[wp-docs] Leveraging the forum

[Owen Winkler]

Matt Mullenweg wrote:
> Like Craig and Podz have said, there's a lot of content flowing through 
> the forums. Ideally, every thread should be resolved with a pointer to 
> documentation, or new documentation being created. This is much more 
> difficult in practice than in theory.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 

A wishlist for documentation-forum interaction:

A mosquito-like handling of forum threads should occur.  Each new thread 
is an open issue.  Each post is a new note.  Documentation devs have 
access to set the status of a thread by inserting predefined docnotes 
("Documented at: codex.wp.org/SomePage" or "Needs documentation" or 
"Opened blank page at: codex.wp.org/SomePage" or "No docs required" or 
"Added issue to mosquito: mosquito.wp.org/...") as new posts.  Docnotes 
should stand out from normal content, and should all appear in one 
place, rather than throughout the thread.  A search result page should 
display threads with no docnotes and docnotes of a preset status ("Needs 
documentation").  Documentation devs get two posting forms - one for 
actual comments and one for docnotes.

Scope of Changes:  Add one field to the forum posts table for docnote 
status.  Add one field to the user table for documentation dev status 
(or use an existing moderator bitmask?).  Change the query to fetch 
thread posts so to omit docnote-marked posts.  Add display for docnotes 
at thread top (or sidebar) using altered post-fetching query.  Add form 
for posting docnotes with a preset condition dropdown and a data field 
that are concatenated on insert.  Add script for handling docnote 
posting.  Add search form and result page for docnote searching.

Lot of work?  Hmm, yeah.  There's probably a less-functional solution 
that's less work, but it's still going to be a job.

Owen