Today I’m launching Sutton Chat, a new discussion forum for the borough. If you’re local, I hope you’ll take a look and join in. Don’t be put off by the silence — we’ve only just started.

It’s good to see that the amount of online discussion in the borough is increasing in quantity and to a degree, in quality. Several local bloggers have built up a good readership, produced great material and have hosted some worthwhile discussions. Bloggers: I’m right behind you. May you go from strength to strength.

What’s missing is a good neutral forum where anyone can raise a topic for discussion. Running a blog takes a fair bit of commitment. Sutton Chat aims to fill a gap and encourage more people to get involved with local issues online and hopefully in real life, too.

While Sutton Chat is politically and commercially independent, it’s designed intentionally to reflect my own ideas of how a site like this should work. Members must register using their real names. My aim here is to encourage people to be accountable for what they say and to enable people that know each other in real life to recognise each other and carry those relationships forward on the forums.

As an advocate of simple design, I’ve done my utmost to ensure that the site is clear and straightforward to use. Most of the usual cruft found on online forums like signatures, post counts and smileys is absent. The idea is to allow members to concentrate on pure discussion, making it both easier to read and to write.

Forums don’t run themselves. If you’re keen to debate the hot local issues and get to know more people in the area I hope to see you online soon at Sutton Chat.

bbPress comes from Automattic, the people that do the insanely popular WordPress (WP) blogging system. It’s the newest of the four systems reviewed here and hasn’t quite reached version 1.0.

bbPress asks:

Have you ever been frustrated with forum or bulletin board software that was slow, bloated and always got your server hacked?

and then promises to solve all those problems. It does a creditable job, too.

If you’re familiar with WP, bbPress won’t bring many surprises. The admin interface is very similar to WP’s, with a simple dashboard and tabs for managing users, forums, settings, themes, etc. Like all the other systems reviewed here, the visual design of bbPress can be customised using themes and its functionality can be extended with plugins. bbPress manages these in a similar way to WP, though you can’t use WP’s themes and plugins, naturally.

Basic administration is simple and unfussy. Adding a new forum takes nothing more than typing its name and clicking Add. Rearranging the order of forums on the home page is done with a lovely Ajax interface that allows you to drag your forums into the order you require, then click Save. Why should it ever be harder than this?

bbPress is designed to integrate neatly with a WP installation and thus provide forum features to a blog site. You can link a bbPress and WP system together to share a common set of users and enable single sign-on across the whole site. For the millions of WP users out there this may well be bbPress’s killer feature. For everyone else, it can safely be ignored. bbPress runs fine as a stand-alone system.

Another big win for bbPress is its use of Gravatars, a remotely-hosted system for managing user avatars (profile pictures) that can be accessed by any website. Users sign up to Gravatar and upload a photo to associate with their email address. After that, their photo will be displayed on any website that uses Gravatars. As it’s a free, open and very simple system to implement it’s widely seen, including in WP (and on the comments on this very blog). Like bbPress, Gravatar is also part of the Automattic family and it’s good to see common, generic functionality like avatars implemented through a universally accessible remote service rather than embedded into individual packages.

bbPress provides a good, clean default theme that is streets ahead of all the other systems reviewed here. In part it has the advantage of doing less and therefore having less administrative debris to clutter the screen and distract the user from the real content. Also, it mostly eschews the heavy boxes and grids designs of other systems in favour of something lighter and more restrained. While every system’s themes can be replaced and modified, the default theme sets the tone and expectations for the rest of the system. bbPress looks clean and contemporary out of the box, which is more than can be said for many others.

The interface for members is generally clean and sound but the post editor seems to lack common functionality like being able to post hotlinked images and quoting of other members’ posts. Bare URLs are converted to active links and you can use a handful of HTML tags to style your post: a, blockquote, code, em, strong, ul, ol, li. No BBCode here, which is a relief. I never did quite see the value in rewriting a wonky version of HTML with square brackets when properly sanitised HTML can do the job just as well. There’s no rich text editor and sadly no support for simplified markup systems like Markdown and Textile. Perhaps these will come before version 1.0. It may be possible to implement these via plugins.

While bbPress adopts a common forum structure as seen on all apps like this, it also emphasises the use of tags to categorise topics. I really don’t like this. Members should be concentrating on writing content, not organising it with metadata. While the tagging system can safely be ignored, the fact that it’s there means it will probably be used by many, adding to the user’s cognitive load when writing a new post and no doubt quite confusing inexperienced users. In my experience of popular sites that use tags such as Flickr and Delicious, many people still don’t really understand how to write tags well. Though they add value to sites whose primary reason is to help aggregate content from large numbers of users, the structure of forums is well understood and adequate. It’d be good to see tagging taken out of bbPress’s core and available as a plugin for those that want it. I suspect most won’t.

Overall, bbPress benefits from being a relatively new system and therefore being able to avoid the technical and functionality legacy issues that plague the older packages in this review. For WP users it’s a no-brainer. For everyone else, it’s definitely worth close investigation before you settle on a system for your new forum.

Version: 0.9.0.2

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Let’s hope version 1.0 can add on that extra star and that in three years’ time it isn’t a bloated 50-table behemoth.

I’ve been looking for some forum software to run a new site. The PHP world has a good choice of free/open source packages, many of which are very widely deployed. This is a brief review of four of the most popular systems. Despite having heard good things, I’ve avoided proprietary systems like vBulletin and IP.Board (formerly Invision Power Board). I’m certainly not going to pay just to review them.

First the good news. All the packages reviewed were easy to install. They all have a fairly neat automated installer with the exception of PunBB which is semi-automated. At the end of the process it gives you a file which you have to upload manually to the server. No big deal.

Thereafter, things go right downhill. Let’s look at some basic stats:

Here, “tables” is database tables. They’re a good indication of how bloated, or if you prefer, “powerful”, a system is. A basic forum system needs just four core tables: users, forums, topics, posts. Add onto that one more table for storing global configuration like the site name and you should be good to go.

“Files” is the number of files in the default installation package.

bbPress scores well here in keeping the bloat down, running its entire system in a parsimonious eight tables; at the other extreme, phpBB weighs in with an engorged 62. Behind these simple figures lies a sorry tale of phenomenal feature creep, atrocious usability and security nightmares.

Four reviews to follow:

• bbPress
• PunBB (in progress)
• Simple Machines Forum (in progress)
• phpBB (in progress)

Click on the image you want and use the All Sizes button above the photo on the Flickr page to download the appropriately-sized image for your desktop background. Resize to taste in your own software if required.

Enjoy.

John Pawson’s Sackler Crossing at Kew Gardens has won the 2008 Stephen Lawrence Prize for projects under £1 million. Prize judge Marco Goldschmeid praised the design, calling it “a masterly conjuring trick playfully deceiving the eye with light and water as its props. It is one of those rare designs where less truly is more”.

The bridge takes an intentionally low profile, giving its users the impression of walking on water. Its deck is made from bands of dark granite laid in parallel like railway sleepers. The balustrade is formed from close-set disconnected bronze cantilevers worked smooth at the top. These flat fins combined with the sinuous path of the bridge create differing optical effects depending on the position of the viewer, appearing in some parts as a solid wall, in others almost transparent. The materials are designed to age gracefully through the years as they take on a patina of use.

The Crossing dignifies its setting rather than dominates it, conveying a sense of harmony, calm and beautifully measured restraint that is sadly lacking from most of our contemporary culture, not just architecture. It is in sensitive settings like these that real design skill shines: Knowing when to stop, knowing how to add without taking away.

View the video on Pawson’s site

Mac fans have been working themselves into a predictable lather over yesterday’s new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Sitting at a comfortable distance with the detachment that comes from having been there and not being particularly keen to return, it all seems slightly odd. Of course, the new Macs are exactly what one would expect: glossy, gorgeous and stylishly pricey. Such is the Apple way. Yet despite their obvious charms, I’ve never been less tempted.

The reason? I’ve got a netbook and it’s by far the best computer I’ve ever owned. Before you dash off, this isn’t a Mac vs. PC thing but more of a smaller cheaper computer vs. a bigger much more expensive one thing. The Mac is a great system and to my mind is intrinsically no worse than Windows PCs and clearly better in some respects. If the Mac is your thing, you need neither my permission nor approval but by all means go ahead and enjoy yourself. Yet for me, the sheer personal-ness and versatility of a cheap, light 10 inch laptop is such a transformative experience that it’s hard to see how a bigger computer, no matter how slick and shiny, could compete. That includes bigger Windows laptops and desktops too, of course.

Size matters. When it comes to computers, a 15 inch or even a 13 inch machine is certainly portable but it’s not really mobile. These things work according to thresholds. For every extra unit of weight and size a computer gains it becomes an unbearable burden or even literally unusable in more situations. Too often the bigger machine is more trouble than it’s worth. It’s not until you have a computer that you can comfortably balance on one knee or carry open in one hand that you realise how handy it is to be able to do these things. You may not miss them if you can’t, but it’s a revelation when you can. Being able to squeeze into smaller spaces is never a disadvantage and sometimes a requirement to be able to work.

Price matters too. While some people are richer and less price-sensitive than others, it changes the way we think about computers when we can pick up a fully-functional laptop for less than £200. With portable computers depreciating so rapidly, so vulnerable to loss and damage and so expensive to repair, spending as little as possible on one is a fairly sound strategy. At these prices, upgrading every year seems neither excessively wasteful nor is prohibitively expensive. While you wouldn’t want to abuse your computer at any price, to lose a cheap netbook (as long as it’s backed up!) is more of a nuisance than a tragedy.

None of this would matter if the netbooks themselves were too small or too limited to be of general use. I’m pleased to say that for at least my model, the Advent 4211, everything needed for serious extended use is present and correct, including a very good sized and good quality screen and keyboard. While some of the smaller models have keyboards that are really only suitable for casual and brief use, the Advent is big enough to allow comfortable touch typing for reasonably long periods. Almost the only difference between netbooks and more conventional, bigger laptops is the usual lack of an optical drive. This is so rarely a problem when out as to be irrelevant and can of course be planned around by using USB flash drives and SD cards (most netbooks have a built-in card reader) if you really need removable media. At home or in the office, a network-shared DVD drive on another computer will handle most tasks or if you really want, an external USB DVD drive can be picked up for around £30. Otherwise, the built-in 80GB hard drive can hold whatever you might reasonably want to store.

What you won’t be able to glean from spec sheets or this discussion is the emotional impact of having a really small, really useful, go-anywhere machine. More than anything I’ve ever used they’re really personal computers in that they tend to go with you rather than you going to them. If you’re in the market for a new machine, try one out and borrow one for a while if you can. I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Carshalton and Wallington MP Tom Brake has been leading a tenacious and spirited campaign against Your High, a “head shop” in Wallington which sells pipes, bongs, rolling papers and all the various paraphernalia used to consume cannabis. Mr Brake is unhappy that there are currently no legal restrictions on selling such materials and has been working hard to encourage the relevant authorities to make some. His campaign has the support of many local residents. According to Mr Brake’s own account, over 100 people signed a petition to put a stop this sort of thing on just one Saturday morning while others were encouraged by local nominal liberals to gather to protest outside this entirely legal private business.

Cannabis is pretty unpleasant stuff. Some people it makes sad, others dull, and we are told that still others are made quite mad by it. I can’t recommend it. The law against cannabis itself, while probably unnecessary and ineffective, is at least no more ridiculous than many of the other arbitrary limitations on personal freedom which we endure.

Yet to seek a ban on the sale of “cannabis paraphernalia” is a whole different kettle of fish. I employ quotation marks here because the devices and supplies to which I refer are neither necessary for consuming cannabis nor exclusively useful for doing so. The most common adjuncts to cannabis consumption (so I’m told) are tobacco and rolling papers, both of which are freely and mostly uncontroversially sold by every respectable newsagent and supermarket in the country. Tesco supply more dope fiends in an hour than Your High’s proprietor could ever hope to in a year in his most brain-addled and resinous pipe dream. Yet never do we hear of campaigns against Tesco’s lucrative dope-enabling business or enjoy the opportunity to sign righteous petitions against it.

Petitions are curious things. While they are a useful tool for campaigners (and having organised a few of my own) I’m certain that the things themselves have absolutely no meaning. It would be a straightforward matter to gain a substantial number of signatures in Wallington High Street of a morning demanding Mr Brake’s immediate removal from office, or conversely pledges of support for his continuation. A petition to call for people to be allowed to smoke cannabis in the privacy of their own homes and be left entirely alone could easily attract significant support in a short period of time, there being roughly as many Brits who believe other people’s business is their own as those that don’t. The numbers count for little either way.

So it’s pretty clear that the real problem with Your High isn’t that it helps people to smoke cannabis. In as much as it may do, it’s a mere amateur against the real pros in the big retailers and tobacco companies.

Perhaps the problem is that it encourages people to smoke cannabis that might otherwise not have contemplated the matter. Is this small shop with its jaunty green leaf insignia a siren call to the suburban stoner lifestyle? Might the doughty and otherwise blameless citizens of Wallington on passing its portals one time too many be tipped into packing in their sober habits for something a little more turned on, tuned in and dropped out? Are children particularly susceptible to its dubious countercultural charms?

Sadly, neither you nor I nor Mr Brake have any idea. Perhaps a survey would illuminate matters.

Q. Does this shop which we’re standing outside, “Your High”, make you:

1. Much more likely to use cannabis?
2. Somewhat more likely to use cannabis?
3. Neither more nor less likely to use cannabis?
4. Somewhat less likely to use cannabis?
5. Much less likely to use cannabis?

If the full weight of the law is to be brought upon people running “head shops”, it seems only proper to attempt to define and where possible quantify the harm they supposedly cause. Where children are suspected to be potential or actual victims, suitable similar research could be conducted in nearby schools, where apparently 95% of parents are in favour of action against Your High. If there is a case that these shops lure the vulnerable and unwary into the clutches of the pungent leaf, it has yet to be made.

The real problem with Your High isn’t that it helps people to smoke cannabis or encourages them to do so. The problem is that it’s tacky, tawdry, provocative and calculatedly effective in pricking suburban sensibilities. It’s out of place and in highly bad taste, like farting loudly and proudly in church. Similar shops in more urban areas operate without a hint of fuss, their neighbours being far too busy earning themselves a living while often dodging the more crazed and deadly effects of the sharper end of the illicit drugs trade. Your High raises hackles not because it has made Wallington a magnet for drug-fuelled anarchy (it hasn’t). Despite the worst fears and predictions, there hasn’t been an outbreak of reefer madness among the local youth. I doubt many local people are even particularly bothered that some of their neighbours smoke cannabis in a private and entirely innocuous way. They just don’t want it in their faces and would rather use the law to punish those who revolt them than endure such an unpleasant sight. The longer this shop remains, the weaker the case for outlawing it appears.

As all we hold dear looks increasingly precarious in the face of seemingly impending economic and environmental collapse, it’s a great pity that our political representatives have chosen to spend so much of their time railing against minor offences to the spirit rather than the major threats to our lives, limbs and property. If there’s one thing I find in particularly bad taste it’s laws against bad taste.