Finally! My sister in technological obsolescence. (Or brother, not sure. "Dawn" just seems feminine to me for whatever reason) — Outlander

I'm male for those who care (I don't). Yeah, it seems Win7 is outdated. I've been waiting for something like that to happen. It's infrequent as of yet (this is the first time I encountered problems). I imagine my computer will croak sometime in the next few years, so I'll update then.

We got two choices. Use a smartphone. (Yes, annoying, especially for older folk)

I don't even have a smartphone. I didn't like the all-in-one trend, so I didn't get on board. One can live like that. I'm not a luddite, though... I think?

As for the solution: I don't like clutter. As long as it's only one forum, I'm not going to install anything like that. Here's what I'll do instead, and I hope it works:

I'll register at work, then activate the account via e-mail at home. I'll be able to read at home, but not log in. I'm fine with that. Likely I'll be posting even less (I never was a prolific poster anyway, so I can live with this.)

Thanks to you and Jamal for letting me know what's going on and what can be done about it. I'll definitely keep the solution in mind if the problems pop up like mushrooms, as they well might.

Just go to the nearest library or Kinko's. They have computers you can use. Ask the friendly guy behind the counter to help.

Just go to the nearest library or Kinko's. They have computers you can use. Ask the friendly guy behind the counter to help. — frank

That's certainly an option. I work odd hours, irregularly, though, so I tend to only go out for necessaries as it cuts into sleeping time. Not a biggie. I can manage.

Sleep is good.

Sleep is good. — frank

And you never appreciate it as much as when it comes hard and goes easy...

I've registered on the other site now, so I just have to wait to get home to confirm the email address, then I'll see tomorrow whether it worked or not.

Cool.

Those supermiun screenshots are showing the light colour scheme, but I thought I set the default to dark. — Jamal

The default for me was "Auto", which tracks system preferences. I think that's the friendliest option.

Yeah, I realized that was the reason after I'd said that.

The text size is weirdly large on my phone? Compared to other pages on the same chrome browser.

Not in the discord app though. So perhaps it's moot. Although if there's a control for text size?

Edit
Of course there is :lol:

And the app shouldn't be showing more than the rules and shoutbox as yet? (Because mine isn't.)

Edit
Oops :yikes: disCOURSE?? Ok :cool:

I thought someone mentioned an app? Nvm :smile:

The text size is weirdly large on my phone? Compared to other pages on the same chrome browser. — bongo fury

I've set it to be "normal" size by default. Maybe the theme design just happens to specify a large font size for "normal", on mobile.

You can adjust the text size in your preferences.

Not in the discord app though. So perhaps it's moot. Although if there's a control for text size? — bongo fury

Discourse, yes? EDIT: Ah, I now see you've corrected it. Easy mistake to make :smile:

And the app shouldn't be showing more than the rules and shoutbox as yet? (Because mine isn't.) — bongo fury

When you say the app, do you mean the standalone launcher on a phone that looks like a regular app, which you installed when Chrome offered "Install as app" or "Add to home screen" or something?

It should show the whole site, so I'm not sure what's going on there. Are you able to attach a screenshot?

Pardon the confusion, it's the discord app and it's "haven"



Anyway the new site is just a web page as usual?

Ah, that's the Discord app.

Our new forum is currently at https://thephilosophyforum.discourse.group

Yes, and on a web page via a browser as usual?

I guess that haven thing was just a previous experiment?

I am now scrolling the new page on chrome, and it's great

Just wondering.

Yes, and on a web page via a browser as usual? — bongo fury

Yes, although in Chrome on a phone it should offer to install it as an app, but that's just a stripped down dedicated instance of Chrome anyway.

I guess that haven thing was just a previous experiment? — bongo fury

Yep, a place to go if this site went down, which I was worried about at the time.

Yep, a place to go if this site went down, which I was worried about at the time. — Jamal

Ah yes, remember now.

although in Chrome it should offer to install it as an app, but that's just a stripped down dedicated instance of Chrome anyway. — Jamal

Cool, might try it :pray:

Cool, might try it — bongo fury

Works for me :up:

Can we change our screen names on the new forum at will?

No. There's a setting in admin defining the number of days after signing up during which the username can be changed. It's set at the default 3 days, which seems reasonable.

Members can still request a change when they want, of course.

Can we disable the AI summary butt...

Actually, can we disable AI?

I mean, you don't have to click the button. :smirk:

Are you worried of low quality people (not me!) clicking the button and then responding to it because they have the all too common unfortunate combination of having something to say and nothing better to do? :cry:

Can we disable the AI summary butt...

Actually, can we disable AI? — bongo fury

The summarizer can be disabled globally by me, but it can't be disabled in your preferences.

I would've been happy creating a "Machine-assisted thinkers" group that you have to opt-in to, but I've just looked into it and you can't restrict the AI summarizer to groups. It's on or off for everyone.

I'm choosing "on" at the moment. Just try to ignore it.

Just curious. Will you be physically hosting Discourse on your own private FTP? Like, where you have access to the core files and whatnot? Or no?

No, we're on the Discourse managed pro plan. That's why I've been pestering people to subscribe.

However, we could move to a VPS later if needed. Discourse makes that fairly straightforward. But the Discourse stack is quite demanding on RAM and CPU (it's a fairly heavy Rails/Redis/Postgres stack, not just simple text and PHP) and maintaining good performance is non-trivial. The managed service has great performance and reliability guranteed.


Technicalities

What you don't get on the managed plan:

- No SSH or terminal access
- No Docker container access
- No direct Rails console access
- No filesystem access
- No ability to install arbitrary plugins/themes from disk
- No custom background jobs, cron tweaks, or low-level config edits
- No editing of app.yml or container configuration
- No manual rake tasks or direct Redis/Postgres access
- No patching or modifying server-side Ruby code

What you do get:

- Full admin UI with normal site settings
- Theme and theme-component installs from Git repos via the UI
- Official plugins (including Discourse AI)
- Backups and restore tools
- Data export
- API access
- SSO configuration
- Custom domain and CDN support
- Discourse-managed upgrades, security, email, and infrastructure
- Ability to request certain maintenance actions from Discourse staff


Bottom line

Advantages to the managed service:

- Automatic upgrades and security patches handled for you
- Infrastructure monitoring and incident response by Discourse staff
- No need to manage Docker, OS updates, or dependency issues
- Email deliverability handled (SPF/DKIM/bounces/reputation management)
- Built-in CDN, performance tuning, and scaling handled automatically
- Reliable backups with supported restore process
- Protection against common misconfiguration errors that can break a forum
- Official support channel for troubleshooting and maintenance requests
- Predictable monthly cost instead of variable server/admin time costs
- Faster recovery from outages or migration mistakes
- Less risk of data loss due to admin error or failed upgrades
- Frees the owner to focus on community, policy, and content rather than sysadmin work

On a self-hosted setup, all of that would fall on me to manage.

Wow. That's the most robust reply I've ever had from you (or anyone really) in the 6-7 years I've been here. So thank you.

I'll leave it as a quiet footnote that I've yet to observe anything on the new forum that couldn't be done in basic 2010-era PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL.

In the context of digital technology, if you build something right, it lasts forever. I've honestly never heard of a case where an admin is busy with "sysadmin" work for a simple back-and-forth discussion forum. Sure, back in my day when things were brand spanking new there was always an exploit that could be found by the right mind. These have all but dried up like Lake Chad in recent years. At least as far as basic discussion forums. I remember like it was yesterday. It was always, always the images. Always the uploads and attachments. 95% of the time.

Please don't take this as critical of your understanding but critical against the in my opinion artificially and purposely constrained requirements that have been heightened for little to no reason other than to have done so on the part of the company. I'm sure your understanding is entirely 100% percent (functionally) correct. But only for the aforementioned reason.

The only reason I asked the original question is because I used to do stuff like that (editing core source files to make things easier and fulfilling the requests of users) all the time in 2010 IPB (Invision Power Board). My glory days as a site admin. A deluge of nostalgia. :cry:

Disclaimer: Sure, perhaps if you have 100,000 people visiting the site every second, I might be just a tad mistaken. But just short of that. I'd wager not.

Disclaimer 2: The DDoS and (temporary) attack stuff is a good point. But between most any reputable hosting company and CloudFlare and other modern services, coupled with the site's relative obscurity, well, it's just not the foreboding dragon it used to be, in a manner of speaking.

I'll leave it as a quiet footnote that I've yet to observe anything on the new forum that couldn't be done in basic 2010-era PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL. — Outlander

Even if the older tech could replicate the visible features and front-end functionality (and it mostly couldn't), the main difference is Discourse is a real-time application with queues, caching, background workers, and live updates. This all demands much more in terms of the stack and the infrastructure it runs on.

But like I say, the old stack would struggle to replicate the interface anyway. As you know, Discourse runs as a single-page app with live updates and persistent browser state, whereas older forums were multi-page-load. Matching that would mean adding a modern JS app plus real-time infrastructure, no longer just "basic 2010-era PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL."

However, we've had the SPA v MPA debate before so I'll stop there.

Please don't take this as critical of your understanding but critical against the in my opinion artificially and purposely constrained requirements that have been heightened for little to no reason other than to have done so on the part of the company. I'm sure your understanding is entirely 100% percent (functionally) correct. But only for the aforementioned reason. — Outlander

I think I've made a good case for the move and the choice of platform over the last months.

It's not a simple website. It's a serious application that gets a lot of use.

If I could just say one thing. People like me were making, pioneering, and above all illustrating all of that in the 2010s era. Before it was mainstream. Again, it just wasn't mainstream or the norm at the time.

All I'm saying is the technology was there, most people simply didn't know how to use it.

I think I've made a good case for the move and the choice of platform over the last months. — Jamal

I agree. That line of questioning and debate could not be further from the motivation behind my sharing of the prior anecdote.

I suppose I just like hearing myself talk these days. Sigh. What else is an old man whose glory days are long gone to do but speak of such to all who would listen. Even those who I know do so politely only out of position-derived obligation. How kind of you to hear my tales of times past. Much success to the future platform. And all wise enough to come aboard. :sparkle:

I suppose I just like hearing myself talk these days. — Outlander

Really, I hadn't noticed :grin:

Much success to the future platform. And all wise enough to come aboard. — Outlander

Thank you Outlander. Now, when are you going to join? Only a few days to go!

Only a few days to go! — Jamal

What does that mean? :brow: