[Using Sakai] A handful of improvements to Forums to improve notification, readability, organization, and creation

[Keli Sato Amann]

Hello,
   Although MSGCNTR 3.0 is not out, I thought it might be worthwhile to mention some local work we are doing in Forums that we hope will make it to 3.1. The following is a list of improvements we've  made locally or are seriously considering taking on that we'd love to contribute. If people are interested in seeing these in a future release, can you vote  or comment on them in JIRA, as interest will affect whether they are developed and included in a future release?

IMPROVE NOTIFICATION OF NEW ACTIVITY (on home page and by email)

-Improve way users are alerted to unread messages on log in (short term--fix appearance of synoptic tool) (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-614)

-Subject line to display subject of post instead of generic message (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-619)

-Provide a link in the email notification message that goes directly to the thread instead of the top level of Forums (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-618)

STREAMLINE READABILITY OF HOMEPAGE
-Consolidate new message indicators for a topic within a forum (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-616)

-Hide actions for Forum topics until hover over it (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-617)

-Collapsed or condensed view of Forums homepage that hides topics (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-586)

STREAMLINE CREATION OF NEW FORUMS OR TOPICS
- Allow user to easily create New Forum and Topic and associate a gradebook item without scrolling (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-615)

ABILITY TO MOVE A THREAD TO A DIFFERENT TOPIC
-Allow user to move off-topic discussion(s) into a more appropriate topic or a discussion(s) created under the wrong topic into the correct one (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-241)

RANKS
-Allow instructional staff to identify site members by special rank  (e.g., by role) or by post count (https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/MSGCNTR-620)

Best,
Keli Amann (on behalf of the team here that worked on these: Jackie, Jing, Karen, and Lydia)
User Experience Specialist
Academic Computing Services, Stanford University