New forum software?

Originally Posted by jeremy As I've noted previously, LQ will be getting a code update in the near future. The platform can be viewed here: http://www.chromeosquestions.org/forum.php

Hi Jeremy...

If it's ok to ask, is there an important reason why this is necessary, like increased security or features? Personally, I find the current "look and feel" of the forum preferable to what I see at chromeosquestions.org.

Regards...

Originally Posted by ardvark71 Hi Jeremy... If it's ok to ask, is there an important reason why this is necessary, like increased security or features? Personally, I find the current "look and feel" of the forum preferable to what I see at chromeosquestions.org.

I've covered this in-depth in a few previous posts.

--jeremy

Originally Posted by ardvark71 If it's ok to ask, is there an important reason why this is necessary, like increased security or features?

A much faster search, based on the Sphinx text search engine, was one reason IIRC.

Originally Posted by jeremy I've covered this in-depth in a few previous posts.

I may not have seen these posts because I don't remember them.

@dugan: Thank you.

Regards...

The main reason I don't like this is that the threads go on and on and then later someone will point you to one of those threads when you bring up a similar topic. But there're too long to digest in any reasonable amount of time. So it becomes less useful.

And those long threads meander and twist around so there's too much noise. Not sure if it's Discourse but one of them I noticed expires the thread and then locks it. At first I thought that was a bad idea but I think that's better in the long run.

Originally Posted by Rinndalir Not sure if it's Discourse but one of them I noticed expires the thread and then locks it. At first I thought that was a bad idea but I think that's better in the long run.

That's not unique to Discourse.

A *lot* of people have asked, over the years, for threads to be automatically locked after a certain period of inactivity. Every time it was brought up, the answer was no.

This is the AFAIK the second last time before this one:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ds-4175526241/

Personally, I'm one of the ones who say no.

I voted Yes, use discourse. The reason is that I have had a chance to post and view at forums using it. At first I really did not like it but now that I have become more used to the look/feel it's ok.

I think a threaded message model is the best way to follow a conversation like newsreaders.

Maybe this forums' software is configurable that way I'm not sure but the default is not.

Also I have no knowledge of how the discourse software is to manage/admin. Maybe it's good, maybe not.

I do not know how Discourse came to be seen as proper forum software rather than the social network fluff it was designed to be. I and at least two others I know have left/are leaving Manjaro because Linux is also about participating in the community -- and I for one, having seen Discourse, will not even set up an account on the new forum.

One criticism -- other than the stupid Facebook "likes" permitted -- is that, at least in the Manjaro implementation, you do not see what systems the posters are running -- something which allows one to simply refer to that information in the post, among other things.

I invite folks to compare the current Manjaro (English) forum, the "classic version" (both accessible from the Manjaro home page) and LQ. The best I can say for the first is that it is relatively compact while the "classic" Manjaro forum wastes a good deal of space. In my opinion LQ's forum is the best, whatever you may think of the somewhat retro, squared-off look.

I am doing just a bit of informal QA of a beta of what was my main distro before Manjaro, then I take the plunge into Arch itself. Manjaro has a great team and I am sad to go, but Discourse is a real insult to its users.

Originally Posted by aguador I do not know how Discourse came to be seen as proper forum software rather than the social network fluff it was designed to be.

I have not used nor intend to use any of the social network part of discourse. I really use it mostly as a reference. Is the social network stuff the only thing you don't like about discourse?

I actually like using a simple threaded front-end to a maillist/newsgroup like http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&r=1&w=2

No frills, can view many subjects in one page and can follow the conversation quickly and easily.

Maybe in some ways Discourse is simpler. Maybe discourse is easier to manage and that right there could be
a big difference. No one wants to take time to deal with forum software.

I and at least two others I know have left/are leaving Manjaro because Linux is also about participating in the community -- and I for one, having seen Discourse, will not even set up an account on the new forum.

I don't understand, are you leaving because they switched to Discourse forum software? So you will switch to arch because of the forum software?

And are you a user of manjaro or a contributor?

If I can't log in with Dillo Browser. Oh well. Time to move on then.

Originally Posted by rokytnji If I can't log in with Dillo Browser

Haha, much of the internet doesn't work using dillo. But maybe your dillo isn't configured with ssl or maybe you're just doing a drive-by.

Haha, much of the internet doesn't work using dillo.

But this forum does.

Edit: as far as the drive by statement. My join date vs yours ought to clear that up.

Originally Posted by rokytnji But this forum does.

Just tried a discourse forum and dillo works fine there. Actually makes it look better and more compact.
So thanks for that tip. I'm really not a big fan of discourse at all.

My join date vs yours ought to clear that up.

I do not understand a word of what you said there.

I do not understand a word of what you said there.

OKey DOkey THen.

I don't understand, are you leaving because they switched to Discourse forum software? So you will switch to arch because of the forum software? And are you a user of manjaro or a contributor?

It may seem trivial, but, yes, I am moving on because of the change in the forum. In PMs with a couple of others it has been labelled "silly" (at best) and we agree that the software changes the tenor of many of the discussions.

I am not a team member, but I have done some minor fixing of themes, contributed in a small way to the wiki and responded to others when they needed help and I could offer it. So, in short, I am not essential to the distro by any means -- and it has a good enough team and sound enough "product" that I expect it will continue to flourish. However, the point I was trying to make is that using Linux is, for me and I think others (perhaps Frank Bell here who has helped me and many others), an experience that motivates us to want to contribute in whatever small ways we can. Most of the distros out there are community efforts and using them evokes our natural tendency to reciprocate. If the primary method of mutual help is cut off, even inadvertently, so is the natural path for reciprocating or giving back.

In the case of a rolling release, giving feedback on updates and helping solve little glitches as they come up is part of the process. When the tenor of the communication channels changes and feels trivialized, the reaction is to withdraw in some way. Furthermore, the first day that Discourse was introduced, I spent some time exploring Arch directly and, while I think the installation process is perhaps a bit too "pure" (to put it nicely), I also respect the KISS principles and the fact that I will be learning more, which may even allow me to be of more help to others in the community.

I am no important contributor nor an expert user, and I may just be getting old and cranky. However, I do believe that Linux is about community and when one no longer feels at home in a community, it is time to move on. The format of Discourse has added a trivializing tone to the forum -- and sparked strong reactions. Most have stayed with the distro and some actually like the new forum. Recently I have turned to giving feedback on the beta of another distro I respect -- and then will turn to replacing Manjaro on my two workhorse machines.

(As an aside, it did not help in the case of Manjaro that Discourse was implemented without discussion or warning after an SSL certificate expired. So there was zero input from the community in advance.)