Re: [tor-talk] Until there's a REAL effing way to communicate, that evey1 can use, I'm DONE

["Asa Rossoff" <asa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Instant communication isn't always on the top of my list! I'm just getting
caught up in this thread and it's the end of my day today, so I'll reply to
this message as it's the last one I read :)

-----Original Message-----
From: Kostas Jakeliunas
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 1:27 AM

> Totally out of the blue, but if there were a forum which also had a simple
> way of subscribing to threads and sub-forums so that one could receive
> emails and *respond* by replying to the special email address used for
> relaying them the message, would that be something worth considering?
> (Perhaps it's too late and so on, simply wondering.)

I don't know what software (or custom software) is in use on a regional
forum called WaccoBB (http://www.waccobb.net - SSL cert but mixed content)
They have the option to subscribe to posts according to sub-forum.  

It doesn't work QUITE the ideal way you describe; a reply to emailed
messages replies directly by private email to the person who posted the
message/comment.

The footer of each message has three orange buttons/highlighted links
"Website/Reply", "Unsubscribe", and "Gratitude".  The first takes you to the
appropriate form on the website itself, and the other two go to the website
for their each mentioned purposes (Gratitude is like a "like"/"+1" button).

At one time the WaccoBB forum as a Yahoo email list (and some few people in
the community still use the old Yahoo email list, I think unwittingly
instead, dividing the community).  The new site runs lots of local ads,
which is most likely the motivation to the compromise email option which
still requires opening a web page for any public replies.  Though their
emails all come with an ad too. ..... just checked the footer of the forum
pages and although the forum software in use is not named -- just a web
design firm --  the FAQ page specifies "vBulletin CMS".  The site is very
friendly as forums go, with every page having sidebars with texts of
selected posts and the posts with the most "gratitude".  The needs of that
site are different, as the participants generally are very public about
their identities, very often including their own portraits, and the site is
commercial in nature.

I just checked and vBulletin is proprietary (using PHP/MySQL).  One
controversy as of 2010 is its license involves the present owner/developer
of the vBulletin software brand sharing in Google AdSense revenue in the
future if users sign up to run AdSense ads on their forum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBulletin

Maybe helpful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software

A forum I used previously, Simple Machines Forum ("SMF") has a BSD license
and has recent releases.  I set it up pretty easily for a medium-size site
with a small audience and liked it.  All the traditional forum features and
has/had a polished look/feel.

New to the scene, one called Discourse
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_%28software%29 and
http://www.discourse.org/) is GPL, in "open Beta", and behaves more like a
modern social networking site.

Non-privacy features, like linking your account login to Google, Yahoo,
Facebook, Twitter, Github, or Persona are built-in (although you can still
create an unlinked account).  This would certainly need some careful
consideration and/or removal of such features....

Designed for use from modern smart phones as well as traditional computers.

It has a "comprehensive API" and the front end relies heavily on Javascript;
Ruby backend.  With sufficient effort, if the infrastructure of the thing
was useful, a different interface might be able to be developed more easily
and robustly than going it alone.


I just grabbed Discourse as an example as it is a new one and
non-traditional---aiming to be next-gen and accessible to the masses.

It has email subscription features mentioned on its homepage but not ones
mentioned that would cause the email interface to behave like a traditional
mailing list.


...
> 
> AFAIK, there's no such solution at present, at least for something which
> would effectively implement a mailing list allowing for active
> participation and even moderation from the email side of things. But it
> sounds doable, and might turn out to be a great benefit to the broader
> world of open source and so on. A project idea? :)

It does sound doable... and if the website were especially accessible and
familiar to modern audiences, all the better --  but that could complicate
the project unless there is something similar enough to patch onto already.

Asa

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