New forums, creating and running your own part of LFGSS

Microcosm includes a feature which allows people to create their own forums. I want to turn this on, but before I open it to everyone I want to open it to a few people.

Note: This applies to creating forums within LFGSS, if you want to create your own site like LFGSS then you can do that right now, without help from me, at Microcosm

The gist is that you can create and run a forum on LFGSS, and it would appear in the list of forums along with everyone else's.

The forums are ordered by:

1. Is it pinned? Pinned forums go first in the list.
   
2. How many comments does it have in it? Higher number of comments, mean higher in the list.
   
   

When you create your forum, it will start on the last page of the list of forums on the homepage https://www.lfgss.com/ and the last page is currently Page 2 https://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/?offset=25 . If you're able to make your forum a success, and if it is of broad appeal and on-topic, then I may eventually be convinced to pin it to the front page. Presently everything above Misc & Meaningless and Classifieds are pinned.

With your own forum you can basically create little specialised areas within LFGSS. Examples of things that might prove good for their own forums:

• Tuesday Night Ride Club
  
• Mountain biking, cyclocross and off-roading
  
• Audax
  
• Time trials
  
• Other regions, i.e. "Bath"
  
  

And you could even create hyper-specific group for very small audiences, some examples I could think of might be when the forum has done things in the past to surprise people, i.e. a members only forum where a given member cannot see the forum.

As a forum owner you become liable for the content in it, and you get moderation controls for the forum. You can delete content, edit content, pin content, etc within your forum. But if you fail to act, then either hippy or myself will be able to additionally moderate anything in your forum, but mostly we'll try and stay out of your way as it's your space and we want you to set the tone of your space so long as it mostly fits the tone of the site (i.e. if you think you're going to be a little dictator of your area when the rest of the site is tolerant, this is probably not going to work and hippy or myself will intervene, but if you think anything is allowed and porn is suddenly fine, that also isn't going to work).

As a forum owner you also get to set permissions for the forum.

Via "Membership Groups", such as the one for this Announcements forum: https://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/515/memberships/ , you can grant and deny access to people.

Membership Groups work on the basis that:

• There are default groups that all new forums get
  
• The defaults can be overridden by your defining your own groups (adding a new group would remove all other user groups, thus denying them access)
  
• You cannot override the site moderators (adding a moderation group overrides nothing, it just extends moderator powers to new people)
  
• You cannot override people banned from the site (adding a banned group overrides nothing, it just bans people from your specific forum, though NB: you cannot ban the admin - me)
  
  

Permissions are granted not denied, so if someone isn't granted permission then they have none. What this means is that if you create a new membership group that isn't a moderator or banned role, then you wipe out all of the default groups and start with a blank slate of "No-one can access this except the moderators". Then you can start adding people and their permissions.

Basically... you can create private forums within the main forum... this is fine by me.

If anyone wants to have a forum, then initially I'm going to create it for them and then change the ownership to them.

So you'll need to tell me:

1. The title of the forum (a few key words to describe it)
   
2. The description for the forum (one sentence outlining what will be in the forum, what is on-topic for the forum)
   
   

I'll start this way, without making the button available to all, as I want to see how it's used, and that it makes sense for the site, before throwing the doors open to everyone.

Anyone that wants a forum therefore needs to PM me with a request.

Once you have a forum, it's up to you to do the work to tell people about it (without spamming the rest of the site), and create an engaging area of the site for your audience. That means you need to create content, keep topics active, etc.

I may be open to moving some on-topic conversations from elsewhere into your new forum if it makes sense to kick start it that way, but don't bet heavily on it - I'll only do so if I'm convinced the new forum should own that content.

Anyway, anyone who wants a forum... you need to PM me.

Are you going to do this before we have the ability to ignore forums? Because the front 2 pages already seem cluttered and unappealing.

Two new forums have already being added.

One of those made it onto the front page as it had a large number of comments (knocking something else to page two), the other is on page two.

Now you're just using the @ thing to be beastly.

One was the Epping Forest Honey Badgers: https://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/572/
The other was the Midweek Evening Rides: https://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/573/

That I hadn't noticed them is a sign that I look at the forums page(s) less than I used to, just because there are so many forums on there that I have no interest in. Anyway I know that forum-ignore is coming and I look forward to it.

I created a site on microcosm.app last night (fixiekurwa.microcosm.app) and realised that my 10 finger machine typing skillz didn't were cut the task of actually programming it. I asked on LFGSS in AnyQanswered if one could set a minimalistic forum up and got pointed in this direction.

Now the mindblowing part - can you make a subforum on lfgss where Danish is allowed to communicate in?

A local forum along the lines of Manchester, Birmingham etc. but named "København"?

Happy to help you configure Microcosm, you'll get exactly what LFGSS is, but you will be the admin.

Zero programming knowledge required (that is the point of having us run the platform).

You can upload a logo, change the site description, and tweak the background colours by signing in at https://microcosm.app/ and using the dashboard: http://microcosm.app/dashboard/ (click on the forum name to edit everything).

As you are the admin, the homepage of http://fixiekurwa.microcosm.app/ will show a "Create Forum" button on the right hand side. Click that to create sections of the site.

It really is a few clicks and just typing in the names of things to go from a blank site to one tailored for whatever you need.

The hardest part isn't creating the site, it's getting the first 10 users, then to 100 users. Getting people interested and involved when no-one is yet interested or involved is difficult.

We can set up a shall part of LFGSS for you that could be 100% Danish, and if you want this I'll create it for you. But there is a caveat, whilst I would make you moderator of such an area, if things are reported to me as the site admin... as I cannot tell if something is illegal/an issue... I'll be extremely quick to delete things without warning.

So the choice is:

1. A small part of LFGSS, but very heavy handed moderation
   
2. Your own site, but you need to do the work to get people involved
   

Thanks for your time again

2.) sounds exactly like what we want - is it possible to make it not readable as guest, so you need an accepted user (approved by admin) before reading?

We have a very powerful and great admin/moderated forum called fixie-king.dk which essentially is Copenhagen based - but sometimes the magic shines in a different hue when everything isn't 100% transparent and4everyone. Exclution and elitist is a different way of socialism.

2.) sounds exactly like what we want - is it possible to make it not readable as guest, so you need an accepted user (approved by admin) before reading?

It is possible to have forums be private, and for you to add people to a permissions group to give them access.

But... how does that chime with this... ?

We have a very powerful and great admin/moderated forum called fixie-king.dk which essentially is Copenhagen based - but sometimes the magic shines in a different hue when everything isn't 100% transparent and4everyone. Exclution and elitist is a different way of socialism.

If fixie-king has transparency/moderation issues that makes you want to branch off and create your own space, then this is a good way to do it. A lot of very successful cycle forums have been created by breaking out of other forums.

But, then you need to show people that you offer better transparency, less opaque dictator control, etc.

Usually this means providing a more open and welcoming forum, and listening to people and adapting to how people want it to be.

The word "admin" is usually inferred to be some kind of dictator, top manager, etc... but I personally think that the word and role is best when it's close to the original meaning... to administrate, and the role is more about creating the right environment, a space that enables people to do what they want largely without being told what they can and can't do.

I'd be wary of starting with an exclusion based policy of an invite-only/friends-only forum.

Besides, people naturally leave forums over time, and the only way to grow a community is to have more people join than leave. You should keep as much of the content public and visible as possible to help attract new members (and then you should welcome them in).

Thanks again - I'll be glad to continue the conversation on PM, since it's a bit delicate.

Then PM :)