Re: [tor-bugs] #5995 [Company]: Build Q&A Forum with translations

["Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki" <blackhole@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

#5995: Build Q&A Forum with translations
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  phobos              |          Owner:  phobos
     Type:  project             |         Status:  new   
 Priority:  normal              |      Milestone:        
Component:  Company             |        Version:        
 Keywords:  SponsorI, SponsorL  |         Parent:        
   Points:                      |   Actualpoints:        
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------

Comment(by T(A)ILS developers):

 We definitely want a self-hosted solution and not a third-party-hosted
 solution. We want to be able to configure all the privacy features that we
 want and to have full power on the logs.

 We would love to see this solution being shared by Tor, Tails, and
 possibly other projects.

 The conclusion of our benchmarking [1] is that there is no really good
 solution at the moment to do what we want to do: either only for Tails,
 either for both Tor and Tails. The best candidates for improvements would
 be Askbot and Shapado.

 [1] https://tails.boum.org/todo/improve_the_forum

 But in both cases it would require working with the upstream to get the
 features we need implemented (either by them, either by someone else and
 then get merged). Both upstream are ready to be hired to work on custom
 features, as advertised on their websites. Nobody in our team is really
 excited about doing this work but some of us might end up doing it if
 there is really no other choice.

 Tails might be interested in moving its own forum to one of those tools
 even before all the improvements that are listed here are implemented. We
 ended up postponing our migration in order to pick a common tools for Tor
 and Tails, so we want to make sure that we choose the right target for
 this early migration.

 In other words, we would like to first:

   - decide upon a single tool that both Tor and Tails would be happy with
   - make plans to implement the features that are missing (who does the
 work? who pays? etc.)
   - ensure there is a migration path to the new features
 ... and once this is all decided and planned, Tails would still be happy
 to migrate its own forum even it's not on a shared instance for some time.

 We would be ready to cooperate with you on this project: choosing between
 one of those two, coming up with a more concrete list of requirements,
 dealing with the upstream, etc.

 The features we think are missing for a shared instance are:

 == For both Askbot and Shapado ==

   - They lack anonymous posting: both requires user account but we want to
 make the email address field optional. That should be easy.
   - They are offering a commercial hosting of their product and as a side
 effect setting up a dedicated instance is tricky or buggy. We might need
 some help or debugging while installing our own.
   - Review the email notifications options and make sure they match our
 needs (still to be defined). Both already have an email notification
 mechanisms.
   - Review and complete the translations for the language we want to
 support the most (list to be defined).
   - When typing a new question, they update on the fly a list of matching
 questions through Ajax. There should be a similar mechanism to avoid
 submitting duplicated questions that works with slow connections and
 without JavaScript.
   - The main features of the application should work with JavaScript
 disabled. At the moment, both login mechanisms do not work with JavaScript
 disabled.

 == Askbot ==

   - Handle groups (or categories or subforums). People should be able to
 use a single login for both Tor and Tails but the administration rights,
 karma, badges, and email notifications should be separate. It should be
 possible to move questions from one group to the other.
   - Multilingual support. I'm not sure that's a strict requirement but
 Shapado almost has it: the possibility of having the interface translated
 in the preferred language of a user, of showing and getting notified only
 of questions in languages you know, etc.

 == Shapado ==

   - Fix the multilingual support (the filtering by language is broken).
   - Add a feature to move questions between groups.
   - Add the possibility to vote for a question.
   - Fix the password size limitation.

 == Bonus ==

   - Allow answering to questions by email.

 What do you think?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/5995#comment:22>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online
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