Importing usenet data, feedback request

[steve_sa]

As you may know, our system includes a great deal of relevant usenet content. The usenet content is currently a few months old. We need to start bringing in fresh content again. The content is intermixed with internal threads.

The usenet content can be interacted with. i.e. if you answer to a usenet post, we have a process to send that post to the usenet, and get replies back, and post them right in the thread. It is seamless, however each post going to usenet needs to be ok'ed (moderated).

Incorporating fresh usenet content raises a few issues, and your feedback is appreciated:

-some members have said that they want to interact with 'the people they know' on the forumz, and do not want to interact with usenet people that they don't know.

Resolution: We can put a small icon next to usenet posts. This would help those members bypass the usenet messages if they wish.

-For the above users, they would see orange icons (unread messages) while the posts causing orange icons are usenet related. There is no way to deal with that, other than putting usenet in its own section, which we don't plan to do.

Feedback on how we go about doing this in a community-friendly way is appreciated.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Hmm. This is a kind of tricky one. I'm not sure that I even fully understand all of what's going on there myself. 😱 Are there purely usenet-initiated threads created like 'normal' threads here? What about replies? How often is usenet data harvested? Has it been so seemless that I've just never noticed? How foolproof is it?

Anyway, I think that it'd definately be beneficial to mark any thread and/or post coming from usenet as such in a clear and concise manner. I'm not sure that I mind seeing all usenet posts so long as it's clear that's what they are. I mean I can just ignore them easily enough. But if there's a way in our profiles to not see usenet threads/posts, then yeah, that last unread feature is going to get tricky. :lol:

But another thing that kind of bugs me is the checkboxes to post to usenet seem to be enabled by default. (Or maybe that's just when it's a usenet post that you're replying to?) So it'd be nice if there were a way to set up in our profiles to, say, have that box unchecked by default, so that our replies always stay local. Just a thought.

 

[steve_sa]

Usenet threads show up as normal threads. They clearly state the usenet source, and the username has the word 'External' under it. They would be sourced every hour or so. Foolproof.

We can mark them as 'u'. Disabling seeing them.... that can be done, however, we may want users to see them :? And yes, last post feature would get tricky here.

Checkboxes are now on, ONLY if you are answering a usenet thread.. otherwise off.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Alrighty.

 

[russell]

I don't understand. First you incorporate outside posts into the forum. Now you're trying to figure out a way to take them out of the circle.

If you incorporate a switch to simply turn off these people then their ideas and questions won't get absorbed / answered by the community.

Maybe I don't get out of the basement enough for people to feel like my opinion on this is worthwhile, but this seems like common sense to me.

 

[steve_sa]

Thanks Russel. Actually, don't want to take them out, but need to figure out if the importation of these posts would affect the community, and if so, how to deal with it beforehand.