[Web4lib] suggestion box/blog

[Chris Barr]

I would second Richard's comments and point you toward the forum flavor 
of the month, Vanilla (http://getvanilla.com/). It's a very nice, clean 
open source discussion forum software.

There are some nice themes and extensions available for it, and people 
have integrated it with various CMS and blog packages.

--chris



Richard Wiggins wrote:
> Like any online project, I think it's important to define the goal before
> you choose a process or a tool.  Here are a few thoughts:
>
> -- A shared forum can offer big advantages: You have other users helping
> solve problems, not just your reference desk, help desk, IT staff, or
> whatever.
>
> -- If you capture questions / suggestions and answers, then over time you
> build up content that answers specific ideas previously brought up.
>
> -- I'm not sure a blog is necessarily the right tool.  A threaded forum like
> vBulletin might work better.  Of course, with plugins you can make a blog
> appear more like a forum.  To what extent are you trying to foster
> discussion, and to what extent are you really trying to simulate a physical
> suggestion box, where customer puts in a piece of paper with a suggestion,
> and the folks from On High either accept the suggestion, or explain why the
> idea can't be implemented, and we're done.
>
> -- I strongly believe you need to incorporate the notion of an FAQ in your
> planning.  The vast majority of questions, complaints, or suggestions will
> duplicate previous requests.  If you are spending staff (or public)  time
> answering the same question over and over again, you're wasting people's
> time.  The online world understood this in the 80s and earlier -- look at
> all the FAQs on Usenet.  Reference librarians probably understood this for
> decades, with paper pathfinders you could hand out.
>
> /rich
>
> On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 4:06 PM, McHale, Nina <nina.mchale at cudenver.edu>
> wrote:
>
>   
>> Hey, all,
>>
>> I've beeen charged to create a "suggestion box/blog" by my admin folks.
>> Anybody doing anything cool along those lines? We already have a news
>> and events blog, and patrons often post comments to this. We also have a
>> somewhat rarely used (twice a month?) comments/feedback form.
>>
>> Nina
>>
>>
>>     
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