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Contributor andruk on ubuntuforums.org

ubuntuforums.org may look unofficial for certain users  
Written by wolterh the 27 Jan 09 at 05:58. Already implemented
Being the forums site away from the ubuntu.com server, people might get the wrong idea that it is not an official forum. Also, it looks disorganized that some sites like this one, brainstorm.ubuntu.com are hosted as branches of the ubuntu.com site, and others, like the forums already mentioned, are hosted separatedly.

Now, I know that if you browse for http://forums.ubuntu.com/ you will probably get redirected to ubuntuforums.org, but it is not the same thing.
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Solution #1: Move ubuntuforums.org to forums.ubuntu.com on an 100% basis
Written by wolterh the 27 Jan 09 at 05:58.
The feel of ubuntu would look cleaner. Besides, is it that hard a thing to do?

Imagine if brainstorm.ubuntu.com was hosted as ubuntubrainstorm.com ... Which do you prefer? I prefer brainstorm.ubuntu.com. It gives me a feeling that it is official. It gives me the feeling that ubuntu is an organized OS and that I will find whatever I need at ubuntu.com, by being linked to either the forums section, the brainstorm section, or any other branch I need. Maybe even an irc.ubuntu.com could be made to provide users the excellence of service that the irc channel provides on the comfort of their internet browser.
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Solution #2: Direct subdomains of Ubuntu to official websites
Written by andruk the 27 Jan 09 at 08:56.
(Copied from my comment below:)
Direct forums.ubuntu.com, forum.ubuntu.com, help.ubuntu.com, etc. to ubuntuforums.org. That way people can still access ubuntuforums.org via its domain, and converts can access a better domain name (imho). I would also try to get an optional single sign-on going for all of the official websites.

I would also have irc.ubuntu.com be a web-based IRC client that connects to #ubuntu on freenode. Include the links to the support websites (including the wiki) on the default home page for Firefox.

See the 12 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 9 Jul 11 at 15:52) >>

Improve accessibility of Ubuntu Forums   forum
Written by srippon the 7 Jun 09 at 05:01. New
What level of accessibility does the Ubuntu Forum have?
Is it difficult/impossible for users with a disability to actively participate in the forum?
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Solution #1: Perform WCAG2.0 check on Ubuntu Forum pages
Written by srippon the 7 Jun 09 at 05:01.
The W3C has a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The WAI publishes a set of guidelines called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG2.0). These guidelines contain information on how to create web sites/applications that can be accessed by people with disabilities. Pages that don't pass certain guidelines maybe totally inaccessible to certain users. Besides being a very big equality issue in many countries there is policy/legislation which make it against the law to produce/publish inaccessible content.

Perform a compliance check of the Ubuntu Forum against WCAG2.0. Start with just checking compliance against the level A Success Criteria. Once compliance with that level is achieved investigate evaluating and passing level AA and AAA.
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Solution #2: Perform usability test with users with a disability
Written by srippon the 7 Jun 09 at 05:02.
Ensuring that a web site complies with the W3C WCAG2.0 guidelines is very important but it should just be the start. Just like it is with the various interface design guidelines/heuristics (eg Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics) it is possible to follow these guidelines and create a site/application which has poor usability (ISO 9241-11: extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use). This is why usability testing ( http://www.usability.gov/refine/learnusa.html |http://deyalexander.com.au/resources/uxd/usability-testing.html ) with real users is strongly recommended to ensure good usability.

A usability test of the Ubuntu Forums should be performed with different users who have disabilities.

The Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design online book by Shawn Henry is a fantastic resource on User Centred Design (UCD) and accessibility.
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Solution #3: Provide an NNTP interface
Written by OscarFoxtrot the 24 Jun 09 at 14:31.
Provide an NNTP interface so that users can use their own choice of newsreader to follow discussions, mark posts and threads as read/unread/ etc.

There are established means of providing authentication and moderation on Usenet and these could be used too.

This would also greatly facilitate offline reading.

See the 2 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 7 Jun 09 at 22:10) >>