suggestion was [Re: [ic] Broken links at developer.akopia.com]

[Birgitt Funk]

David Jenkins wrote:

<quote>
Eventually, we want to bust this site wide open with mass customization  
customization for content (you see just what you want to see) and a lot of 
community interaction (threaded discussions).  We value our relationship 
with you -- the developers-- very highly, and want this site to reflect 
that.
</quote>

I am not a developer, but would think it might help to use for threaded 
discussions and posts (as a replacement of the mailing list)
software, which includes ratings of comments by the readership and the
possibility to post comments and questions in the framework of a rough 
subject category system. In addition this software would allow to use an 
"editing queue" for posted annotations for FAQs and docs. I am thinking 
about something similarly used in "news" sites like kuro5hin.org, where you 
post small snippets of articles in an editing queue and readers tear them 
apart and rate them for further release out of the queue into the public or 
for a suggested rewriting.

I do believe it would help to sort and filter comments of users according to 
their subject area and averaged community rating of relevance.

Let's say for example someone other than Mike Heins, may be a relatively 
inexperienced IC user,  had formulated a draft for a new FAQ. In a forum 
like K5 this submission would have gone into the editing queue, where every 
user reads the FAQ, comments on it, rates it according to its usefulness, 
criticizes, amends it and so forth. Authors then can rewrite it, dump it or 
it goes of the queue as is, because readers rated it up immediately highly 
enough to send it out.

Often comments in the mailing lists are very important to keep. A year later 
anyone has difficulties to find the comment. With the rating option by the 
readership, each reader can help to indicate, how relevant on the long run, 
a comment was. Later on readers can search and read posts in the archives by 
a certain rate level. More irrelevant comments from newcomers will be rated 
low and thusly don't bother anymore later on, because each reader can filter 
them out.

The busier the list the more important such self-rating, self-moderating 
forum becomes. It would still leave the final moderation up to the lead 
developer with regards to correctness of a post's content and more.
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