eWeb - Usable e-mail
list archives on the web, future equitable discussion platform
DRAFT PROJECT REQUIREMENT SCRIBBLES
eWeb Requirements
Steve Peterson and Steve Clift sat down and
started work on a detailed technical requirements document. Below
are Steve Clift's suggested edits. Requirements need to be broken
down into eWeb Phase 1, eWeb 2 Phase 2, and suggestions to those developing
Mailman or for Mailman patches.
Last updated November 18, 2002 by Steve Peterson
# Short description Notes
1 Read email from POP mailbox with user configurable
polling schedule
2 Put raw messages in a relational database Do
we want the messages themselves in a database or in text files?
3 View messages on web -- one message per page
4 View messages on web -- one thread per page
5 View message index by date
6 View message index by subject
7 View message index by author
8 Multiple message stores per server
9 Basic keyword search through messages Lucene?
10 Cross list search
11 Advanced search Search over range of dates.
12 User profiles It's what all of the user's preferences
are hooked to
13 Set retention period for messages in days
14 Set administrator email / name / password for
feedback on list Should be per-list option
15 More than one adminstrator per list? Not sure
it's needed
15 Administrator of more than one list
16 Link from pages to the lists's "site" Should
be both a label and the underlying URL. Offer an option to put the "originating
message" on the URL? Could get the same thing by analyzing the referrer
17 Scalability Would like to be able to handle
many lists with lots-o-messages
18 Show dates in user's time zone
19 Select time zone to show dates in when there
is not a preference to override it
20 Custom HTML in various places Need to ID where
this would be useful. wixList has header, footer, list info
21 Process HTML in messages Strip it out completely
or try to keep some of it around?
22 Quoted-printable processing
23 Logging
24 Attachments Keep them? Ditch them?
25 Maximum message base size
26 Maximum size per-message
27 Generate RSS feed from message base Do this
on-request, caching it. Have a settable frequency for regeneration. Keep
track of whether messages arrive to make sure that you only regen when
needed.
Steve Clift: This site "collapses" the threads,
obviously this is a bit messy
because the message/thread IDs (whatever they
are) get changed by
people:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Browse/Collapsed/xml-dev/
I'd syndicate the collapsed threads to have higher
variety.
Here is some info:
http://www.mail-archive.com/faq.html#RDF
Example: http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@t.../maillist.rdf
(save as text on IE, netscape loads as text file)
http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/mhonarc/1999-10/msg00072.html
28 Save a search with a profile & get email
when a new message arrives that matches the search term
29 Must provide a view into the message base that
is
indexable by external search engines
30 Recent messages view
31 CSS based formatting to allow for stylistic
flexibility; per-list CSS?
32 Get rid of quoting when possible
33 Statistics and graphs This needs to be expanded
34 Hot topics
35 List posting
36 Email poster
37 Rethread messages Thread IDs don't always work,
see if there are heuristic approaches to doing this better
38 Share email with friend
39 More fully featured digests, maybe full text,
topic only, excerpted
49 Placeholder for message display stylistic requirements
www.phorum.org, geocrawler.com, yahoo groups, communitybuilder,
http://www.amxfiles.com/wixlist/index.html
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mhonarc&r=1&b=200208&w=2
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Browse/Threaded/xml-dev
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Leaders/xml-dev/
http://www.publicus.net/emfa-event/9805/
http://eyebrowse.tigris.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=users
50 Profile viewer A la
http://e-democracy.org/members/
51 Any special list software integrations?
52 SMTP server Cut the POP3 mailbox out of the
loop, subscribe directly. Posts appear faster in list.
53 Mailman integration
Steve Clift's suggested edits/additions
Here are my edit/additions that haven't made it
into that draft:
In requirements sheet (above):
5-7 View Message notes:
Range variable - week, month, year
Popularity - web archive hits, "good post" eclicks
Thread posts in linear fashion w/extra >'s cut
out, grey italics
previous text
11 Advanced search - map kazoom?, related posts
(auto links next to
post displays?)
default views, css skins
Stats
lines
> lines
Replies = R
Excitement = Time Between Replies
Momentum = R/Days
Summarizer - like journalism news site, google
news?
Link to related Google search - based on subject?,
descriptive
keywords with list geography term
16 - link from pages - grab index page title, cache
page/file -
w/size limits
18 - show date in user time zone - no - default
display the elists
time zone
23 - logging - create simple link out urls (replace
links in sent e-
mail with urls unique to list - create AXS-like
link out stats - Most
Followed Post Links - test links for spaces, if
error combine lines,
erase spaces
24 - default - ditch attachments, remove HTML
27 - RSS
Put on to your site code option
- Recent Posts - Today
Subject line four words ...
Subject line four words 2 ...
x
y
- Top Topics This Week
Subject line four words ...
(based on reply volume)
Additional items:
Topic/Word Trends
Top Cited URLs
Eclicks - things you can click in the body of e-mail
to express a
preference
Forward to friend - mail/thread eclick -> from
site send URL and
Subject or Full Text
Recommend Forum to Friend
Color Posts in archive based on ranking??
Heuristics - flame/spam
All e-mail poll feature w/web and e-mail results
Cross-posting analysis - show where else a post
has been sent if
archiving multiple lists
Backup features
Post from/by location/zip code/city
Map posts/posters
Posts per capita - hmmm use census data
Posting averages - # recepients
- display historical reach - e-mail XXX, web views
XX, eretreived X
Altavista babelfish integration/other translation
link
Spam harvest defense
Reply via web to list/author
- within time date/range
- per list option
- login required/not required - moderation option
URL checker - deactivate dead out links
All e-mail settings - send commands one at a time
or [X] text files
returns with e-mail "ok" confirm
What's New - automatic stuff based on archive activity
Altavist Babelfish/other translation tool link
integration
Spam harvest defense
Reply via web to list/author/manager
- per list option
- logged in/not logged in option
- moderation option
Error links deactive linkouts from archive
URLs to any output shorter than 70 characters and
intuitive
URLs to search queries linkable like Google
Cross site - What' hot w/collapsed threads for
public lists
Fresh Faces - ID first/first five posts from any
address
Banner ad rotation - perhaps cross list promotion
service window
Member directory
Mnforum.org/member/clift@publicus.net
Or /dir/
Login link to update/add optional info to member
page - perhaps allow
e-verification w/o password? Possible listings:
Member level, donor
status? Status indicator - warnings, suspended
First post, recent
post, Total number of posts per list
List Enhancements
E-Confirms
- allow full subscribing/feature trweaking via
e-mail
- Reply "OK" should work
Allow # posts per member per X hours/one day period
to be limited
Allow total # posts per extended period of days
- result two a day,
but only seven total in a week
Excess quoting return to poster/strip option for
quoting at end of
post
Insert archive URL in the top
Insert archive URL for archived replies in bottom
of each post
Insert members page URL
Insert unique to post and receipent web/e-mail
ranking link in
message footer:
+1 substance (allow variable terms)
-1 style
up to six ranking items
Anonymous yes/no option per list
Alternative Rate url with web based rating options
Archive Side bar
- related posts based perhaps on frequent unique
keyword from subject
and body? - Join - encouraged everywhere
Attachment options - scan virsus, keep in archive,
strip
Legal liability - ability to universally remove
anyone persons posts -
option
"Freenet" anonymous protection options for non-e-democracy
uses
Auto e-mail from list to archive
- weekly subject highlights
- stats, hot threads, viewed posts on the web
- # posters, poster diversity stats
- auto-highlight option from other lists
Momentum alerts
Bursts - speed of replies X level
Stars - threads with extended length
Leaders - Posters starting threads with most bursts,
stars, total
thread length, poster diversity
Header preservation tools - reconnecting message
IDs
Multiple/same IP tracking/blocking
(can't recall what I mean here)
Robot/spambot issues
List nomination database - allow people to select
topics for future
list, reserve their spot
Get comments from do-code - Landfield/Hutsinger
on "Objects" mini-
aps comments
Cascading style sheets, ssi options
Skins/templates - define sections of archive pages
- NO FRAMES EVER
All e-mail request processing - design for low
bandwidth options
Login to post via web - uniform password with all
Mailman lists
All/multiple public lists by date
Date by subject
Forward thread url
Content analysis options - hooks to social science
content analysis
tools, perhaps allow them to be used to present
views of archive
content
Dmoz/Zeal appropriate section nominator
Multi-lingual
All web based admin, no shell access required
News summary features - academic sites, Google
News
Notes from meeting what kind of behavior changes
are we looking for -
means - measures
E-mail material
- haven't post in a while reminder
- boy you post a lot
- surveys
- etc.
