Before we start forking discourse and turning it into a different concept, we should be careful and read about the rationale behind the current features, some are like this on purpose.
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Sure, but sometimes our needs will not match the larger project. Thatâs why plug-ins are great.
In the mean time, perhaps this should help inform our colour scheme. Engineering projects get one style (eg Dark blue with orange text), local communities another (white with Red text). *Colour suggestions are not to be taken seriously, only illustratively!
Not sure if this is a good place to post it, but as someone who just recently discovered Discourse and came to check it out, the first thing I notice coming in here as opposed to our other current communication venues, is that you get overwhelmed with information on the front page. While the âfirehoseâ of everything getting posted to the site is kinda cool, and some people may like seeing that, it shouldnât be the first thing people see when they hit the site or itâll scare them away. Especially if weâre aiming to replace our Google Groups/Mailing List setup with this⊠I can only imagine how busy that front page will wind up being. I think having the front page by default show only categories that youâve actually subscribed to, and nothing at all except for a site overview and a link to the page that shows the firehose if you havenât subscribed to anything yet or arenât logged in, would be a good idea.
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I have a few BIG questions:
- Who are the intended users of Discourse? Any specific initiative/community?
- Is Discourse meant to replace an existing communication channel?
- Whatâs the most compelling reason to use Discourse in Mozillaâs context?
I think if we are clear with our ideas here, it would be easier to tell people about Discourse, find focus, and eventually get adoption.
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The Mozilla community in general. There are almost no limits on what we can do here (we wouldnât want bugs coming here for instance).
Itâs supposed to be a replacement for the mailing list/google group set-up
Itâs open-source software that is hackable, and shows the power of the web. Itâs pushing online communication to the next level and we can be a part of that.
Hi @yousef,
What I got is that Discourse is meant to be the mailing list replacement. Is this sentiment shared by the current group of users?
I ask this because if there is clarity and shared understanding on the goals and time frame of the evaluation, as well as the stakeholders on the ultimate approval on replacing mailing lists in lieu of Discourse, I think there would be less second guessing.
We have some users using it as a replacement for yammer (TCP) and others using it as a replacement for lists (us). Currently, a lot of mailing list users donât want to make the jump as we havenât got starting threads by email implemented yet.
Thereâs an etherpad for current needs/wants here
The discussion at this thread is also worth noting for current feedback:
http://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/tcp-discussion-forum-thoughts/327
Hi @yousef,
I think from your reply, this makes the target users of Discourse are:
Mozillians who use the mailing lists for discussions in the open
Iâm part of the Yammer and I think it serves a different purpose. Itâs more like an internal social tool (stuff people outside of the Mozilla community would not be interested in, time-sensitive matter like launch info, etc.) There are also files and recognition features in Yammer as well.
Going back to the mailing list users, if Discourse would be the replacement, then it would make sense to get feedback from people who value it and use it.
Also, I also think positioning Discourse as an âupgradeâ to mailing lists is better than âreplacementâ if it does present better features and will make the the target users happier.
@regnard - some of that stuff that you list, really shouldnât be locked down in a private tool. Itâs basically stuff that would go on the mailing lists except people want an easy way to restrict access. It would be useful to find out what other features of yammer are regularly used, but itâs my understanding that the primary purpose was to be a communication channel like the mailing lists, but with easier to create groups and easier to control access.
Depending on the use cases, Discourse has the potential to replace either system, though thatâs not to say weâll try to replace both with one tool, unless that becomes natural. Weâd follow the path with the most potential, thatâs also going to be affected by which features are missing for the different use cases.
@Kensie I donât know, but Yammer has positioned itself as an internal social network. We had that in a company I used to work for and it basically functioned as a replacement for the corporate intranet.
With that said, Yammer would not be a good replacement for mailing lists (low barrier, archived discussions in the open) but I suspect that itâs there for a different purpose.
The way I see it, Discourse in its current form would not be suitable to take on Yammer, but would have a better shot at swaying mailing list users.
It would really be good to ask long-time mailing list users to try Discourse out and see what they think of the platform-- this would be a gold mine of insight.
In Discourse you can have âprivate categoriesâ, and the plan is support Mozillians API to restrict some categories to certain groups in Mozillians.org.
Hi @nukeador,
If thatâs the case then, I would say that Discourse is not ready it its current state to serve as an enhancement to the current channels it is challenging (email lists & Yammer). Weâd have to hack on Discourse to hammer it to a version to meet the requirements of the community.
Not being ready yet for that scenario doesnât mean itâs not ready at all for the rest of them, as you can see with the active categories here 
Yes, itâs a work in progress, but as I mentioned, Iâm curious to what long time mailing list folks would say about Discourse.
Alternatively, if Discourse gets the features to integrate with the mailing list (like Google Groups), that would be the killer app.
Thereâs a loong thread on mozillians mailing list about Discourse pros and cons from different perspectives.
I think as soon as we have the âcreate a thread by emailâ, a mailing list person should be able to use it in the same way, I donât know if @majken knows the status of our needs.
Iâd love to get some some help from fellow Discourse users. Iâm evaluating Discourse to become the central place for a project Iâm working on, amongst different options (Yammer & mailing-lists are other options that are considered).
Could someone help me list the pros & cons of Discourse vs mailing-lists vs Yammer?
I love mailing lists but Iâm quite old-school and I spend a lot of time doing email. Would Discourse help in order to engage with community members that are more mobile-oriented?
Any feedback on this topic is welcome 
âTristan, new to Discourse.
Community IT has entirely moved away from our old mailman list to
Discourse, and I prefer Discourse. One feature that makes Discourse really
nice, imo, is that you can subscribe to an entire category, just like
subscribing to a list, but then if there are discussions that arenât
relevant to you, youâre able to ignore that discussion.
Discourse can act like a mailing list, and you can reply to emails it
sends, but it also has a nice interface for web and mobile devices.
I canât really think of any advantages Mailman has over Discourse, other
than the fact that it can email you your password in plain text⊠Though
thatâs not a good thing!
Discourse FAQ has some answers.
I guess, no email checking needed (in-build notifications) and mobile view would be really useful for what you have in mind.
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Thank you Nukeador for these details. Iâm trying Discourse from my mobile running Firefox for Android. Nice responsive interface!
Is there also a native app available or is it Web only?
âTristan
Itâs web-only. We actually have a webapp on the Firefox marketplace, but Iâve had to take it off since it doesnât play nicely with the Persona authentication popup.