First – apologies to all the forum staff who have contributed to an earlier conversation, that this has taken so long. Advancing years, real life, and occasional health issues have taken their toll and have distracted me. And apologies to all forum members because this conversation should really have started weeks ago. But here it is, and there you are. So… Late last year the forum admins (what few are left of us) had a conversation about the future of the forum and, indeed, whether it has much of a one. In essence, there are two big issues: 1 Declining Membership. Although the forum continues to provide a valuable resource for those few still seeking help, and there still exists a core of dedicated helpers, it is a shadow of its former self. We could debate the causes of this until the cows some home and pigs start to fly, but that would achieve little, except perhaps contribute even more hot air to global warming. So let’s look forwards rather than backwards, and see what needs to be done or what can be done. Related to this, it also has to be said that we have lost several members of the volunteer moderating staff over the last few years, not least from the Forum Council (forum admins) all of whom will be departing in due course. 2 The vBulletin software. We are currently running on a past end-of-life version. We are kept secure by means of the WAF, which itself causes problems, and the combination of vBulletin and SSO was never a match made in heaven. So why is that a problem? Why not simply upgrade to a newer version? More than a few years ago we upgraded from vBulletin v3 to v4. It was a time-consuming nightmare - not the upgrade itself, but the way all our bespoke templates, configurations, themes, artwork, etc, etc were broken in the hinterland between v3 and v4, and had to be rebuilt from the ground up by several dedicated volunteers over a period of many weeks. This will certainly happen again. Besides, we do not have the number of people with familiarity of adminCP and, more importantly, all our “bespoke templates, configurations, themes, artwork, etc, etc” who would be needed to do this work. In my humble, but informed, opinion an upgrade of the current software is not a viable option. So where does that leave us? Do we simply let the forum die? Do we re-direct people needing help to AskUbuntu? Do we find enough (masochistic!) people to nurse the needed upgrade of vBulletin? Do we lobby Canonical/The Community Council/whoever to build a new forum on better software? Here are some comments made by forum staff during our recent conversation: Askubuntu v forums. Many prefer or need a forum environment rather than Stack Exchange. The two are very different.IRC/chat is not a suitable substitute.A forum is a useful or essential venue for non-developer users testing a development version.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.Is the option of building a completely new forum on more up to date software a viable one?Several currently active staff members have expressed a willingness to take on leadership roles should a reborn forum be built on new software, or to continue for as long as it is possible that the current software can be kept going.What about archiving and making available all the material here?Could Ubuntu Discourse be persuaded to launch a technical support section? Note: Ubuntu Discourse currently states: The Ubuntu Discourse is not a space for technical support. However, the community has a number of platforms where you can seek and provide support. @staff, if I have omitted or garbled anything do please post. And @membership-at-large, do please post if you have anything to say. This is your forum. What do you want? As always, when posting please respect the forum Code of Conduct We ... want this to be a place where community can develop and we can enjoy one another's company. To achieve this, we strive to maintain an atmosphere that can be enjoyed by all and we ask all members of the community to be respectful at all times. This means please use etiquette and politeness. Treat people with respect. Footnote: A few notes to counteract some common misconceptions about the forum staff: moderators, super-moderators and admins. We are all volunteers. None of us are employed by Canonical. The Forum Council consists of the admins; the FC’s functions are described here. The forum admins are not sysadmins. Server admin is the responsibility of Canonical.
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Tough call. But it's the same across the web, the "old" forum form are shrinking for other alternatives. And to be frank Canonical has always seen UF as the ugly stepchild and nursed Stackexhange instead. Personally I would be sad to see UF to be shut down. If it's lack of staff members, you can always call me.
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I have to say I would be very sad to see this forum to be shut down.. People here are so helpful. This has always been suitable place for ask help and pasting code to here is much easier than Stack Exchange... Maybe this forum could be archived?
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.
Originally Posted by Dennis N 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. I remember a whole discussion about why the forums should be listed in the installer, but I don't remember if it was discussed here or on launchpad with the other bugs. Probably launchpad tbh, but it was ages ago. Originally Posted by TheFu Whenever there is huge technical debt, the same issues arise. This is nothing new. Sometimes the best answer is to let something die. A static clone of the entire site would be nice, but that's harder than people realize, at least to do well. 100% true. Technical debt is a massive pain to remediate. I'm not even sure how feasible it would be to even archive anything here. Aside from the age of the forum software, any sort of archive would be a massive undertaking. There's also the data privacy side of things and that no one but Canonical has access to the servers and database this forum runs, so we would need their help to do anything with that.
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Certainly, Canonical must do a very acceptable job, at attending to the workings of their Corporate customer's needs. Servers, Embedded Systems and what not. But, there is much also to be said about the Typical 40 million *Desktop Ubuntu users here. These are the people that test Ubuntu's newish designs through different means of Testing, Reporting bugs and being a Test-bed with each new release and its changes. UF, may only have ~2 million members, but no doubt it is a crucial part of Ubuntu being the success it is. Every Ubuntu new user, (UF member or not), has a wealth of information here, to walk with in their Ubuntu Journey, through browser searches and the like. Also, of course registering and asking/answering questions in UF. There is a Symbolic Relationship here. We users of Ubuntu software benefit from the efforts of Canonical, and Canonical benefits from it's User-base. Canonical, has a history of Contributions to Open Source and Linux. UF, are an example of this, with its many Differing Forums; Such as the ones of even competing OS's in, "Other OS Support and Projects", Tutorials, where users, among other things, contribute to emerging projects that benefit Linux users as a whole. There is too much here, to mention all of UF's contributions, to Open Source and Linux. I'm sure Canonical understood all of this, when they decided to provide the servers of UF. This shows the value Canonical holds for UF. Canonical decided to provide the servers when Ubuntu was *not profitable. We shouldn't expect that Canonical will not work with UF now, in moving forward with UF. We need to approach these issues with Gratitude to Canonical, whilst keeping in mind, that UF is a valued resource to Canonical. I, for one, look forward to where Canonical, and UF Users and Volunteers, take UF.
Hi, I can't comment on any of the technical stuff, as I am still a newbie. But as someone who has gotten invaluable help from various forum members, I would ask you not to shut down. Please. I don't know where else I could get excellent feedback from trusted members, who are reliable and, indeed, trustworthy. Most forums are for the advanced, for tech people. At the very least do keep the newbie section. Thanks!
Last edited by bhubunt; September 1st, 2024 at 07:48 PM.
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.
Last edited by easydawg; September 23rd, 2024 at 06:23 PM. Reason: fixed typos - added an update
Originally Posted by Dennis N 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. Hi! As a new Ubuntu user who just installed for the first time, I was alarmed to see this thread and I completely agree with this user. I was actually confused about this forum at first and sought reassurance from other linux users that Ubuntuforums.org is trustworthy. I needed to do that because there wasn't any official direction here from Ubuntu. I found this forum from googling and it came up in a list of other sites that I didn't like either because they're for advanced users, out of date, or not helpful to new users. Anyway, I'm very happy to have found this forum and I really hope it doesn't go away. But I understand if it needs to change or modernize. There are very few places people like me can go for assistance. Thank you and I hope it's okay I posted here.
Originally Posted by mavengarlick Thank you and I hope it's okay I posted here. Thank you for your comments, and you are most welcome! Enjoy your journey with Linux.
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