Some private forums for local site staff and xoops.org staff is not a bad thing, I think. Depending on what it is the local site staff need to discuss there.

Priority support? No way. The fewer who can read the questions, the fewer can answer them. And giving the impression that here is a way to get answers quick is a sure way to raise expectations and disappoint, when answers are not given fast enough.

I am very open for a "local support community" where we can get to know each other better and perhaps coordinate things that should be common for each official local support site. What these things should be, I have no idea - again, I don't know which problems occur when running a local support site.

One thing that could go on in these private forums is reports from the local communities from which Brash and jdseymour can pick the bits that should go in the WOX newsletter. It could also be the place where the XOOPS Core developers announce new releases, so the local sites have a chance to know about this and translate it into local announcements - before being asked what's new and how to fix this and that in the new release.

I had a talk with phppp yesterday and although we did not come to the conclusion, I had hoped for - the continuation of newbb with phppp as lead developer - we did come some way. The main thing is that as so many others, the future of XOOPS is at this point only fuzzy promises and no solid dates, feature lists etc.
We will correct that. The roadmap for XooSphere ("next major XOOPS version") is almost finished. I will finish a solid draft for a 2.1/2.2 roadmap tonight and a roadmap for the module development by the end of the week. Hopefully, we can get these proof-read and published before next week.

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At this moment you see a line up of official local XOOPS support website at: https://xoops.org/modules/xoopspartners/
I a sure this line up isn't actual (needs to be investigated).
To get the status of official local xoop support there can be set up a small list of demands. If you comply to these requests/demands (checked by the central contact person) you get this status and get granted to get acces to this forum.


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I don't think you get the drift in what I am saying. I DON'T mean that this seperate forum will exchange the local soppurt websites. No, not at all! It is just a faster and quicker way to communicate between core devs/module devs and other staffs who run the local supportwebsites.
Every support website needs to grab the latest news on xoops.org by themselves. Then translate it and after that they are able to informe their local users. This can take up days. Supportsites always run after XOOPS facts.
The same concerns on givin' approriate answers (read support) to their local community. Sometimes you, as staff, don't know the answer to them and need to turn to xoops.org.
Launche your question within this forum and hope to get a quick answer. Wouldn't it be much nicer if you are able to support your local community quicker and faster by being able to get support by other staff and devs?
Sometimes bugs are mentioned at the local support which will never reach the appropriate ppl.
A second advantage would be that supporsites are able to exchange experiences, knowledges, tutoos, new made by their community modules etc.. It wouldn't be the first time that modules are developed where no-one knows of. Sometimes I surf through a lot of local supportsites and stumble into newer module versions or even new modules, hacks, interesting tutoos a.s.o. But no official news was launched at the xoops.org
This way a lot of knowledge and features/modules bug solves is getting unnescesary lost.

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If the question isn't posted on the off. XOOPS website than the answer doesn't get lost. I think everybody who is involved in maintaining an off. XOOPS support website knows what can be expected and what not considering time in getting an answer. If this cannot be trusted than there is definately something wrong at and within xoops.
Some XOOPS supportsite are much stronger than others. Have a lot more staff ppl involved and therefore knowledge.
Btw, also supportsites staffmemebers can mutual help within that forum. So it aren't only the devs.
I am disappointed to read your firstly given negative answer, without even knowing exactly to what kind of problems local supportsite can run into. I am sorry to say but you really underhestimate these local supportsites. These communities are one of the motors of the XOOPS community. Spread by the local word (good and fast and accurate support, news forecast and tutoos etc.)

Grtz., Shine

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Am I the one underestimating the local support sites? You seem to think that they cannot get the replies they need without a less crowded "priority" forum.

My main point is that all the gold that could build up in those "priority" threads would be lost for the users, who do NOT have access. Or we will have to do a lot of copying and moving of threads. That is why I gave that negative answer, not because I think lowly of the local support communities, which I don't. I highly respect the work that is done there, but is it really what they need? Isn't it better to have support where everyone can read it, help out and learn?

What came up at XOOPSDEM was not the need for priority support, but for priority information regarding XOOPS matters, so the local sites were informed of what is going on before their own users start asking questions about it. That is what I hope to achieve.

Yes. me too. I run the Malaysian support site community. I think the suggestion to open private forums for local site staff and xoops.org. At least, we (local site representative) know what IS & WILL going on in dev xoops. Instead, we can know each other.

Summing up what we are getting at:

We should set down a team that is responsible for the communication between local support sites and the XOOPS organisation (both ways and cross-site)

The tasks involve:

1) Maintain the Local Support listing and setup some criteria for being listed
2) Moderate local site forums here on xoops.org where site representatives and XOOPS organisation members have access - before creating the forums, it should be investigated, what the local sites need and desire from xoops.org so the right forums are created
3) Maintain the user access to aforementinoed forums
4) Maintain the World Of XOOPS (WOX) newsletter with news from local sites, module development and core development. The goal is a monthly newsletter, but could be more frequent if resources and incoming information allows

Who wants to be involved in this? Brash and jdseymour have stepped up to at least 4) but I'm sure we need more people to cover everything. Shine? Do you want in?

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Yes. I agree definitely agree with Mith... Local site must be informed first what WILL and IS going on.

Yes, I agree.

But I don't like what you are doing here.

I made a XOOPS Slovenian support site. I translated many modules, I wrote few tutorials in my language, I help on forums and I am translating your news from xoops.org to my language. And you don't want to change the logo of our site in Local support. I opened a forum about this and wrote a PM to you Mith, but nobody still didn't change it.

I know you have a lot of work, but I did a lot for Xoops, too!

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I am terribly sorry. I forgot. I do have your image here and will upload immediately.

See why we need the local support team?

In a project this size, communication is essential. So is willingness to embrace change.

I'm just a user. I don't ask many support questions primarily because I can search the forums and find most of my answers. If a private forum is created, there will be a lot less people there to answer questions and the vast majority of users (people like me) will never see the answers. That seems like a very big step in the wrong direction....

I see talk of informing the local support sites of upcoming changes. That is a very good thing. That allows everyone to be prepared when changes happen. It allows local translations to be available on release days.

I really appreciate the open discussions around the recent patches. Those posts gave a lot of insight into the development process. I'm hoping that this process becomes more commonplace.

Mith mentions updated road maps. I think they are essential. EVERYONE needs to know what is happening and what to expect. We don't need specific dates, but rather concepts and general time frames. If things get pushed back, change the time frame. If there is ongoing discussion DURING the development and testing processes, then everyone will be understanding and aware of delays.

I see a lot of progress being made. Communication is something that seems really obvious but is actually hard to accomplish. It's a constant challenge.

I have a fairly strong organizational background and will assist in this however I can be best utilized.

I would also like to add:

1) Make the Local Support criteria simple enough to not deter potential contributors.

2) It seems to me that the forums/site should be enabled for multi-lang even though a good bit of the content posts may (permanantly) reside in native languages... This would make it easier for Local Support team members to create a structure where multiple people can commit information and only a single entity would be necessary to perform translations on vital posts and act as the lead for that geography.

If this would create issues for the existing infrastructure of xoops.org or dev.xoops.org I suggest creating a new multi-lang site 'team.xoops.org' or something similar. As to the nuiances (user reg. etc) this could all be ironed out one way or another.

3) Maintaining user access will be necessary regardless of how this is implemented. I would suggest a bit more discussion of how to 'maximize the benifit' prior to actually adding additional resources that may or may not provide the desired functionality in a long term scenario.

4) Newsletter:
This would be simplified by the structure created by suggestion 2 (above) as the moderators of the newsletter could pull directly from the posts which have been translated by the 'in geography' lead (on the new site/forums) due to importance. EG: there could be a single forum (WOX) for posts which Local Support site Leads wish to see appear in the WOX.

If we were to make a forum specific to the newsletter, it would take the responsibility for posting timely, important entries AND translation out of the moderators hands, and place the responsibility on the local administrators. This way the accountability chain seems to be better defined and at a local level.

Summarizing:

If we are to better inform and unite XOOPS contributors and local support site users, we should make every effort to meet today's and tomorrow's needs the first time.

We should attempt to make the system as self actualizing as possible from both an accountability and procedural vantagepoint. Creating the tools is one thing, but management is another... the closer we can tie the two together the less legwork any one person need do.

Personally I think the language barriers are the root of most of the communications voids. If this is the case, it is imperative that the structure of this project be geared toward dealing with, or breaking down, the language barriers if not by technology then by administration. Otherwise we will find ourselves expending effort and not resolving the issues we hope to address.

While reading the posts on this topic I noticed that many people are under the assumption that Q&A forums would exist in this environment and may detract from the existing forums. I see no reason for this project to have that type of functionality, and would imagine that this endeavor would serve as a method of keeping the entire XOOPS community abreast of future plans, changes, announcements and development news.

But that's just my 2cents...