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Blog/Forum structure -- One key area of OSD is that allowing its uses to interact. This should be done via Blogs, Forums, Mailing litsts ...(I have recently been looking at the site Of by and For , OB4.org, and so this page both discusses some of these ideas and offers some suggestions as to how the OB4 site might be improved and I ma marking these in Red Italics).

In some sense a Forum and a Blog have some of the same structure, e.g. each has a set of "Top" level topics and then sub level comments. Thus once a user is reading or submitting to a topic I think that the structure should be the same, and they differ mainly in the way the "Top" level topics are inserted.

• In the Forum, the Top Level Topics are defined and organized by the forum manager and then users can open a topic and read the comments to them, generally in chronological order, earliest first.
• In a Blog, the Top Level Topics can be considered as the chronological entries with the most recent first, and thus the organization of the topics is defined by the time stamp.

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Marking # -- I would suggest that there be the capability for any item's author, or designated representative, to mark by default rule set and then individually all submissions IMMEDIATLY "re:" to the item's posting. (Note: In the case of OB4, all postings should be marked as "OK" Now and by default and then as authors want to "suppress" specific postings they can make them as "Not-OK") Note: If a second author posts a comment to another's post, e.g. a "Re:" then the first author controls whether the second's post is "OK" whereas the second controls whether sub "Re's" are OK. Thus the system allows a distributed content control which allows each author to control which comments directly apply to their posting are OK.

Note: mark set: I am proposing that the author of an item be able to mark any first level "Re:" to that item. Inder to make this tolerably easy I would propose:

1. There be a defult that all items be initially marked as "OK", lower priority than GOOD and higer than ALL

   The author could designate anone else, as their representative to mark first level items.

2. The author (or representative) could override that priority for all their postings, or a specific one, and the override rule could be a complex as we decide to make it.
   
3. Finally the author (or representative) could speciffically change the marking of any first level "Re:"

 

Display # -- The key to being able to navigate around any blog/forum is the ways that the items can be displayed. (I would suggest some additional display flexibility be added to the OB4 system) and that the reader could select how they want the Forum/Blog item(s) to be displayed. The options I'd like to see are:

• Reader choices (Note: I am including the OB4 ones for completeness)
  • Threaded list / Flat List
  • Compressed / First Paragraph / Expanded
  • [order] Oldest first / Most Recent first
  • [Number of comments per page] 10-90
  • [Type of comments shown]Good / Ok / All (Note: I'd like a definition of these, I might suggest Good > Ok > All as specified by the higher levels author? and that the default for all past items and for new items is "Ok"?)
  • [Show headlines reguardless] Yes / No ( I think I'd like to be able to all the headlines, and only expand the contents of those I specify)
  • [Number of Sub Levels] 1-10 (This would allow a user to see only, say 5 levels of sub-comments, if they prefered)
  • [Show only New] New / All (If a thread is shown in threaded order, then I'd probably like to only see the new items, and if it is shown as a flat list, then I'd like to be moved to the new ones)

 

• Item Display

NOTE: There is a "pecularity" of OB4, in that the top item's contents are always shown, even though the user is looking at the compressed display's or another item's contents. THIS MEANS THAT THE USER MUST SCROLL to read the material they are usually interested. I'd suggest that the top item should be treated as others and that it be suppressed unless the user is reading the Expanded form of the entire thread.

• Headline: (Note: I'd like to see the headlines of the previous 5? items even if the user was viewing the details of a specific item so that the user could open the details of a few previous items)
  • Title -- If a title is shown, then of course by clicking on it the reader can see it in detail
  • Author
  • Origin Date
  • Number of Re:'s
  • Date of last comment (Re:)
  • Marked: Good / Ok / None
  • Amount to expand: [First Paragraph] [All]

 

• Detail (shown if the user opened the item, or was dispaying the thread expanded)
• Full contents / First Paragraph [MORE] -- It may be that a reader can get the 'gist' of the item from its first paragraph rather that all of it, and to save scrolling, I'd like to be able to specify if I want to read the full item.
  

 

• Trailer (Note: I'd like to see the headlines of the subsiquent 5? items even if the user was viewing the details of a specific item so that the user could open the details of a few subsiquent items)

Note: I find navigation around OB4 difficult, that is why I have specified that there be a Headline and Trailer display even if a user has opened a specific item that may allow navigation. As it is now the user seems to have to go "BACK" to see another item. as a mimimum, I'd like an item to be followed by some navigation buttons, as. follows: (assume in item 1.2.3.4)

• Topic (1)
• "Containing" item (1.2.3)
• Previous "Re:" (1.2.3.2)
• Next item (which may be 1,2,3,4,1)
• Next "Re:" (1.2.3.5)
• Next Item (1.2.4)
• Next Topic (2)

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October 17, 2004 16:24

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