Discussion Portfolio

I have played with discussion rubrics in the past and found it very tedious to count posts and comments then nit pick on mechanics, then check citations and name drops, then assign, grade, and track a weekly participation point grade.  To me, I have felt that discussion boards should be less formal and more organic and natural and by overly evaluating them, instructors could crush natural collaboration and communication.  Lately, I  have been using the Community of Inquiry framework for students to holistically self evaluate and peer evaluate each other on their overall and total participation throughout the course.  Recently, I have found a participation portfolio that seems interesting. For a link to the  presentation pdf on Educause see http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EDU07320D.pdf