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avonseawitch
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Getting started |
Location: UK
Registered: August 2009
Messages: 12
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I've been thinking about APOS for the straight partners who didn't know their man/woman was gay. I guess it would need to be a different place , and probly under different ownership? I don't know how many ppl have shown this site to their partners, or whether they'd want to but it seems to me that there might be an issue of a partner who had been told the truth wanting to discuss but without wanting to expose their pain to the person who had hurt them. Because they didn't want to hurt them back.
One of the things that would help is to talk to some potential users and find out if they would think it useful and what their requirements would be. If anyone is willing to talk about this, either on or offline, please get in touch.
I have some, not all, of the skills to set something like this up myself, but would like a better idea of what might be involved i.e. time and resources. Timmy, could you email me offline if you are willing to talk about this please?
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I think this merits public discussion. I was about to email you but thought, actually, this should be for all to see.
It's been suggested before, but I think it also failed before. No idea why.
It's not hugely hard to set up another service on this server to do it, but there was always insufficient interest. At present we have insufficient horsepower here, too (which knocks this serve on the head rather!). It does very well indeed with the many sites it runs, all of which pay for iomfats.org through advertising revenue.
With regard to the skills you need, one major piece of advice if you do set this up on a server (and the costs have to be covered form somewhere) is to ensure that the security aspects are well covered. Most forum software is C R A P for security. Ours is heavily modified to make it as secure as possible, but our server is pretty bulletproof, too. Megaman sees to that and he's rather good at it.
Always remember that, unless you take it OUT of search engine indexing a forum is PUBLIC
Also know that http://www.google.com/search?q=gay+men%27s+wives&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_en___GB216 is easy to find resources on.
Also a forum needs time to build any sort of community. This one took 9 months to get critical mass. Ask yourself clearly; "does the world need another forum?" Do you have the patience to run one? Can you handle fights that break out? I would be out of place oin such a forum, so will be unlikely even to visit it.
I think it needs a separate server, separate admin, separate moderator, in order to give each party "privacy".
Ok, that was a bit of a ramble.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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avonseawitch
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Getting started |
Location: UK
Registered: August 2009
Messages: 12
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Thanks, Timmy, some things to think about here, No 1 being "Is there any need for it?" I have had some offline conversation with the wife of one of your contributors who said she had looked for a forum for her and not found one and that it was wonderful to have someone else to talk to. Which is what made me think it was worth exploring. Can't see anything on your google link that seems to quite fit this. Not sure that APOS would be a good bridge to this either - presumably not many partners read APOS?
I have done requirements design for a fair number of systems but can't do the teccie stuff. I have a friend who could but she does it for a living so I'd have to pay her. If security is the big issue, maybe it is more specialised than she can do. Are you talking about password protection particularly? Do you have thoughts on searches being, for example, only on your statements and not on forum posts?
I can see you do a lot of moderation work on APOS. Are there a lot of fights? Can ppl sort them out themselves mainly? Do you do more than you need to because you like it? How much time do you spend in a week on APOS on moderation? On teccie stuff? It does sound like you have a fair amount of infrastructure. Anything you can tell me would be useful. I am generally used to doing a lot of investigation before thinking about how to design something new.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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andante wrote:
> Thanks, Timmy, some things to think about here, No 1 being "Is there any need for it?" I have had some offline conversation with the wife of one of your contributors who said she had looked for a forum for her and not found one and that it was wonderful to have someone else to talk to. Which is what made me think it was worth exploring. Can't see anything on your google link that seems to quite fit this. Not sure that APOS would be a good bridge to this either - presumably not many partners read APOS?
I have no idea, really, who reads the forum. Mostly this place is for those who read, by those who post.
>
> I have done requirements design for a fair number of systems but can't do the teccie stuff. I have a friend who could but she does it for a living so I'd have to pay her. If security is the big issue, maybe it is more specialised than she can do. Are you talking about password protection particularly? Do you have thoughts on searches being, for example, only on your statements and not on forum posts?
I'm talking far deeper than password protection. Major issues include, in no particular order:- spam prevention
- software vulnerability exploitation to compromise the server
- Denial of Service Attacks
- privacy of the underlying database and any true identity information given
Common free software like phpbb is appalling at that set of tasks and has no place on a real server despite having many fans worldwide.
Searches should reveal all. Otherwise how can a questing person find the place?
>
> I can see you do a lot of moderation work on APOS. Are there a lot of fights? Can ppl sort them out themselves mainly? Do you do more than you need to because you like it? How much time do you spend in a week on APOS on moderation? On teccie stuff? It does sound like you have a fair amount of infrastructure. Anything you can tell me would be useful. I am generally used to doing a lot of investigation before thinking about how to design something new.
I don't do much, nowadays. But I try to do what I do both well and with an assertive enough touch to make it stick. I don't always get it right. I also have challenges with being a participant and the final arbiter, though there is a "Mystery Moderator" to whom I have granted power to deal with me, too.
So I spend very little time handling moderation or techie stuff. But I used to have to watch every user registration in case they brough spam links with them.
To deploy a forum well you need to have technical skills beyond those I have, hence maMegaman is the power behind the throne. But any fool can deploy a forum badly.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 August 2009 09:40]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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