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The time approacheth for our mass migration to... A whole lot of new software. While this will, of course, include the usual XenForo suspects like the Media Gallery and the Chat, there is another major add-on available that enables basically the user creation and management of private or public sub-forums.
This feature has several obvious benefits including serving as a way to add and edit personal notes and log entries to allowing users to make their own moderated sub-forums. (ALL SOCIAL GROUPS WILL STILL FALL UNDER THE SANCTUARY SEVEN DEADLY SINS.) Members can make their own impromptu wikis and this could even potentially be a better resource manager than Resource Manager, but that one's much more questionable. All in all, just a ton of possibilities both for site staff and for our users.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows though. The add-on also presents some potential problems.
1. More attack surface
As we add more functionality to Sanctuary, it will increase the area that is available for bad guys to breach. It must also be said as well that any major breach of Sanctuary would also mean a leak of all private social groups unless the groups themselves are individually encrypted. (Unlikely.)
2. May pull activity from the main sub-forums
It's a bit of a hassle to have to look not just in the forums anymore, but in the social groups section for information. Now, the XF search CAN pool the two together if you like, but if you're just browsing around, then you're out of luck. And also, those who want the main sub-forums to be as active as possible are probably not going to like social groups as a next-door neighbor.
3. Extra moderation load
More sub-forums means more things that need to be monitored. We already have the chat and a bazillion main sub-forums, and now (in the future) we're going to add moderation duties for the Media Gallery, Resource Manager, AND Social Groups? It's questionable, lads. It's really questionable.
4. It's more confusing for new members
Here, let's go into the mind of a new user when they see this site for the first time.
"Alright! We got the main sub-forums with one for every major subject. Very easy to understand. Oh, and there's a Media Gallery. Ok, makes sense. A special place to display media. And then there's the Resource Manager for... Huh? Oh, it's for downloads. I see. Then there's... Profile... Posts... Just status updates I guess, but wait, isn't there a chatbox? Why not post statuses there? Maybe because... Profile posts are archivable... Alright, I guess. Wait, there's social groups? So it's like the Media Gallery? No, it seems to be sub-forums... But we already have sub-forums!"
And on and on it goes. Now, I could be over-blowing this, and one could just rename "Social groups" to "User-made forums", and that would probably clear up a lot of the confusion right there. But all the same, I think it's something to consider.
This feature has several obvious benefits including serving as a way to add and edit personal notes and log entries to allowing users to make their own moderated sub-forums. (ALL SOCIAL GROUPS WILL STILL FALL UNDER THE SANCTUARY SEVEN DEADLY SINS.) Members can make their own impromptu wikis and this could even potentially be a better resource manager than Resource Manager, but that one's much more questionable. All in all, just a ton of possibilities both for site staff and for our users.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows though. The add-on also presents some potential problems.
1. More attack surface
As we add more functionality to Sanctuary, it will increase the area that is available for bad guys to breach. It must also be said as well that any major breach of Sanctuary would also mean a leak of all private social groups unless the groups themselves are individually encrypted. (Unlikely.)
2. May pull activity from the main sub-forums
It's a bit of a hassle to have to look not just in the forums anymore, but in the social groups section for information. Now, the XF search CAN pool the two together if you like, but if you're just browsing around, then you're out of luck. And also, those who want the main sub-forums to be as active as possible are probably not going to like social groups as a next-door neighbor.
3. Extra moderation load
More sub-forums means more things that need to be monitored. We already have the chat and a bazillion main sub-forums, and now (in the future) we're going to add moderation duties for the Media Gallery, Resource Manager, AND Social Groups? It's questionable, lads. It's really questionable.
4. It's more confusing for new members
Here, let's go into the mind of a new user when they see this site for the first time.
"Alright! We got the main sub-forums with one for every major subject. Very easy to understand. Oh, and there's a Media Gallery. Ok, makes sense. A special place to display media. And then there's the Resource Manager for... Huh? Oh, it's for downloads. I see. Then there's... Profile... Posts... Just status updates I guess, but wait, isn't there a chatbox? Why not post statuses there? Maybe because... Profile posts are archivable... Alright, I guess. Wait, there's social groups? So it's like the Media Gallery? No, it seems to be sub-forums... But we already have sub-forums!"
And on and on it goes. Now, I could be over-blowing this, and one could just rename "Social groups" to "User-made forums", and that would probably clear up a lot of the confusion right there. But all the same, I think it's something to consider.
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