The Future of the Forum

[kithrup]

I'm just a plain old (emphasis on old lol) desktop user beginning with Dapper. No way would I have stuck around this long--currently on 22.04.4 LTS--without the kind, helpful people in these forums. Thanks all. I'd mention declining membership issue through my lens of limited experience: everything is just working, hence no need to resort to any forum for assistance. Nonetheless I'd be devastated to see this resource wither on the vine. Would definitely contribute financially if that became a viable option. Perhaps a subscription model or suchlike?

[easydawg]

Yes I just moved from Mint to Ubuntu Studio and am very happy with the refreshing change it has but it does direct you to AskUbuntu and maybe because I'm not a developer type or something it just seems messy to put a post together there.

This looks just like the Mint Forum, user friendly.

Maybe choose the latest and greatest new platform and as mentioned above and just freeze this one in place for all the content that is already here. To migrate it I imagine would take the "Hand of God".

UPDATE:

I had one question posted at AskUbuntu that was not a real deep issue but the only reply I got was from a Grammar/Code Nazi and it was so unbelievable I deleted the post and my profile.

I was going to post a screenshot but unable here without a url. My post was red highlighted with text lined out and the words lined out were critical to my post.

If I had to put the same post here it would be identical. I don't post incoherent questions.

I love this format we have right here.

[sgt-mike]

Although I have already put my 2 cents into the discussion earlier. I'd like to add that I actually do more reading on here before posting most of the time. Maybe I should have been posting more? It just felt like the beating a dead horse, once I had already found the solution.
Beside I need you folks to help with my home lab stuff all of you have been great, and I know so little LOL

[Paddy Landau]

I know that I'm a bit late to this conversation, but right now, there are over 62,000 users online on this forum. Membership might have declined, but it's nowhere near dead.

A ton of people go to Reddit's r/Ubuntu, and are unaware of Ubuntu Forums and of Ask Ubuntu. Unfortunately, the quality of help on r/Ubuntu is mostly (not always) far from the quality that I find here on this forum.

Ask Ubuntu is suitable for some types of questions, but my preference is nearly always this forum or, sometimes, Reddit, because Ask Ubuntu doesn't allow extended discussions.

I wouldn't support Discourse. Personally, I find it difficult to navigate.

We need to have arguments in place in case the Community Council takes the easy option of retiring the forum and simply directing users to AskUbuntu.

It's simple.

• Nowhere is there a support forum with the quality of Ubuntu Forum. That's down to two things: Firm and outstanding moderation, and extensive knowledge.
• Ask Ubuntu doesn't fit the bill, because it precludes extended discussions.
• Nor does Reddit fit the bill, because the overall quality is lower (not to mention the incessant anti-snap, anti-Canonical and anti-Ubuntu carping on that subreddit).
• Ubuntu Forums has a level of welcoming friendliness that few other places have. Newcomers to Ubuntu who come here end up being ardent supporters, which only increases Canonical's visibility in the workplace.

Someone can check this, but I have been surprised that this forum is not mentioned as a place to get help when someone installs Ubuntu. Instead, the installer mentions Ask Ubuntu as a place to get help. New users could be steered here if the Ubuntu Forum at least got a mention.

Both are mentioned here: Ubuntu.com > Support > Resources.

But, only Ask Ubuntu is mentioned here: Ubuntu.com > Products > Ubuntu Desktop > Backed by a global community. That should mention Ubuntu Forums.

I fully agree with you that the Installer should mention Ubuntu Forums.

I don't know who runs r/Ubuntu, but maybe the admins would be amenable to referring to this forum from there? Maybe not, as this is direct competition, although we could return the favour.

Is the option of building a completely new forum on more up to date software a viable one?

Probably, yes. This forum has its fair share of problems. However, this forum would have to be either transferred to the new one (in a read-only state) or kept as a read-only archive.

I'll post an alternative idea next.

[Paddy Landau]

Here we go: An alternative, perhaps even workable.

An alternative

Keep this forum as an archive only, and open a brand new subreddit, say r/UbuntuForums, which would almost entirely eliminate the need for technical maintenance, and would be 100% free.

If that subreddit were to be moderated to the same outstanding level as this forum has been, it would remain friendly and welcoming. (r/Ubuntu can occasionally be unwelcoming.) A subreddit can't have sub-subreddits, so the equivalent of having several subforums would be the use of flairs: A simpler set, from which a poster could choose one, two or three, would be suitable. We might have flairs for (say) Beginner, Desktop, Server, Installation, Networking, Security, Virtualisation, and Discussion.

If we were to go this route, I would like to see the present moderators being migrated en masse (with their permission) as moderators on the new subreddit. The subreddit would have to also have some administrators; maybe the current administrators of this forum would be suitable?

To replace the current forums for Ubuntu members only, you'd need another subreddit (say, r/UbuntuForumMembers) that would be private and by invitation only. Present members could be invited en masse. That's a separate discussion, though.

[digisystem]

archive this forum and create a new one which is more sustainable in terms of tech assistance. If Discourse is a no go, what else can be used?

[QIII]

... but right now, there are over 62,000 users online on this forum ...

Unfortunately, that could include 61k web crawlers.

[werewulf75]

Here we go: An alternative, perhaps even workable.

An alternative

Keep this forum as an archive only, and open a brand new subreddit, say r/UbuntuForums, which would almost entirely eliminate the need for technical maintenance, and would be 100% free.

Reddit is NO alternative. If not in its present form, a phpBB based forum, that would be an alternative. There is no substitute for a proper forum. I wouldn't touch Reddit with a barge pole, any more than I would ever touch any other social media.

[werewulf75]

Unfortunately, that could include 61k web crawlers.

In a phpBB-based forum we'd know - it displays user numbers colour coded, pale grey for crawlers, grey for guests, blue for regd. users, green for mods., and red for admins. At any rate, those are the usual defaults.

[Paddy Landau]

Reddit is NO alternative. If not in its present form, a phpBB based forum, that would be an alternative. There is no substitute for a proper forum. I wouldn't touch Reddit with a barge pole, any more than I would ever touch any other social media.

That makes you an unusual exception. A humongous number of people go to Reddit first without even considering other platforms. It's well known that Google queries often include the word "reddit" precisely because people want to narrow down their searches to just Reddit, and that others search Reddit without bothering to go to Google (or Bing or Duck Duck Go or whatever) at all.

Those people will never find an alternative source, except when explicitly pointed out to them — and I seem to be the only person on Reddit's r/Ubuntu who points people towards Ubuntu Forums.

I also don't particularly like Reddit; I find its interface unpleasant. Like you, I also find social media difficult (I grew up without computers or the internet). But, it's a simple fact that we have to use them — after all, Ubuntu Forums itself is a type of social media because it allows for extended and even off-topic discussions.

It's like refusing to use the underground in a city like London because it's horrible; you actually don't have a reasonable choice. Or, if you've created a brilliant program and want to make money off it, you can't refuse to support Windows just because you dislike it; you cut off a major part of the market. Or, refusing to use email or a telephone. It's simply undoable in today's world.

If you look at the subreddits for Linux (r/linux, r/linux4noobs, r/linuxquestions and r/Ubuntu), you'll see what I mean. Reddit is a powerhouse, whether for good or bad, whether we like it or not, and refusing to use it because we don't like social media does nothing but cut options.

Rejecting Reddit because we don't like it will merely exclude a massive number of people, possibly the vast majority, and will do nothing to revive Ubuntu Forums. Using Reddit will revive it, because that's where people go these days.

I know that you don't like this, and nor do I, but we have to look at reality as it is, not as we wish it were.