Migrating the forum to Discourse

[ddavidebor]

The readability is mainly improved by dropping the "pages" for continuous loading.

Sounds like "say goodbye to your RAM when you open the TEA thread"

I doubt that it's kept in RAM whole, probably only sections of it are cached. Anyway, the data under the posts is small, just some JSON, the generated HTML is heavy, but is generated dynamically as you scroll. like all apps of this decade.

[amyk]

It's a mature piece of software, gonna be 10yo soon. The architecture is good. It's not going to disappear next week. The UI is customizable. great community support. Ease of install and management. good performance. Written in a solid language. open source. It's considered the de-facto standard nowadays.

No one cares. What we have right now works and has been working for a long time.

Anyway, the data under the posts is small, just some JSON, the generated HTML is heavy, but is generated dynamically as you scroll. like all apps of this decade.

...and that's the problem, "apps of this decade" are utter crap.

[ddavidebor]

I see nothing in anything you mention or what I read on the Discourese website that beats "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

as common logic goes - if you sit on you ass for too long it becomes stiff.

[ddavidebor]

I have had this thought for a few years. Wouldn't it make sense to migrate the forum to the Discourse platform?

Why?

(...) it's pretty much time (...)

But why?

This forum works fairly well overall. Migrating the exisiting content to something else would probably be a nightmare, or next to impossible - I'm sure Dave has better things to do. And if EEVBlog's forum suddenly started afresh (with existing content lost), just for the sake of using something trendier, that would be a big loss.

There is one small thing that I see could be improved (and is probably not too hard to do) is easier inclusion of images in posts. Currently if you're attaching images in a post, you have to go some extra manual steps to include them in the post itself, and not just as small thumbnails at the end.

The search function could be improved, but I'm not sure this would really help a lot. I've seen people ask the same questions over and over again on almost all forums, however fancy the search function is.

My (limited) experience with forums based on Discourse is not that great. I think this forum is overall a lot more readable an usable than typical Discourse forums.

Migrating from Pphpbb to Discourse has been done hundreds of time, the scripts are well seasoned.
There are many small things like that. I'd rather stop using this last century markup language written to make php happy to write posts.

The default config of discourse is for "small and cute" forums, such as customer support forums. That's because that way, when you install it for the first time, it doesn't feel empty. The default config is not suitable for a forum like this one, but luckly, it's very easy to customize.

[magic]

the generated HTML is heavy, but is generated dynamically as you scroll. like all apps of this decade.

the generated HTML is heavy

like all apps of this decade

 
Exactly my point
A silly gimmick for kids upgrading to the latest hardware on a yearly schedule.

[tggzzz]

It has a structure where users progressively and automatically gain power as they gain engagement and respect from the community.

You should include that in your lists of negatives, bold big font.

Gag me with a spoon. But then I don't seek power and since I've been married I don't seek engagement..

[james_s]

as common logic goes - if you sit on you ass for too long it becomes stiff.

What does that even mean? The wheel was invented thousands of years ago and has not really changed much since then. There have been numerous attempts to reimagine the control scheme of cars yet after more than 100 years the basic steering wheel and pedals are still largely the same. A word processor or spreadsheet from 20 years ago is still fully usable today.

Just because some technology evolves rapidly doesn't mean that everything needs to keep up. If something isn't broken there's no reason to try to fix it. We could leave the forum as-is for another 20 years and it will likely just keep working, if something changes fundamentally making it no longer usable then it could be updated to something newer then, why muck with it now? Discourse is ugly, I don't see anyone else here pushing to change, I see no real gain from the move and I would bet a lot of established users would just end up leaving.

[ddavidebor]

Wouldn't it make sense to migrate the forum to the Discourse platform?

NO!  If you want a better theme for mobile, just ask about that.

EEVblog forum works very well as it is now.
Let's not ruin it for buzzwords and glitter.

I have seen it being asked many years ago, popping up many times since there, and never ended up anywhere. I've been following the forum since it's inception a decade ago.

[ddavidebor]

as common logic goes - if you sit on you ass for too long it becomes stiff.

What does that even mean? The wheel was invented thousands of years ago and has not really changed much since then. There have been numerous attempts to reimagine the control scheme of cars yet after more than 100 years the basic steering wheel and pedals are still largely the same. A word processor or spreadsheet from 20 years ago is still fully usable today.

Just because some technology evolves rapidly doesn't mean that everything needs to keep up. If something isn't broken there's no reason to try to fix it. We could leave the forum as-is for another 20 years and it will likely just keep working, if something changes fundamentally making it no longer usable then it could be updated to something newer then, why muck with it now? Discourse is ugly, I don't see anyone else here pushing to change, I see no real gain from the move and I would bet a lot of established users would just end up leaving.

How many websites from the 2000s do you use daily?

[ddavidebor]

It has a structure where users progressively and automatically gain power as they gain engagement and respect from the community.

You should include that in your lists of negatives, bold big font.

Gag me with a spoon. But then I don't seek power and since I've been married I don't seek engagement..

Which can be modified or disabled, as per all the features.

[tggzzz]

It has a structure where users progressively and automatically gain power as they gain engagement and respect from the community.

And then you get StackOverflow kind of thing where people spew garbage to get points. No thanks. Moderation by human moderators works fine.

Quite .

Stackoverflow is mostly boring garbage like "which button do I press to display a widget of a cat?".

[ataradov]

Can you show a Discourse forum configured as you see fit for this forum as an example?

Absolutely all Discourse forums I've seen were utter garbage. May be if we had a good example, we would have a different opinion.

[KaneTW]

Absolutely not. Discourse is hot garbage that doesn't even run with JS disabled. All the new-style forums are beyond awful for any threaded discussion.

Migrating to XenForo or something reasonably close to classic forums software? Sure, whatever. Migrating to Discourse or its clones? No.

[tggzzz]

It has a structure where users progressively and automatically gain power as they gain engagement and respect from the community.

=Starving for gaining likes and dick length competition. We have other places for this crap.

Even the thanks mechanism on this forum is abused. "Woodz" seems to that every post that mentions him, even if they are implying he is an idiot.

[james_s]

How many websites from the 2000s do you use daily?

I'd use a lot more of them if they still existed, the only one that's still around is http://lamptech.co.uk, I don't use it daily but I still view it as one of the gold standards of web design. High information density, simple and effective layout, quality content and there is not a single bit of irritating cruft that I need to block.

There are dozens of websites that I used to use but have abandoned over the years when they were revamped and went from useful and effective to a bloated unusable mess. If you want to see an example of an absolutely horrible website spend 20 minutes browsing http://komonews.com, that used to be my go-to for local news but I all but abandoned it after several renovations left it all but unusable. Give me the Komo news website from 2001 with up to date content and I'll switch to it in a heartbeat.

[ddavidebor]

I can't but notice all the users complaining have thousands of posts each.  You're just used to PhPbb and complaining cause you don't like the sofa to be moved near the window. This is not really a useful discussion.

[ataradov]

Even the thanks mechanism on this forum is abused. "Woodz" seems to that every post that mentions him, even if they are implying he is an idiot.

I adblok-ed thanks here, so I don't have a way to thank anyone and have no idea who thanks me. I don't need "thanks" to form my own opinion of a person or a post.

[ataradov]

I can't but notice all the users complaining have thousands of posts each.  You're just used to PhPbb and complaining cause you don't like the sofa to be moved near the window. This is not really a useful discussion.

Well, may be leave us alone here and build your new community of noobs on Discourse? And newcomers may decide for themselves where they want to be.

[ddavidebor]

How many websites from the 2000s do you use daily?

I'd use a lot more of them if they still existed, the only one that's still around is http://lamptech.co.uk, I don't use it daily but I still view it as one of the gold standards of web design. High information density, simple and effective layout, quality content and there is not a single bit of irritating cruft that I need to block.

There are dozens of websites that I used to use but have abandoned over the years when they were revamped and went from useful and effective to a bloated unusable mess. If you want to see an example of an absolutely horrible website spend 20 minutes browsing http://komonews.com, that used to be my go-to for local news but I all but abandoned it after several renovations left it all but unusable. Give me the Komo news website from 2001 with up to date content and I'll switch to it in a heartbeat.

You can have it back, just have to buy newspaper again instead of being funded by ads and competing with facebook. But that's another discussion, and it's not relevant.
There are reasons why the don't exist anymore. They're not readable across devices, for one. Their architecture scales horribly. Dave is paying for every line HTML you read and all the code that runs that.

[magic]

I can't but notice all the users complaining have thousands of posts each.

I can't help but notice that pandering to lazy iPhone-addicted teenagers will bring more 1 post users asking homework tier questions and drive away those who answer them.

Sounds like a win

[james_s]

I can't but notice all the users complaining have thousands of posts each.  You're just used to PhPbb and complaining cause you don't like the sofa to be moved near the window. This is not really a useful discussion.

So what you're effectively saying is "fuck the long time users who contribute heavily and make the forum what it is, we can just ignore what they want because it doesn't matter".

What's stopping you from creating a new forum that is set up the way you want it and leaving this one alone? I haven't seen Dave jump in here yet but it's his joint, ultimately it's his choice what goes and what doesn't.

[ataradov]

And I'm seriously curious to see Discourse forum of the scale close to this forum. We would have better things to discuss if we could actually have something for comparison.

[james_s]

You can have it back, just have to buy newspaper again instead of being funded by ads and competing with facebook. But that's another discussion, and it's not relevant.
There are reasons why the don't exist anymore. They're not readable across devices, for one. Their architecture scales horribly. Dave is paying for every line HTML you read and all the code that runs that.

Maybe you can explain how buying a newspaper again is going to give me a usable news website? News should not be competing with facebook, social networking is a cancer that has spread throughout society, if I wanted the facebook experience I'd be on facebook but I abandoned that years ago too when it became less useful after every update.

Bullshit, all manner of sites have mobile and desktop versions, this one included, though the mobile interface sucks now it was quite good on the previous version and I used it heavily.

[Wilksey]

Even the thanks mechanism on this forum is abused. "Woodz" seems to that every post that mentions him, even if they are implying he is an idiot.

You mean can't see the "Woodz" for the .... 

[Monkeh]

I can't but notice all the users complaining have thousands of posts each.  You're just used to PhPbb and complaining cause you don't like the sofa to be moved near the window. This is not really a useful discussion.

And you're just used to Discourse and complaining because this isn't it. Oh, and it's not phpBB, either.