Re: [Hampshire] Forum software

> Problem is I have no idea about forum software (and very little about
> apache),
> I found phpBB (which I know about from a couple of forums I am subscribed
> to). But today I got to thinking could we get a way with using a Wiki, is
> it
> possible??

Not only possible - I'd reccomend it.

We ran a Wiki at a place I used to work - as a way of keeping track of
what's going on in the department, it's ideal. It doesn't completely
*replace* a forum, but it is a good place to have infomal discussions, and
all the results are logged and presented properly.

> I am
> mindful that this could easily be expanded to other uses so could end up
> being used by all staff (200+) but never all at the same time.

That's a small number of users. You'll need some moderately good hardware
to run it on (i.e. less than 5 years old, I'd guess), but that'll easily
fit on a single PC.

> I am
> particularly interested in basic text type (that why I though of the a
> wiki
> as opposed to a forum) as opposed to heavy graphical type.

Wiki markup allows you to do all sorts of things if you really want to -
but text covers most of your requirements and is easy for all users.

Fora are unlikely to support more graphical stuff than a wiki...

> Further more this also give me the opportunity to get a pet project of
> mine
> off the ground which is a bug track system. This is purely for user to
> register hardware or software problems (non urgent) plus suggestions for
> improvements. Now I looked into this a while ago but had to stop due to
> other
> commitments. I know of bugzilla which is a rather large and powerful bug
> track system and mantis.

I prefer RT - but that's more through familiarity than anything else.
Mantis also looked fairly good last time I looked, and there's OTRS as
well. All of these are fairly easy to get going.

What you should do with a ticket system is to decide on the main structure
of the thing before you get too far into it - how many queues, how many
user groups, that sort of thing.

> While google offers a wealth of information I am interested to hear from
> those
> that use or have a similar setup, personal experience is of greater value.

I've used RT and MediaWiki on many occasions. They're very good.

> The only thing that is certain about this project is that my distro of
> choice
> will Debian as that what I have been running for the last few years.

Well, everything I do is on Whitebox - but the distro is largely irrelevant.

Vic.