  7. Click Download File and the file will appear in the location you specified on your machine.

Upload a File

To upload a file from your machine to the forum. The participant must log in with an account and join a forum to upload any files to that forum.

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to upload a file.
  3. Click Share Files and the file sharing area will appear with a list of files including brief descriptions of the files.
  4. Click Upload File and the Upload Filename popup will appear.
  5. Type the entire filename of the file from your machine in the Download Filename text input area, or browse to the desired directory and filename by clicking on Browse and navigating the file system to the appropriate directory and clicking on the desired filename.
  6. Click Upload File and the filename will appear on the shared file list for that forum.

Search for File

To search for a file:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to look for a file.
  3. Click Share Files and the File Sharing page will appear with a list of shared files including descriptions of the files.
  4. Click Find File and the file search page will appear. To search for a file in all forums, select the Search All Forums checkbox.
  5. Select or type in search text in each applicable search field.
  6. Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
  7. Click on the search result for the appropriate file title to view the file you seek.

Participant Profiles

Participant profiles may include pictures of the participant, a description of the participant, and other information the participant wishes to put in the profile. The participant may configure certain account settings in the profile, such as whether to whether to receive message board messages by email and whether to receive email notifications when a message posted by the participant on a message board receives a reply.

Create a Profile

A participant can create only a profile for that participant.

To create your participant profile:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click Profile and your Participant Profile page appears.
  3. {What information should go into a Participant Profile? geographical location? work? hobbies? sexual proclivities? gender? ethnicity? age? dating or not?}

Profile Settings

To configure settings for your participant profile:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click Profile.
  3. Click Edit Profile Settings.
  4. To receive message board messages from a particular forum by email, select the Email Messages checkbox next to the forum for which you wish to receive message board messages by email.
  5. To receive email notifications of replies to messages you have posted to a message board on a particular forum, select the Email on Reply checkbox listed on the same row as the forum for which you wish to receive email reply notifications.
  6. To make all elements of your profile readable by other participants on forums you have joined, click the left checkbox by the Whole Profile element, or to make each element of your profile readable by other participants on forums you have joined, click the left checkbox by each profile element.
  7. To make all elements of your profile readable by all participants on the entire system, click the right checkbox by the Whole Profile element, or to make each element of your profile readable by all participants on the entire system, click the right checkbox by each profile element.
  8. {TBD for other settings}
  9. Click Save Profile Settings.

View Profile

To view your existing profile:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will appear.

View Profile List

To view a list of participant profiles:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Navigate to the forum for which you want to view a list of participant profiles.
  3. Click Forum Members and a list of participant profiles for those participants who have joined the forum will appear.
  4. Click on an individual profile item in the list to see the profile for that participant.

Edit a Profile

A participant can edit only a profile for that participant.

To edit your participant profile:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will appear.
  3. Click Edit Profile and the Editing Profile page will appear.
  4. Select or type in the profile changes.
  5. Click Save Profile to complete the profile editing process.

Delete a Profile

A participant can delete only a profile for that participant.

To delete your participant profile:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will appear.
  3. Click Delete Profile to remove your profile.
  4. Click Confirm Delete to confirm removal of your profile.

Search for Profile

To search for a profile of another participant:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will appear.
  3. Click Find Profile and the profile search page will appear.
  4. Select or type in search text in each applicable search field.
  5. Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
  6. Click on the search result for the appropriate profile title to view the participant profile you seek.

Calendars

Forum calendars provide a mechanism for forum participants to share schedules for projects, for social events, or for whatever other purpose the forum participants prefer.

Schedule Calendar Event

To schedule an event on a forum calendar:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to schedule a calendar event.
  3. Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a calendar of events.
  4. Click Schedule Event and the calendar event entry page will appear.
  5. Click on the date navigation controls to set the date for the calendar event.
  6. Select a start time for the event from the Start Time menu.
  7. Select an end time for the event from the End Time menu.
  8. Type the name of the event in the Event Name text input box.
  9. Type a description of the event in the Event Description text input box.
  10. If you wish to send an email notification of the event, type the email address or addresses of those who you wish to notify in the Email Notification text input box.
  11. Click Schedule Event to finalize scheduling of the calendar event.

View Calendar Event

To view an event on a forum calendar:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to schedule a calendar event.
  3. Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a calendar of events.
  4. Click on the date navigation controls to set the date for the calendar event you want to view.
  5. Scroll through the events on that date to find the calendar event you want to view.
  6. Click on the event title for the event and the Event page for that event will appear.

Search for Calendar Event

To search for an event on a forum calendar:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to search for a calendar event.
  3. Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a calendar of events.
  4. Click Find Event and the calendar event search page will appear. To search for a calendar event in all forums, select the Search All Forums checkbox.
  5. Select or type in search text in each applicable search field.
  6. Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
  7. Click on the search result for the appropriate event title to view the calendar event you seek.

Delete Calendar Event

A participant can only delete events created by that participant.

To delete an event from a forum calendar:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to search for a calendar event.
  3. Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a calendar of events.
  4. Click on the date navigation controls to set the date for the calendar event you want to delete.
  5. Scroll through the events on that date to find the calendar event you want to delete.
  6. Click on the event title for the event and the Event page for that event will appear.
  7. Click Delete Event to delete the event.
  8. Click Confirm Delete to finalize the deletion process.

Polls

Forum participants may use polls to determine the prevailing opinion on a particular topic within a forum or even to organize decisionmaking for an organization that may be spread over a wide geographic region.

Participate in a Poll

To participate in a poll:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to participate in a poll.
  3. Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of polls associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the poll title for the poll you want to enter.
  5. Click on any choices, select any items, and type into any text input box offered by the poll.
  6. Click Enter Poll to save your participant data into the poll.

View Poll Results

To view poll results:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to view poll results.
  3. Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of polls associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the poll title for the poll for which you want to view poll results.
  5. Click View Results.

Create a Poll

To create a poll:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to create a poll.
  3. Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of polls associated with that forum.
  4. Click Create Poll.
  5. Select the appropriate Poll Type, that is, exclusive choice, non-exclusive choice, or open answer.
  6. Type the title for the poll in the Poll Title text input box.
  7. Type the poll question in the Poll Question text input box.
  8. Type poll responses one per line in the Poll Responses text input area.
  9. Click Setup Poll.

Delete a Poll

A participant can only delete polls created by that participant.

To delete a poll:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to create a poll.
  3. Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of polls associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the poll title for the poll you want to delete.
  5. Click Delete Poll.
  6. Click Confirm Delete to complete the poll deletion process.

Shared Database

Forums come with a built-in shared database where participants may share structured information with each other in database tables created by participants. Each forum database comes with a sample table.

View Database Table

To view a shared database table:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to view a shared database table.
  3. Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list of database tables associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the table title for the table you want to view and the database table will appear.

Create Database Table

To create a shared database table:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum where you want to create a shared database table.
  3. Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list of database tables associated with that forum.
  4. Click Create Table.
  5. Select the number of columns from the Table Column menu.
  6. Select the number of rows from the Table Rows menu.
  7. Click Start Table.
  8. Type entries as desired into the cells of the new table.
  9. Click Mutable to permit the table cells you entered to be changed by forum participants, or click Immutable to prevent the table cells you entered from being changed by forum participants. The default is Immutable.
  10. Click Setup Table to complete creation of the database table.

Enter Database Information

To enter information into an existing shared database table:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum containing the shared database table where you want to enter information.
  3. Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list of database tables associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the table title for the table where you want to enter information and the database table will appear.
  5. Click Edit Table.
  6. Type entries as desired into the cells of the table. Some cells may have been locked by the creator of the table.
  7. Click Setup Table to complete entering information into the database table.

Delete Database Information

A participant can only delete database information entered by that participant.

To delete information from a shared database:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum containing the shared database table where you want to delete information.
  3. Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list of database tables associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the table title for the table where you want to delete information and the database table will appear.
  5. Click Edit Table.
  6. Delete entries as desired from the cells of the table. Some cells may have been locked by the creator of the table.
  7. Click Setup Table to complete deleting information from the database table.

Delete Database Table

A participant can only delete a database table created by that participant.

To delete a shared database table:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum containing the shared database table you want to delete.
  3. Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list of database tables associated with that forum.
  4. Click on the table title for the table you want to delete.
  5. Click Delete Table.
  6. Click Confirm Delete to complete table deletion process.

Invite Friends

To invite friends, colleagues, or other interested persons to participate in forum:

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. In the list of forums you have joined as a forum member, click on the name of the forum to which you want to invite other people.
  3. Click Invite.
  4. Type the email address or addresses of the person or people you want to invite in the Invite Addresses text input box.
  5. Click Send Invite to complete the invitation process. The people whose email addresses you listed will receive an email from you providing the forum title, forum description, and an explanation of how to set up a user account and join the forum.

Warning: Do not "spam," that is, do not send messages to individuals or lists of people who will not appreciate your invitation.

Help and Contact Info

The Online Community Forum system provides online help available whenever the system is running. The system also provides a mechanism for contacting forum leaders, super-leaders, and system administrators as needed for forum or system maintenance.

Online Help System

To obtain assistance through the online help system:

  1. Click Help to display the Help page.
  2. Choose a topic from the list of help topics, or type search text into the Search text input box.
  3. Click on the help item title for the help item you want to view and that help item will appear.
  4. If you want to provide suggestions on the help system, type them into the Help Suggestions text input area at the bottom of any help item page.

Contact Forum Leader

To contact a forum leader regarding forum administration:

  1. Navigate to the forum whose forum leader you wish to contact.
  2. Click Contact and the Contact page will appear.
  3. Click Forum Leader and the Forum Leader Contact page will appear.
  4. Type the title of your request into the Title text input box.
  5. Type the description of your request into the Description text input area.
  6. Click Send Request to deliver your request to the Forum Leader.

Contact a Super-Leader

To contact a super-leader regarding forum administration:

  1. Click Contact and the Contact page will appear.
  2. Click Super-Leader and the Super-Leader Contact page will appear.
  3. Type the title of your request into the Title text input box.
  4. Type the description of your request into the Description text input area.
  5. Click Send Request to deliver your request to the Super-Leader.

Contact System Administrator

To contact a system administrator regarding administration of all forums:

  1. Click Contact and the Contact page will appear.
  2. Click System Administrator and the System Administrator Contact page will appear.
  3. Type the title of your request into the Title text input box.
  4. Type the description of your request into the Description text input area.
  5. Click Send Request to deliver your request to the System Administrator.

Forum Leader

Create Forum

To create a new forum:

Edit Forum Settings

To edit forum settings, such as forum title, forum description, forum announcement, forum picture, and whether forum is open or closed to participation from others, and which types of items need forum leader approval to create:

Set Calendar Options

To set calendar options:

Send Broadcast Email

To send broadcast email:

Delete Message

To delete a forum message, picture, file, profile, calendar entry, or database entry:

Delete Photo

To delete a photo:

Delete File

To delete a shared file:

Delete Profile

To delete a profile:

Delete Calendar Entry

To delete a calendar entry:

Delete Table Entry

To delete a database table entry:

Delete Database Table

To delete a shared database table:

Edit Participant List

To edit a participant list for a forum:

Contact a Super-Leader

To contact a super-leader:

Contact System Administrator

To contact a system administrator regarding administration of all forums:

Super-Leader

Backup a Forum

To backup a forum or forums:

Freeze a Forum

To freeze a forum or forums:

Switch Forum Leader

To switch a forum leader:

Ban Participant

To ban a forum participant from the entire system:

Edit Forum Settings

To edit forum settings, such as forum title, forum description, forum picture, whether forum is open or closed to participation from others, and which types of items need forum leader approval to create:

Send Systemwide Broadcast Email

To send broadcast email to all the participants on the entire system:

Delete

To delete a forum message, picture, file, profile, calendar entry, or database entry:

  1. See corresponding task under Forum Leader section.

Delete a Forum

To delete a forum or forums from the system:

Authorize a Super-Leader

To authorize a super-leader to perform super-leader functions:

Authorize a System Administrator

To authorize a system administrator to perform administrative functions:

System Administrator

Install the System

To install the Online Community Forum software:

Configure the System

To configure the Online Community Forum software:

Backup the System

To backup the system:

Freeze a Forum

To freeze a forum or forums:

Authorize a Super-Leader

To authorize a super-leader to perform super-leader functions:

Authorize a System Administrator

To authorize a system administrator to perform administrative functions:

Uninstall the System

To uninstall the Online Community Forum software:

Online Community Forum Development

The development of Online Community Forum software is a challenge. The system must be capable of starting out with approximately 450 online communities serving approximately 50,000 participants and should be able to handle significant growth without performance degradation.

The project must use free software, such as that licensed under the GNU Public License, if at all possible so as to reduce development costs and to make wide distribution and continued improvements possible.

Hardware, Software, and Network Requirements

The hardware requirement is for a server with enough CPU, disk space, and network throughput to handle a large number of network connections generating potentially millions of requests while running continuously over long periods of time without downtime.

The software must, however, be able to recover gracefully from system crashes, including both hardware and software crashes. There must be regular synchronized off-site disk hot backup of system data. The system must have mechanisms that will prevent unauthorized access to system administrator functions and protection against attacks from those who seek to impede participant communications through the system.

To start, we estimate 13,500 text transactions and 1,500 picture transactions per day. Conservatively assuming text at 5k and pics at 200k each, that means 67,500 kbytes/day plus 300,000 kbytes/day for a total of 367,500 kbytes/day or 367.5 mbytes/day. If one assumes that peak bandwidth/second equals 80% of total traffic in megabytes over 8 peak hours, 8 bits/byte, and 3600 seconds per hour, then one arrives at a network throughput requirement of .0816 mbps or 81.67 kbps, which is sustainable even with 2-5% additional protocol overhead at CCCP's current network bandwidth costing $250/month.

The same estimates produce annual hard disk capacity requirements of nearly 1/2 terabyte and, if implemented using a RAID drive array, a more likely requirement is 1 terabyte with some breathing room left by the end of the first year. 1 terabyte disks run at least around $5000.

The team is debating if a single machine or multiple machines would best support this design. A multiple machine configuration might include a web server machine, a database machine, an email server machine, and potentially a load balancing machine to enable further expansion. It may make sense to have a separate disk partition for uploaded files.

Current servers available for the project are running BSD Unix with Perl programming language and MySQL database capability.

The programmers participating on the project would prefer a RedHat 7.2 Linux environment (or possibly a Slackware Linux environment).

Candidate development frameworks currently include Python-based Zope with ZopeDB database, Perl-based GNU Clubs with MySQL database, and PostNuke which may integrate with PHP-based PhpBB with MySQL database.

Participant Tracking

The system must track only the participant information absolutely necessary for safe and effective operation of the Online Community Forum software. The system must comply with the Online Policy Group privacy policy.

It is an open question whether the system will require the use of cookies to track participants. [Need to add more here about why or why not use cookies and alternatives to cookies.]

Email List Development

Majordomo2 is the current email list management software which currently serves over 450 lists and 50,000 subscribers. The Online Community Forum project should make every effort for the resulting software to work seamlessly with Majordomo2.

Since an existing Majordomo2 installation can be administered entirely through an email interface, it should be relatively easy to use that mechanism to interconnect Majordomo2 with the rest of the Online Community forum software. A bit more difficult is making sure that it is difficult or impossible to corrupt the email connectivity between the components of the Online Community Forum software, therefore it would be great if Majordomo2 has an application programming interface (API) that would make more secure integration possible.

When a forum participant subscribes to an email list that corresponds to that forum's message board, the software should automatically fix the participant's profile setting checkbox called Email Messages which indicates that the participant has subscribed to the email list corresponding to the message board for that forum.

Clonability

An additional goal of the project is to make the software available at no charge to other organizations who require Online Community Forum functionality. This will require packaging of the Online Community Forum system in a way that will render it accessible to the community, that is, preparing and "marketing" a stable release for distribution along with documentation that permits relatively easy installation, operation, and maintenance of clones of the original OPG Online Community Forum installation.

Multilingual Capabilities: Internationalization

The software must provide the capability for participants speaking most of the world's human languages to create, participate in, and administer forums. Support should include:

  • Unicode character set and character set conversions as needed
  • Support for input methods as needed
  • Browser-preference and user-profile based language selection
  • Preferred- and allowed-languages attributes for each club
  • Translator interface for easy internationalization
  • Templates internationalization

Releases and Features Prioritization

The project must release the Online Community Forum software in staged releases with the highest priority features in early releases, but keeping in mind the design goals of the entire project so that the code is written in a flexible, expandable way.

It may be useful to establish entry and exit criteria for each release of the software.

Here are planned releases and the features associated with each release:

Release 1.0 Alpha
Date Plan Date Actual Feature
19Feb02 24Feb02 Data schema
19Feb02 . Install and uninstall forum software
. . Configure forum software
19Feb02 . Create and delete forum
. . Search for forum
. . Create and delete participant account
. . Create and view participant profile
. . Search for participant profile
19Feb02 . Post, view, and delete message
. . Search for message
. . View message archives
. . View, post, and delete photos
. . Upload and download files
. . Virus checking for file uploads

Release 1.0 Beta
Date Plan Date Actual Feature
. . Backup forum or forums
. . Freeze forum or forums
. . Edit forum settings
. . Switch forum leader
. . Ban participant
. . Create and delete forum leader account
. . Create and delete system administrator account
. . Edit forum settings
. . Set calendar options
. . Send broadcast email to one or all forums
. . Edit forum participant list
. . Edit and delete participant profile
. . Schedule, edit, and delete forum calendar events
. . Create, participate in, view results of, and delete a poll
. . Create and delete a database table
. . Add entry to and remove entry from a database table
. . Invite others to forum
. . Obtain online help
. . Contact forum leader or system adminstrator
. . Multilingual support (Unicode character set, UI customization, other stuff?)

Release 1.0 Final
Date Plan Date Actual Feature
Date Plan Date Actual Test and fix bugs

Features that are not currently planned for Release 1.0 are listed here as Release 2.0 for planning purposes, although none are committed. Project developers should take care to design the system so that these features may be added as easily as possible if a decision is made to do so.

Release 2.0
Date Plan Date Actual Feature
Date Plan Date Actual Anonymous Posting
Date Plan Date Actual Chat / Instant Messaging
Date Plan Date Actual Threaded Message Boards
Date Plan Date Actual Additional Participant Login Page Customization
Date Plan Date Actual Supplemental Voting Capabilities

Online Community Forum Project Resources

Project resources include:

Potentially relevant resources include:

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