We can now create new topic on discourse via email. When you create a topic, you need to send a email to the email address that is corresponding to the category of your topic. For instance, if you want to create a topic in Fundamentals, you write an email/post normally using email and send it the email to replyiapctdiscourse+fundamentals@outlook.com
Should you want to try this function out, please send an email to replyiapctdiscourse+d_sandbox@outlook.com. You should be able to see it created under the subcategory “sandbox”, a few minutes after you send the email.
The format of email addresses are:
Category - replyiapctdiscourse+<category_name>@outlook.com
Subcategory - replyiapctdiscourse+<category_first_digit>_<subcategory_name_without_spaces>@outlook.com
Could we have a category “Archive” for repositories such as Dag’s CSGnet archive and for publications, working papers, commentary,etc that some member thinks worth archiving for long-term reference? Obviously they contributions must not violate copyright.
I was not thinking of archiving publications that are in the open literature. They can be served by links if they are open to public view, and would not need saving. I was thinking of significant working papers and other material that some member would like to be saved for posterity to contemplate. At one point, some CSGnet postings were being noted as significant and worth keeping, quite apart from the general collection of all CSGnet postings. I would archive them separately as duplicates distinct from Dag’s archive.
I don’t think “Archive” would confuse many people, especially if Dag’s material is “CSGnet Archive”, within the general Archive. But if I’m wrong, “Significant Material” might be another name. An administrative issue might be the provision of sufficient storage if many people want to save substantive documents or images and movies.
The storage and the computational power of discourse is the main concern here. The main purpose of discourse is to facilitate text-based discussions, although it allows uploading documents. I assume the IAPCT board has kept a record of such materials right? From a discourse admin perspective, I don’t think this is the right channel to save PCT materials other than links to them.
There are lots of ways to let other servers do the heavy lifting and only put topics with links on the Discourse server.
We can archive such documents on the iapct.org site and link to them from topics on DIscourse.
We have a PCT project on ResearchGate. We can post more documents there, and link to them from topics on DIscourse.
We could create a Dropbox account in the name of IAPCT, post documents there, and link to them from topics on DIscourse.
We could upload documents to the Google Drive account associated with iapctboard@gmail.com, or with a new IAPCT account, upload documents there, and link to them from topics on DIscourse.