[consulting] the Ultimate forum based Malinglist Manager (Re: [drupalART-dev] Hey guys, )

[John Sechrest]

What a very fine idea.

You suggest:

1) We create a project to create a proper forum <-> mail integration
   (I would say drupal<->mail, since I like more than just forums by mail)

2) follow a process:

   A) Find a core group of people interested in the project
   B) Brainstorm a feature set
   C) Write up a spec of what project entails and what it does not
   D) Find a group of coders with the skills
   E) Do a timeline/project management analysis/ quote on the project
   F) Fundraise to accomplish that project
   G) Generate an Alpha Release
   H) Test the release
   I) repair and generate the Beta release
   J) Generate a Debian Package to support the process
   K) Pay the programmers
   L) Document the package/process

My questions are:

   1) who do you think are the most likely to fund this?
      Do you think that is worth the consultant community 
      organizing and splitting the cost of this development?


   2) How do you think that coders should be selected?
      IE, do we use friends of friends? Or do we bid/quote it out?
      or do we hand select who we want? 


   3) How do we (the ones who are stepping up to fund the project)
      make decisions about which feature is in and which is
      out? Is this a consensus based process? Is this a vote
      system? Do we delegate decision making to a core group?


Let's bound the cost on this. If we assume that this is a
month of solid work. IE 160 hours of coding time.
And we use a nominal US $ consulting rate of $100/hour.

Then the gross size of the budget is $16,000. 
If we have 50 consultants that think this is worth money to have
developed. Then we have a nominal cost of $320/ consultant. 


So... is this a meaningful process? Do we want to follow it?

Is there anyone with a client who needs/wants this enough that this
is a task that they might pay for part of the development?

Are there enough consultants who see this as worth investing in?

Am I tracking the process that you were thinking about at the right level?







 % :* team up with about 5 people on irc/jabber/skype and write down a good list 
 % of demands. what do we want, how do we want it and what do we not want.
 % * team up with all the people we can get together. I am sure that with 
 % Civicspace in this, we will get over a hundred people.
 % * invite one or two drupal coders. 
 % * do a fundraise based on what thos coders think they need to get this done.
 % * Pay the coders fro+ that fundraise
 % * release this forum_ml.module (or maybe even bundle of modules) as The One 
 % Solution. 
 % * Write good solid documentation for debian/gentoo/?? to get that one chosen 



=?iso-8859-1?q?B=E8r_Kessels?= <ber at webschuur.com> writes:

 % Hello,
 % 
 % All around the place I see people looking for solutions to get 
 % forum-Mailinglist integration. Its one of the most demanded features for 
 % grassroots and or consultatnts. Yet it seems to be the hardes to achieve. To 
 % achieve properly, i mean. 
 % All around the place I read about small alpha-works-for-me modules. Or rather 
 % hard to achieve combinations of special modules, configurations of your ml 
 % system, build on top of rather strange mailserver configurations. All these 
 % hacks ar actually the cause of the problem that there is no good solution,
 % Example: I have successfully hacked ezmlmj into my drupal forums: It works, 
 % but is not too secure. Nor will it scale vdery well. But because it works for 
 % me, i feel no need to fix up that module and make it more general.
 % 
 % I know choice is good. But ATM we have only bads to choose from. I therefore 
 % think we should work on one working solution. So here is my proposal
 % :* team up with about 5 people on irc/jabber/skype and write down a good list 
 % of demands. what do we want, how do we want it and what do we not want.
 % * team up with all the people we can get together. I am sure that with 
 % Civicspace in this, we will get over a hundred people.
 % * invite one or two drupal coders. 
 % * do a fundraise based on what thos coders think they need to get this done.
 % * Pay the coders fro+ that fundraise
 % * release this forum_ml.module (or maybe even bundle of modules) as The One 
 % Solution. 
 % * Write good solid documentation for debian/gentoo/?? to get that one chosen 
 % ML manager configured to work with this module .... 
 % * Write good solid documentation on how to configure your drupal system to 
 % talk to that ml manager,
 % 
 % If people like this then please let someone stand up and take the lead in 
 % this; I am very interested, but have too little time to truly devote myself 
 % to this; If i have to take this on, I fear I will be the main bottleneck :)
 % 
 % Regards, 
 % Ber (who would also love proper ML integration to replace his ez mlmmj hacks)
 % 
 % 
 % Op donderdag 29 december 2005 03:15, schreef Ivan Storck:
 % > I agree, even if you think it is a hack, it would be very greatly
 % > appreciated by many, I am sure. And you could find someone to refine
 % > the code...
 % >
 % > -
 % > Ivan Storck
 % > www.SustainableMarketing.com
 % >
 % > On Dec 28, 2005, at 11:21 AM, Ryan Grace wrote:
 % > > Hey there,
 % > >   considering that the email_list_mailman module in CVS is a security
 % > > hazard
 % > >   and  mlist.module offers no interface,
 % > >   your hack is the best hope we have right now...
 % > >   it will look very nice on the homepage of my organic groups allowing
 % > > members of the group to signup for the list.
 % > >
 % > > cool.
 % > > ryan.
 % > > thefractal.org
 % > >
 % > > zirafa wrote:
 % > >> Hey guys,
 % > >>
 % > >> Actually my method of forum email integration is a terrible hack.
 % > >> I can post it, but it is a really poor long term solution since I
 % > >> made my own php forms from scratch, etc....I will try posting it
 % > >> this week.
 % > >>
 % > >> Farsheed
 % > >>
 % > >> _______________________________________________
 % > >> drupalART-dev mailing list
 % > >> drupalART-dev at drupalart.org
 % > >> http://mail.drupalart.org/mailman/listinfo/drupalart-
 % > >> dev_drupalart.org
 % > >>
 % > >>
 % > >> .
 % > >
 % > > _______________________________________________
 % > > drupalART-dev mailing list
 % > > drupalART-dev at drupalart.org
 % > > http://mail.drupalart.org/mailman/listinfo/drupalart-dev_drupalart.org
 % >
 % > _______________________________________________
 % > drupalART-dev mailing list
 % > drupalART-dev at drupalart.org
 % > http://mail.drupalart.org/mailman/listinfo/drupalart-dev_drupalart.org
 % _______________________________________________
 % consulting mailing list
 % consulting at drupal.org
 % http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting
 % 

-----
John Sechrest          .         Helping people use
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                                 .       Internet: sechrest at peak.org
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                                              . http://www.peak.org/~sechrest