Better Forums

admin — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:23:51 +0000

I recently had an idea for improving the forum system. Many websites have forums where conversation can take place. The problem is, many times the same question is repeatedly asked and the forum is generally hard to search. My idea transitions forum content to a more concise reference format, the wiki. For the most part, this only applies to forums trying to solve a problem or address an objective fact.

1. Forum

a. Question (the asker specifies certain categories/key words/topics for question)
b. Discussion
c. Question Solved (when marked “solved” a summary of the original question and solution is provided for Q&A)

2. Forum reduced down to a Q&A, a link expands the original discussion

3. Wiki Manual

a. Using question specifications the Q&A is automatically associated at the bottom of a wiki page in a queue, so that contributors can pull from it, writing it into the page (it is possible for one Q&A to be associated with multiple articles, in order to find a match).
b. Contributors for the wiki can mark a Q&A relevant or not to the wiki page, after reading it. If not relevant, the Q&A is no longer associated with that article. If relevant the Q&A moves up in the queue for that page.
c. The Q&A can be marked “included” for the wiki. It then ceases to be part of the queue, and becomes part of a source material list.
d. All changes and processes kept in a page history so other contributors can have oversight, just like in Wikipedia.

The discussion has become a document

Willy's Disconnected Thoughts on Randomness » Forum

Better Forums