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RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 7:46 am
by jimmo
See discussion at
https://github.com/micropython/micropython/issues/8795 (but feel free to reply/discuss here!)
This is just an idea at this stage, but keen to hear people's thoughts!
Re: RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 2:57 pm
by scruss
Lukewarm, at best.
Is phpBB currently to arduous to maintain? If moved to an offsite service, you're basically giving the database and user details to a third party who will try to monetize it. This phpBB instance doesn't know that the user "scruss" that I am is the same scruss on github (which is mined for user info by Microsoft). Discourse wants to link all of my user names to one identity, too
If github discussions go away (it's somebody else's product, so it can), where does our knowledge base go?
Searching Discourse and github from an external search engine is as unlikely to turn up useful information as phpBB hosted information. At least forum.micropython.org has it all in one place.
Yes, phpBB's markup and features are a bit awful. Having to smack four spaces in front of code in order for it to present as code in Markdown is just as annoying as using code tags. New posters are unlikely to get either right, and the web isn't kind to Python code. At least with phpBB, you can fairly easily untangle pasted but untagged code from the source.
Re: RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:30 am
by KJM
The forum on github would see all the eggs in one basket, is there some merit in having the code there and the chat here?
Re: RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:47 am
by pythoncoder
scruss wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 2:57 pm
...Having to smack four spaces in front of code in order for it to present as code in Markdown is just as annoying as using code tags...
You don't have to do that in GitHub flavoured markdown. The following will work:
Code: Select all
```python
def foo():
print('foo')
```
A valid question is whether new users will cope with GitHub flavoured markdown. It's way better than phpBB but it takes a little learning.
Re: RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:30 pm
by scruss
New users will not get any kind of markup right, because markup is necessarily non-intuitive. Anything beyond "paste text in the box" invites errors
Re: RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 9:58 am
by pythoncoder
I agree, it takes some effort to learn. I suppose we could write a FAQ describing the bare minimum: how to post code, quotes and URL's.
Re: RFC: Move forums to GitHub Discussions
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 4:02 pm
by ghayne
I'd vote for Discourse, easier for new members to participate.
And enclosing code in backticks is very easy.