News & Blog needs to be more interactive

[inkybutton]

When I was drawing up my draft I thought the News and Blog part would be interactive, where people can leave comments. The current system which uses Jekyll to add and manage content is simple, but IMO it doesn't let users interact.

What I propose:

That News & Blog shows a list of mailing list threads - forum style. When the user clicks on a thread, a new page is shown with all the replies to the thread, and a link invites the user to reply to the thread.
This is feasible - when we have a mailing list (I think we should abandon the Nabble one), we can submit it for Gmane (gmane.org) to turn it into an RSS feed. This takes a bit of rewriting though...

I'll work on a prototype over the week to show what I mean.

Easier: use Disqus to add comment fields on posts. Can be done with minimal code changes.

[inkybutton]

@akiwiguy Disqus acts as a web bug, and tracks user activities. I would rather than users opt-in (e.g. like our Facebook page) than to make something that has questionable practices a compulsory part of the website.

tracks user activities

ahahah. your point being...?
the fact that we even have a Facebook page is worse. Disqus has nothing on that. Besides, you don't have to post with an account or anything ;_;

[inkybutton]

@akiwiguy cc @passcod Our Facebook page is something that people opt into. I stated clearly when I created the Facebook page that it is intended to reach people who are on Facebook, and wish to see what's happening there. People do not have to visit it to get information about what's going on in UALUG as the information is replicated in the mailing list and IRC, and our website does not have (and will not have) web bugs from Facebook. Thus, I thought that was a good compromise.
Disqus has similarly dubious privacy practices like Facebook does. By using it for comments, it means people are forced to use Disqus or not block it, in order to participate in community features, becausee the comments are not available otherwise. I personally block it through Ghostery. I believe a better comment system could be used.
FYI: http://www.ghostery.com/apps/disqus - tracks anonymous and pseudonymous data (i.e. can track individuals), shares with 3rd parties, unknown data retention policies.