FreeCAD on the web

[yorik]

Yorik has said adding plugins to it is a nightmare so...

This has actually changed a lot since phpBB 3 (which we are using now). There is now a kind of "addons manager" and it looks like plugins are much, much easier to install. So we could try one anytime, if someone sees one that would be useful. https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/modifications-1

[triplus]

Forum (any type of it) likely isn't the solution and the missing link. Once we have planet interesting forum content can be converted to blog content by anybody participation on the planet.

And once that "pingback links" will start to emerge we will know we have the currently missing link between content that does get created and greater social media exposure sorted out.

[DeepSOIC]

I actually have a similar problem with Lattice. I made some improvement, and I wanted to give a little shout out about it, but haven't found a nice way to do it. I created a blog page on Lattice wiki to do that, but it doesn't feel like a good place for it.

[cox]

Forum (any type of it) likely isn't the solution and the missing link.

Why is this?, wold be nice if you could provide some reasons for your claims.

[triplus]

Forum (any type of it) likely isn't the solution and the missing link.

Why is this?, wold be nice if you could provide some reasons for your claims.

The obvious reason is Forum has been around for years and if it would be the missing link we wouldn't have this discussion.

And i see how other FOSS projects do it and it is not done by using forum. And on social media and news sites original content place/author is linked back and usually this isn't in the form of forum post/thread.

Blog/Planet/News portal. This is what works. Blog and News portal likely isn't going to happen anytime soon for FreeCAD as if it would it would likely already happen in the past years. Therefore we need to find the solutions that works. And we established the solution that works and is already happening (for years) is (micro)blog content is being produced on individual level and it is scattered around the web. Therefore there is a missing link between that content and greater social media exposure. That link is Planet or solution that can have different name but basically does the same thing.

[drei]

Blog/Planet/News portal. This is what works. Blog and News portal likely isn't going to happen anytime soon for FreeCAD as if it would it would likely already happen in the past years. Therefore we need to find the solutions that works. And we established the solution that works and is already happening (for years) is (micro)blog content is being produced on individual level and it is scattered around the web. Therefore there is a missing link between that content and greater social media exposure. That link is Planet or solution that can have different name but basically does the same thing.

As NormandC said, who would be willing to manage such "planet"?
How would it work (internally)?

[triplus]

As NormandC said, who would be willing to manage such "planet"?
How would it work (internally)?

As for the software it needs to be installed on the server. Therefore there is some maintenance involved after like with Wiki or the forum to do regular updates.

As for the content if you write FreeCAD related content on your blog you can be added to FreeCAD Planet. When you will blog it will be shown on the Planet. Any user that finds your content interesting will likely click on the link to go to your blog and read it there. And there is a higher chance your content will get retweeted, reblogged, shared on social media sites and mentioned on the news sites.

P.S. And sometimes you will likely find a good recipe to bake for example FreeCAD cake on the FreeCAD Planet.

[cox]

The obvious reason is Forum has been around for years and if it would be the missing link we wouldn't have this discussion.

I really love planets, its problem as I see it, is of participation, I find that interesting planets, are normally from huge projects, where you have at least one high quality blog a week, and if they do not, they look stale. My feeling of planets is that the threshold for participation is high, you actually have to have a blog to participate. How many people have a blog on FreeCAD? My hunch is that this prerequisite of a blog is a bit to high for FreeCAD at the moment If not some additional content comes from low barrier of entry participation solution, this could increase the planet release frequency and might give it a vitality boost.

One solution could be a new topic called "planet entries" in the forum, where blog style posts could be posted by people that do not wish to maintain their own blog. This could of cause be moderated in some way. Posts from the threads such as "User Showcases", "Release Announcements" etc. could also have semi/automated reportings to the planet

This way, or with automated filtering by "up" votes as described earlier in my last post, could be described as the missing link for medium and small projects such as FreeCAD. And it could all be driven from a central forum.

Not only would you give life to the planet in this way, you would also direct people reading the posts to the forum we all love and rely on. This is something that other planets miss, they redirect to individual blog sites and dilutes participation. Replying to a blog post is nowhere near the value of a reply here on the forum.

It could very well be that no one is doing something like this today, and that there is no such solution available out there, for our forum software. But I do not think that we should be afraid of imagining stuff, if we do not, it will never exist.

[triplus]

How many people have a blog on FreeCAD?

If we count only the people that participated in the debate i now know of 3. And one offered to create some FreeCAD related content but doesn't know yet how.

P.S. As for the fear Planet would undermine Forum. It won't as it serves a different purpose. The purpose Forum was never good at and likely never will be. The work done for Planet has already been done for years and it will continue to be done in the following years (with or without Planet). But without Planet it likely won't make all that much difference as it could. Forums usually lose the edge once outsourcing to things like "Ask FreeCAD" happen.

[drei]

We could always start testing the waters with new stuff. But that would require commitment from the people proposing the idea. For now I'll stick with managing FreeCAD's facebook page. (I've been getting good feedback from users over there).

On a side note: Does anyone know of good sites/online journals where we could publish FreeCAD related stuff? Such as reviews and announcements? Kind of thinking of writing an article (just an idea for the moment).