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:
- Create a new forum
- Edit forum settings, such as
forum title, forum description, forum announcement,
forum picture, whether forum is
open or closed to participation from others, and which types of
items need forum leader approval to create
- Set calendar options
- Send broadcast email to a
forum
- Delete forum message, picture, file,
profile, calendar entry, or database entry
- Edit participant list for
given forum
- Contact system
administrator regarding administration of all forums
Super-leader functions include the following:
- Backup forum or forums
- Freeze forum or forums
- Switch forum leader
- Ban forum participant from
entire system
- 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 broadcast email to all
forums
- Delete forum message, picture, file,
profile, calendar entry, or database entry
- Delete forum or forums
- Authorize super-leader to perform
super-leader functions
- Authorize system administrator to
perform administrative functions
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:
- Navigate in your favorite web browser to the front page of
the Online Community Forum system.
- Click Set Up Account.
- Type a username in the Username text input area.
- Type a password in the Password text input area.
- Re-enter the same password in the Password Confirm text input
area.
- Type the email address where you want to receive all types of
correspondence for that participant account in the Email Address
text input area.
- Click Create Account.
- 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:
- Click on Login.
- Type your username in the Username text input area.
- Type your password in the Password text input area.
- 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:
- Click on Logout.
- 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:
- Click Find Forum to display the list of online community
forums on the system.
- 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.
- 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):
- Go to the main page of the forum you want to join.
- Click Join.
- 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):
- Go to the main page of the forum you want to leave.
- Click Leave.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- [Recommended]
- Choose the setting to receive message board messages by email
described in the section called Profile
Settings below.
- Note:You must create a participant account and
participant profile before you can
configure your participant profile settings.
Or:
- [Alternatively]
- 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.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Messages and the messages area will appear.
- Click Post and a message entry form will appear.
- Type in the information required for the various fields in
the form, including the subject and text of the message.
- 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:
- 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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:
- Navigate to the forum you wish to search for a message.
- Click Messages on the left side of the screen and a list of
messages will appear.
- Type the message text you wish to search for in the Search
text input area.
- Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
- 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:
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Messages and the messages area will appear.
- Click Delete Message and a message list will appear.
- Click the delete checkbox to the left of the message or
messages you wish to delete.
- Click Delete Message to delete the message or messages from
the message board.
- 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:
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Messages and the messages area will appear.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Photos and the photos area will appear with a list of
photos including thumbnails of the photos.
- Click on the name of the photo you wish to view.
Post a Photo
To post a photo:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Photos and the Photos page will appear with a list of
photos including thumbnails of the photos.
- Click Add Photo.
- 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.
- Click Post Photo and the photo will appear on the photo list
for that forum.
Search for Photo
To search for a photo:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Photos and the Photos page will appear with a list of
photos including thumbnails of the photos.
- Click Find Photo and the photo search page will appear. To
search for a photo in all forums, select the Search All Forums
checkbox.
- Select or type in search text in each applicable search
field.
- Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Share Files and the file sharing area will appear with
a list of files including brief descriptions of the files.
- Click the checkbox to the left of the file you wish to
download.
- Click Download File and the Download Filename popup will
appear.
- 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.
- 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.
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Share Files and the file sharing area will appear with
a list of files including brief descriptions of the files.
- Click Upload File and the Upload Filename popup will
appear.
- 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.
- Click Upload File and the filename will appear on the shared
file list for that forum.
Search for File
To search for a file:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Share Files and the File Sharing page will appear with
a list of shared files including descriptions of the files.
- Click Find File and the file search page will appear. To
search for a file in all forums, select the Search All Forums
checkbox.
- Select or type in search text in each applicable search
field.
- Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- Click Profile and your Participant Profile page appears.
- {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:
- Log in to your account.
- Click Profile.
- Click Edit Profile Settings.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- {TBD for other settings}
- Click Save Profile Settings.
View Profile
To view your existing profile:
- Log in to your account.
- Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will
appear.
View Profile List
To view a list of participant profiles:
- Log in to your account.
- Navigate to the forum for which you want to view a list of
participant profiles.
- Click Forum Members and a list of participant profiles for
those participants who have joined the forum will appear.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will
appear.
- Click Edit Profile and the Editing Profile page will
appear.
- Select or type in the profile changes.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will
appear.
- Click Delete Profile to remove your profile.
- Click Confirm Delete to confirm removal of your profile.
Search for Profile
To search for a profile of another participant:
- Log in to your account.
- Click Profile and your Participant Profile page will
appear.
- Click Find Profile and the profile search page will
appear.
- Select or type in search text in each applicable search
field.
- Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a
calendar of events.
- Click Schedule Event and the calendar event entry page will
appear.
- Click on the date navigation controls to set the date for the
calendar event.
- Select a start time for the event from the Start Time
menu.
- Select an end time for the event from the End Time menu.
- Type the name of the event in the Event Name text input
box.
- Type a description of the event in the Event Description text
input box.
- 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.
- Click Schedule Event to finalize scheduling of the calendar
event.
View Calendar Event
To view an event on a forum calendar:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a
calendar of events.
- Click on the date navigation controls to set the date for the
calendar event you want to view.
- Scroll through the events on that date to find the calendar
event you want to view.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a
calendar of events.
- 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.
- Select or type in search text in each applicable search
field.
- Click Search and a list of search results will appear.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Calendar and the Calendar page will appear with a
calendar of events.
- Click on the date navigation controls to set the date for the
calendar event you want to delete.
- Scroll through the events on that date to find the calendar
event you want to delete.
- Click on the event title for the event and the Event page for
that event will appear.
- Click Delete Event to delete the event.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of
polls associated with that forum.
- Click on the poll title for the poll you want to enter.
- Click on any choices, select any items, and type into any
text input box offered by the poll.
- Click Enter Poll to save your participant data into the
poll.
View Poll Results
To view poll results:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of
polls associated with that forum.
- Click on the poll title for the poll for which you want to
view poll results.
- Click View Results.
Create a Poll
To create a poll:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of
polls associated with that forum.
- Click Create Poll.
- Select the appropriate Poll Type, that is, exclusive choice,
non-exclusive choice, or open answer.
- Type the title for the poll in the Poll Title text input
box.
- Type the poll question in the Poll Question text input
box.
- Type poll responses one per line in the Poll Responses text
input area.
- Click Setup Poll.
Delete a Poll
A participant can only delete polls created by that
participant.
To delete a poll:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Polls and the Polls page will appear with a list of
polls associated with that forum.
- Click on the poll title for the poll you want to delete.
- Click Delete Poll.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list
of database tables associated with that forum.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list
of database tables associated with that forum.
- Click Create Table.
- Select the number of columns from the Table Column menu.
- Select the number of rows from the Table Rows menu.
- Click Start Table.
- Type entries as desired into the cells of the new table.
- 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.
- Click Setup Table to complete creation of the database
table.
Enter Database Information
To enter information into an existing shared database
table:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list
of database tables associated with that forum.
- Click on the table title for the table where you want to
enter information and the database table will appear.
- Click Edit Table.
- Type entries as desired into the cells of the table. Some
cells may have been locked by the creator of the table.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list
of database tables associated with that forum.
- Click on the table title for the table where you want to
delete information and the database table will appear.
- Click Edit Table.
- Delete entries as desired from the cells of the table. Some
cells may have been locked by the creator of the table.
- 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:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Database and the Database page will appear with a list
of database tables associated with that forum.
- Click on the table title for the table you want to
delete.
- Click Delete Table.
- Click Confirm Delete to complete table deletion process.
Invite Friends
To invite friends, colleagues, or other interested persons to
participate in forum:
- Log in to your account.
- 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.
- Click Invite.
- Type the email address or addresses of the person or people
you want to invite in the Invite Addresses text input box.
- 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:
- Click Help to display the Help page.
- Choose a topic from the list of help topics, or type search
text into the Search text input box.
- Click on the help item title for the help item you want to
view and that help item will appear.
- 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:
- Navigate to the forum whose forum leader you wish to
contact.
- Click Contact and the Contact page will appear.
- Click Forum Leader and the Forum Leader Contact page will
appear.
- Type the title of your request into the Title text input
box.
- Type the description of your request into the Description
text input area.
- Click Send Request to deliver your request to the Forum
Leader.
Contact a Super-Leader
To contact a super-leader regarding forum administration:
- Click Contact and the Contact page will appear.
- Click Super-Leader and the Super-Leader Contact page will
appear.
- Type the title of your request into the Title text input
box.
- Type the description of your request into the Description
text input area.
- Click Send Request to deliver your request to the
Super-Leader.
Contact System
Administrator
To contact a system administrator regarding administration of
all forums:
- Click Contact and the Contact page will appear.
- Click System Administrator and the System Administrator
Contact page will appear.
- Type the title of your request into the Title text input
box.
- Type the description of your request into the Description
text input area.
- 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:
- 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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