[Bldg-sim] [Equest-users] Should onebuilding.org mailing lists transition to Discourse?

Matt Steen msteen at ambient-e.com
Tue Dec 8 13:32:38 PST 2020 

And here’s the search on a Discourse forum, which looks more flexible than Unmet Hours.

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From: Matt Steen
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2020 2:28 PM
To: David Eldridge <dancingdavide at hotmail.com>; Nicholas Caton <Nicholas.Caton at se.com>
Cc: Jason Glazer <jglazer at gard.com>; bldg-sim at onebuilding.org; equest-users at onebuilding.org
Subject: RE: [Bldg-sim] [Equest-users] Should onebuilding.org mailing lists transition to Discourse?

David,

One point about Unmet Hours to make is that you can subscribe to specific tags so you get emails when questions are posted. You can also subscribe to a specific question to get notifications when it’s answered. I assume that Discourse has the same feature since it uses tags as well. For example, you could subscribe to `equest` or `openstudio-measures` tags to get notifications.

Jason – I’ll reiterate my support for the move to a web-based platform…preferably free and open source for everyone.

From: David Eldridge <dancingdavide at hotmail.com<mailto:dancingdavide at hotmail.com>>
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2020 6:51 AM
To: Nicholas Caton <Nicholas.Caton at se.com<mailto:Nicholas.Caton at se.com>>
Cc: Jason Glazer <jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com>>; bldg-sim at onebuilding.org<mailto:bldg-sim at onebuilding.org>; equest-users at onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at onebuilding.org>
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] [Equest-users] Should onebuilding.org mailing lists transition to Discourse?

Having the messages pushed to me is important, it’s hard to prioritize going to a message board like Unmet Hours which I do support but which I’m pretty busy to think “oh, I’ll pop over there and see what hasn’t been answered yet” as opposed to having the messages come to my inbox and catch my attention.

DSE Mobile

On Dec 8, 2020, at 2:34 AM, Nicholas Caton via Bldg-sim <bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org>> wrote:

I would be happy to throw my full support into a transition, particularly if as you are describing there are plans to tie/pull communities together.  I’m encouraged by the recognition of other platforms/communities and the statement of what makes (or can make) the onebuilding community distinct.

For further guidance, I would offer the following as qualities that have kept me active/busy here:

  *   The form/format is not super rigidly moderated or restricted.  We can talk about feelings, vent and commiserate on stresses and difficulties with reviewers, kick off silly holiday-themed modeling and pun threads… those aren’t nearly common enough honestly.
  *   We can attach images/files with penultimate ease to clarify or illustrate a point.
  *   I can write LOOOOOONG messages without worrying about a character limit (this may be enabling a vice for me… but people seem to appreciate it)
  *   The archive… man the archive!  I very much hope that whether it is with discourse or some other platform, you can find a way to transpose that resource in (ideally with formatting/attachments/photos intact – let me know if my personal record can help).  The searchable record of threads for equest-users and bldg-sim are together a resource that really should be linked or directly searchable from the Help menu of every simulation platform, IMHO.
  *   This community has proven receptive to socializing/networking with each other when the rare opportunity arises at something like an energy conference.  I think the “job board” function of the mailing lists is an important one to preserve, but might also be expanded a bit to mimic features like the IPBSA member map (allowing members to place a map pin to find each other spatially) and to identify/encourage opportunities for meetings/trainings/conferences etc (something like an “event board” and/or calendar)?

Just a couple thoughts.

~Nick

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Nick Caton, P.E. (US), BEMP
ニック ケートン, P.E. (US), BEMP
Senior Energy Engineer
Energy Manager, Yokota Airbase
ESS - Energy & Sustainability Services
M JP
M US
Email
+81 . 070 . 3366 . 3317
+1   . 785 .  410  . 3317
nicholas.caton at se.com<mailto:nicholas.caton at se.com>
シニアエネルギーエンジニア
横田基地エネルギーマネージャー
ESS - エナジー持続可能性サービス

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From: Equest-users <equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>> On Behalf Of Jason Glazer via Equest-users
Sent: Friday, December 4, 2020 3:45 AM
To: bldg-sim at onebuilding.org<mailto:bldg-sim at onebuilding.org>; equest-users at onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at onebuilding.org>
Subject: [Equest-users] Should onebuilding.org mailing lists transition to Discourse?


[External email: Use caution with links and attachments]

________________________________



BLDG-SIM and eQUEST-users

Sorry for the cross posting but this is a "meta" issue that I would like feedback on.

As you may know, I've been running the BLDG-SIM for over 20 years and eQUEST-users for 12 years as well as other mailing lists on onebuilding.org<https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonebuilding.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbb9de1983bf74f8a557608d89b5411da%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430132662077559%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=tUxyR8Yt7WRoQe%2BzqWLDW2ROfb2cGcfb9aLgRmU%2B1DA%3D&reserved=0>. While the number of modelers has greatly increased over the years, the community that participates in these mailing lists has not. I believe part of that reason is that mailing lists are not very attractive to younger modelers. I would like to revitalize the sense of community that I have always seen in modelers by changing BLDG-SIM and eQUEST-users as well as some of the other onebuilding.org mailing lists to a web and phone enabled forum called Discourse:

https://www.discourse.org/<https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.discourse.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbb9de1983bf74f8a557608d89b5411da%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430132662077559%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=qxWUPJJQofaJO%2FbIxfYbENAcD0J98nuNaqBa18dbrmo%3D&reserved=0>

One nice thing about this type of forum is that for those used to a mailing list, they can continue interacting just like a mailing list but those more comfortable using a web-based or phone-based forum can participate also.
Example of the web/phone interface can be seen at:

   https://meta.discourse.org/<https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmeta.discourse.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbb9de1983bf74f8a557608d89b5411da%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430132662087553%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=ug7WB0R3qjZIFy%2BuTuqIGj8SrNH7Q76cM7Lq3LQLxi0%3D&reserved=0>

   https://forum.golangbridge.org/<https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.golangbridge.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbb9de1983bf74f8a557608d89b5411da%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430132662087553%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=8zoWz4lwnxfDsnMiBCnk8LgnvH1dCOi%2BMDD26mnpXfM%3D&reserved=0>

   https://discourse.julialang.org/<https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscourse.julialang.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbb9de1983bf74f8a557608d89b5411da%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430132662097548%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=XBxbPlDkuycROFoMbrvna5AYQQIQueHwhmWHphCq6q8%3D&reserved=0>

   https://discuss.atom.io/<https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscuss.atom.io%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cbb9de1983bf74f8a557608d89b5411da%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430132662107541%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=kYit6T1fDIBsW%2BHzS%2F5NdPDpBdvhVGXSZNmb0thTq3g%3D&reserved=0>

I'm thinking it would be a single Discourse forum but with categories that correspond to the existing mailing lists and perhaps some other categories. It would probably live at:

    forum.onebuilding.org

or something like that.

The reason I'm bringing this up today is that I also help manage the energyplus_support list hosted on Yahoo and on December 15, Yahoo is going to shut down all of its mailing lists and one of the transition options would be the same Discourse forum.

I know that unmethours.com has become a valuable resource to the community for questions and answers but I believe that a forum for discussion and announcements will continue to be important. Announcements for jobs, training, events, etc.. as well as discussion that does not fit in the question and answer format continue to occur.

Please let me know what you think and if you think that BLDG-SIM and eQUEST-users as well as the other public mailing lists on onebuilding.org should transition to a Discourse forum.

Thanks

Jason



--

Jason Glazer, P.E., BEMP, GARD Analytics, 90.1 ECB chair

Admin for onebuilding.org building performance mailing lists

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