Wiki in combination with discussion forum possible?

[Former Member]

Hi all,

is it possible to add a discussion forum to a wiki in the SDN? The aim is to provide a special discussion section like it is done in the Blogs, but it should also be divided into several topics such as in the real forums.

Thanks & regards,

Denny

[Former Member]

Same idea [here|;

But Craig is not amused.

Edited by: Christian Gumpinger on Jun 9, 2008 3:43 PM

[Denny]

Sure, you're right, but then I would need an "own" forum. Otherwise I would have to link to a number of threads that could result in a huge link list.

[Denny]

Thanks for your fast response. Would it be then okay to put an link to an external forum on a Wiki? So that it is possible to further discuss (not only comment) serveral special topics in detail.

[marilyn_pratt]

Why make it "external"? It would make sense (and there are examples in our wiki pages), where a wiki page has a link(s) to forum thread(s). The reason to keep it within the community context is also for search ability.

If it makes sense to do so, it certainly is possible to create a link to a discussion. It doesn't make a great deal of sense to drag the user off to another website for the discussion though....

[marilyn_pratt]

The present convention is to use the comments tab in the wiki to "discuss" the contents of a page. These are not threaded nor are they used in a very intuitive way at the moment. One can track the comments made to a page by using a macro that highlights current contributions to a page including comments. One can also see the number of comments in the comments tab of the wiki.

Part of the issue of use is really change management. The more folks use and get used to working with the wiki, the easier and more natural that usage will be.

Of course users will help define that usage by the consistency of the way they utilize the tools. I've been looking at a number of wiki tools and see the challenges are pretty much similar for various groups of users.

Our team member Yael has been a very helpful resource in examining and prioritizing user requests concerning extended functionality. Our best lobbying tool is simply: widespread usage and evangelizing of the tool.

Thanks so much for your suggestion.