I just joined today, and posted a few ideas into the Real Time Chat thread. I wanted to post them into their own thread, so here goes.
What is a forum?
I have thought for some time, that when forum software is created, we are thinking well inside a now quite old box when we think about what a forum is 'for'. We seem to fall into the trap of defining the solution before really defining the problem, or the opportunity.
'Design Thinking' (very trendy, I know), would have us stop and think about what change or behaviour we are actually wanting to bring about, and questioning the assumed implementation before we proceed. It would have us generate multiple ways of achieving the same end goal. However, when it comes to forum software, we seem to just 'create forums', more or less as we always have.
problem statement
But what is the true goal of forum software? Well, actually I think phpBB's motto gets ironically quite close - 'creating communities'. Notice it doesn't say 'creating web-based linear threaded discussion software'; that is just one implementation approach.
Starting from scratch, what would be the goal, or the 'problem statement'?
I would personally say that the goal of forum software is - and always was - to 'facilitate online community discussion' (going right back to the first bulletin boards).
We are, in effect, still engaged in creating bulletin boards; the very first solution to this problem.
But if you think about what types of discussions we commonly have online (as of 2016), then you identify what might be:
The Use Cases for Community Discussion
- Micro blogs (/ statuses)
- Discussions (/ threads)
- Q & A (/ questions)
- Blogs (/articles)
- Messages (/ PMs / Group)
- Chat (shoutbox / events)
So if we are thinking outside of the box as to how we satisfy the goal of encouraging 'online community discussion', then these are all valid use cases to consider.
One new notion: Discussion Types
To implement this, perhaps we need to simply extend the accepted definition of a forum to cater for 'Types of Threads' - just as Wordpress caters for encouraging the creation of content by having multiple 'Types of Post' (representing different content types).
Where this updated concept of Forum Software might remain identifiably Forum Software, is by largely retaining its traditional threaded interface, but still allowing for multiple types of discussion directly within it.
It becomes a Discussion Engine, retaining its more or less traditional front-end, and via its API and the simple notion of discussion types, encourages a variety of other uses and applications to be built on top as extensions, mobile applications, integrations with other softwares, and unpredictable innovations in use cases.
fragmented attention becomes distributed engagement
Flarum as a Discussion Engine could be used as an extension to provide a commenting engine on a website.... to drive blog comments, to create new mobile social media applications, to add real time chat to websites... to create a photo sharing platform (or any other type of content)... the possibilities, if you capture the core discussion types, and provide the software as an engine, are endless.
The goal might be to simply create a single use social application (and there might well be cloud platform $$$$ signs here), but if the goal is to build a community website on the back of some of this activity... then you have Flarum ready to roll out to capture this content created in various settings, across various platforms, devices and applications... all using the Discussion Engine & API.
Discussion Types: The User Interface
Here's how some of these 'Discussion Types' might work in the forum setting itself:
Blog Threads: the opening post would be formatted a little more formally, as a blog article, and the other posts are comments. So, it looks a lot like forum thread. But the opening post is given the red carpet treatment.
Micro-blog Threads: these would more frivolous and could be punched in by having a 'status' box at the top of each forum. No title, you just punch in your thoughts. Like a status or a tweet. They would be displayed alongside or in amongst forum threads; starting as short one-liners, perhaps they would expand as the user hovers or thumbs over them; allowing the user to comment on them. Users would have the option of disabling 'Status Threads' from their 'feed' (threads view).
And to tie Micro-blog threads in to how forums traditionally work, if one of these generates lots of replies, a member of site staff or trusted user can give it a title and promote it to Forum Thread status. It gains 'real discussion' status and 'forum respect' ?
Forum Threads: If a thread's opening post is above a certain number of words and well-liked, it could be optionally or automatically granted Blog Thread status, and if Flarum was integrated with a CMS, then you have an instant new blog post with lots of comments, completely organically created from natural community activity.
Q & A Threads: They would look a lot like discussion threads, only, the selected / voted answer is displayed second (along with some other functionality).
Chat Threads: as luceos put it in 'Real Time Chat'; "What if the current threads would update automatically and showed who was typing/viewing. Wouldn't that make the forum more like a chat?"
This would perfectly unify the chat experience within the traditional forum user-interface.
At the end of a Chat, you could decide to keep it, or discard it. Keep it, and it is turned into a regular Forum Thread.
To Summarise
Personally, I think these are all, in their own way, desirable features for community-driven discussion sites in 2016. Not only would unifying them continue to satisfy the 'forum generation', but also the 'facebook / twitter generation', and possibly even the 'whatsapp generation'.
In addition, by being a 'Discussion Engine', this content potentially would be coming from one or more other sources and applications into the forum, too.
Anyway. Very long thread containing several ideas... but I just wanted to get some thoughts out there on what might be achieved by thinking about forums as an engine for discussion, rather starting with the pre-conceived notion of 'yes, but a forum is a... '.
I prepare for the backlash ?
