Forums Rrrhhaaaa!!!!!

[Fat Alex]

I have decided after a decent amount of thinkin' that forums are quite pointless unless used. most of the forums I see on team websites are not used. Ergo most teams have pointless features. That is all. Go back to your normal lives now.

[sanddrag]

Mostly true yes.

[KenWittlief]

fourms are like ebay

100: the more people you have using the same one

the more useful it is

therefor, the most popular

therefor the most people

goto 100

[Rickertsen2]

Soo true.

[Jack]

ahh..

our team has web forums (phpBB) and you are very correct, most of the public sections are useless. (But there to look pretty ). There's CD and that's all that's needed right now.

BUT.. we use our "hidden" forums for inter-team communication which we found works quite well and most of the time better than email alone.

my $.02

[IMDWalrus]

CD is the only forum I need for robotics...

Even if 818 had a team forum, I wouldn't use it. It's easy enough to contact people on my team in other ways.

[Duke 13370]

Our team is a major exception, We use our forums all the time. 120 people are registered, granted only 20 post and check it regularly, but it's still used A LOT.
It isn't really open to the public, it's only for inter-team communication.

Oh, and we made it the hard way, it isn't phpbb or anything.

[Aignam]

Our team has been toying with the idea of a members only forum for inter-team communication for the last few weeks. How many teams have had success with a system like this? We would still use e-mail, but perhaps have it on the forums as well.

[Greg]

The new version of openFIRST includes a simple forum, and it does have "hidden" forum functionality. It should be enough for inter-team communication. Personally, I plan to use it for team discussions this year.

[HFWang]

Personally I think wikis would be a cool way to have the team communicate. Create a page for each subsystem (maybe break it down further if needed) and then people can edit/upload pictures/etc as creativity hits or parts are completed.

Similar ideas could be done with the programming. Imagine a big whiteboard anyone can scratch out some conceptual ideas on...

[Duke 13370]

^^ netmeeting has a very cool whiteboard thing that works just like that

[Guilherme]

Same thing.

I created a forum for visitors, and in 2 months we had no registration.

But we have a main forum, that all our robotics students can use, and also all team members can discuss about meetings, plans... chat...

I agree that there are better ways to communicate with the team, but sometimes a forum can be very useful like: creating pools to set up the day of meetings, sending Private Messages, chating...

I my opinion, before installing a forum, you should analize if it´s REALLY needed, 'cos nothing is better than a team meeting and a nice chat. Human contact can do better than just online stuff.

[apk]

As webmaster for my team, I have programmed the website so that every team member (once our year gets going) has an account, and from that email is sent, meeting attendance is stored, some people can update (add news and events) the website. Take a look http://www.team104.com/.

(btw: I am still working hard on it )

[generalbrando]

My past two teams have/had forums on their sites. I think 1020 is using it more, but it's not at all used by the general community (at least not much). Team Hammond has had some good traffic on their forum before - however it's nothing compared to CD and it's probably due in part to their fame.

I agree that having forums on team sites is mostly frivulous, except when they use it for their own needs (the hidden section). I don't think I've ever registered on a team's forums. It bothers me enough to have to register on IndianaFIRST and FIRST's forums when I want to discuss something there. I wonder if there's some magical way to bring all the forums I need to use together? I won't dare use this as a hint to Brandon to work more magic - he's doing enough for us all as it is. But maybe MassFIRST should consider basing their discussions here?

[IMDWalrus]

Originally posted by generalbrando
My past two teams have/had forums on their sites. I think 1020 is using it more, but it's not at all used by the general community (at least not much). Team Hammond has had some good traffic on their forum before - however it's nothing compared to CD and it's probably due in part to their fame.

I agree that having forums on team sites is mostly frivulous, except when they use it for their own needs (the hidden section). I don't think I've ever registered on a team's forums. It bothers me enough to have to register on IndianaFIRST and FIRST's forums when I want to discuss something there. I wonder if there's some magical way to bring all the forums I need to use together? I won't dare use this as a hint to Brandon to work more magic - he's doing enough for us all as it is. But maybe MassFIRST should consider basing their discussions here?

I'm sure if Brandon were to add MassFIRST and IndianaFIRST sections, they'd go over well...

That said, I think the official FIRST boards are still needed. They definitely aren't the world's greatest boards, but answers to questions posted there are probably more reliable than anything on CD.