[thelist] bulletin board for intranet?

[Bob Davis]

At 10:05 PM -0400 10/22/01, you wrote:


>Does anyone think that a bulletin board system similar to UBB would be
>useful on a corporate intranet?

Yes, but there are caveats...


>I thought it could be useful so that users could help each other out with
>the programs they use and offer tips to each other. They could also discuss
>topics relating to their health care programs and also discuss upcoming
>events within the company.

Yeah, that was the intention. However, it got abused.

People kind of forgot that they weren't on the "Internet", and that 
things weren't so anonymous any more. I had to make it moderated, log 
IP's and make it known that there were people watching and that you 
*could* get fired for saying inappropriate stuff on there - just like 
you could if you said it in person.


>I'm not sure if management would let such an open forum exist and there's
>the problem of the bulletin board devolving into some kind of flame board
>with people insulting each other.

It was permitted - but we had to make sure that there were no abuses, 
no inappropriate stuff, nothing management could be held culpable 
for. It was not so fun.  Creating all of the tracking stuff was kind 
of fun though.


>Does anybody have a bulletin board system where they work? Do you experience
>many problems and does it require a lot of maintenance?

;)

Maintenance was easy, but checking the posts, taking screen shots of 
the stupid stuff people posted and reporting it (I didn't ask to be 
the net police, but it became my job) before deleting it and sending 
mail...that was a drag.

bob

-- 
bob davis
bobd at members.evolt.org
http://www.bobdavis.org/