Engine of forum

Steven Schveighoffer schveiguy at gmail.com
Tue Aug 21 14:40:32 UTC 2018


On 8/21/18 10:08 AM, Ali wrote:
> On Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 05:30:07 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Ask 10 people, and you'll get 10 different answers on what a better 
>> forum would be.
> 
> Actually I think we can get 8 out of those 10 to agree,
> rust, ocaml, fsharp, nim, scala, clojure .. all use 
> https://www.discourse.org/
> I think this software is nowadays regarded and the best

Cool! Does it support an interface on top of a newsgroup server? 
Priority #1 in these parts.

> 
>> If people leave because of the forum software, changing it won't 
>> change that.
> 
> I also agree with that, most people who leave probably leave for more 
> objective reasons, like that the language doesn't answer their needs, or 
> they didnt find the libraries they needed within the ecosystem etc...
> 
> But what I really meant, is that out of those who leaves, there is 
> possible a very small percentage who left, because they couldnt 
> communicate effectively with the community, and that better 
> communication channels in general ( and a better forum software as an 
> example) could have kept them around for longer , replacing the forum 
> software is a small change, a small win, and I expect small returns. But 
> a small win, is a win

On the contrary, many of the regular contributors here, don't give a 
lick about the forum software, as long as it's primarily backed by the 
newsgroup server. Many, including myself use the NG server, many others 
use the mailing list interface. If the NG was ditched, I would have a 
big problem communicating, as I hate dealing with web forums.

The forum software probably could be better in terms of formatting code 
(see for example vibe.d's forums which are ALSO NG backed and have code 
formatting features). Other than that, editing posts just doesn't make 
sense in terms of a mailing list or newsgroup. And it also doesn't make 
sense in terms of a discussion where things you thought you read 
mysteriously change.

-Steve


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