Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Daniel M. Ingram 1/27/21 9:59 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 1/27/21 10:21 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Sam Gentile 1/27/21 12:46 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Angel Roberto Puente 1/27/21 12:56 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 1/27/21 12:59 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Noah D 1/27/21 2:45 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Pepe · 1/28/21 8:19 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Jellyfish 1/27/21 6:41 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Brandon Dayton 1/27/21 3:32 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 1/27/21 4:37 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Ni Nurta 1/27/21 5:49 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Noah D 1/27/21 8:23 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Gary Kirk 1/27/21 6:44 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 1/27/21 7:23 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Derek2 1/27/21 7:20 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Pepe · 1/27/21 8:57 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Josef C 1/27/21 11:02 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Noah D 1/27/21 11:23 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Ni Nurta 1/28/21 4:34 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Pepe · 1/28/21 4:57 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? genaro 1/28/21 7:19 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? genaro 1/28/21 7:21 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Simon Ekstrand 1/28/21 7:50 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Derek2 1/28/21 8:41 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Simon Ekstrand 1/28/21 9:02 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Alex H 1/28/21 8:54 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Simon Ekstrand 1/28/21 9:09 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? George S 1/28/21 9:38 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 1/28/21 4:01 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 1/28/21 8:19 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Simon Ekstrand 1/28/21 8:26 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 1/28/21 8:34 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Alex H 1/29/21 9:24 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Pepe · 1/29/21 12:33 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Steph S 1/29/21 12:46 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 1/29/21 1:38 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? J W 1/29/21 8:29 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Pepe · 1/29/21 9:34 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Papa Che Dusko 1/30/21 11:17 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 2/2/21 9:55 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Chris M 2/3/21 1:38 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 2/3/21 2:14 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 2/2/21 10:00 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Papa Che Dusko 2/4/21 1:15 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 2/7/21 3:57 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Alex H 2/4/21 8:48 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/4/21 12:19 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/4/21 12:20 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/4/21 12:22 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/4/21 12:28 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/4/21 12:43 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/4/21 1:02 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 2/4/21 1:20 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? terry 2/6/21 2:48 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Siavash ' 2/6/21 4:21 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Noah D 2/10/21 6:42 PM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Chris M 2/11/21 6:55 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? J W 2/11/21 9:57 AM
RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts? Daniel M. Ingram 2/11/21 11:29 AM
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 9:59 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 9:59 AM

Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
There is again, as there has been before, a growing interest in moving the forum off of Liferay, which I realize might be disruptive after having just moved to Liferay 7, but the question has been raised again about Discourse Forum software and shifting everything on the forum to that platform, as, well, Liferay 7.3's forum editor is not as improved from 7.1 as we had hoped and cleary a bit weird. Does this represent some long-term trend to not maintaining this part of the great hog of a platform that is Liferay? Unclear, but it does give me pause.

I have numerous thoughts about this, with this list from the email I sent to Simon, one of the main tech support volunteers at the DhO:

1) Permalinks: the DhO and its forum posts are linked to in many other places, on other forums, as a resource for people and their diaries and journeys, as places where important discussions occurred, etc. Is there a way to preserve that? This is probably my largest concern about changing platforms. Is there a way to write some code that would scrape them all from the DhO and add them to the Discourse forum such that this integration with the rest of the web is preserved?

2) How to integrate the Liferay Wiki/links/etc. functionality with Discourse and how exactly that would work.

3) Membership: part of the dream was that the Wiki, which obviously hasn’t been that active, would be integrated with the forum in that users and members of the forum would be encouraged to post to the Wiki and help create it. This didn’t happen nearly as much as I dreamed it would, so perhaps that is something to let go. That would make for two different user databases between the Discourse and Liferay users/editors/moderators/etc. Thoughts?

4) User attrition: do we risk losing people in the transition, and, if so, to what degree do you think?

5) Forum function changes: it appears that Discourse has all sorts of gamification/like/etc. functionality that the DhO doesn’t have. We intentionally turned off liking/disliking on the DhO due to the problems that happened with it. Is there the ability to control that sort of social media functionality and turn it off if needed?

Any and all thoughts welcome!

Daniel
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 10:21 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 10:21 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I thought the wiki had been abandoned already? It didn't seem to work. 
Sam Gentile, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 12:46 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 12:46 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1310 Join Date: 5/4/20 Recent Posts
What is the Discourse Forum?
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Angel Roberto Puente, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 12:56 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 12:56 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 281 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
I believe that everything on this forum should be preserved and categorized to make into a Wiki of Pragmatism.  If outside professional help is needed, expenses should not be an impediment.  If fundraising be necessary it should be used.  If the effort is started, out of my limited income I pledge $100.00.  
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 12:59 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 12:59 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
I think it can take lots of manual work to transfer the database and the navigation data (mapping urls etc), weeks to months easily. Unless you put the current site on a read only mode and archive it, and setup a new forum with new platform, and with some manual work, transfer the users and roles data (not posts). I think it would definitely cause a loss of interest in the forum for current and new users, until the dust is settled which is not easy to predit how long it could take.
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Noah D, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 2:45 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 2:45 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Siavash
I think it can take lots of manual work to transfer the database and the navigation data (mapping urls etc), weeks to months easily. Unless you put the current site on a read only mode and archive it, and setup a new forum with new platform, and with some manual work, transfer the users and roles data (not posts). I think it would definitely cause a loss of interest in the forum for current and new users, until the dust is settled which is not easy to predit how long it could take.

This sounds good to me.  If we preserved all the old links & then just had a big banner on top of the old site redirecting folks to the new site or whatever.... In terms of loss of interest, I don't think so, people could still see all the old posts & fairly easily navigate to the new forum.  
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:19 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 3:31 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 712 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
Yes, please put DhO back with Liferay 7.1 in read only mode, and start from scratch in a new platform. I've made Shargrol's and Daniel's posts compilation, and it would be a real loss to lose the links to those selected ~800 threads. 

As for losing readers, I guess a significant amount are web crawlers. I've seen in some practice logs that there are consistently 50-60 views per day in threads that haven't been active in the recent weeks. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but those numbers don't look real.

And how many active posters do we have actually? 200? 300? That's about 10% of the registered members list. 
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Brandon Dayton, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 3:32 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 3:32 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 511 Join Date: 9/24/19 Recent Posts
My instinct is that this community might have a higher than average tolerance for the disruption as the demand for this type of information is niche and, I would guess, meaningfully inelastic. This place is valuable enough to me that I would certainly come back.

I have no relevant skills to contribute in the work, but I'd be happy to donate to help make it happen.

BTW, is this what we're talking about? https://www.discourse.org/
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 4:37 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 4:24 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Pepe
​​​​​​​And how many active posters do we have actually? 200? 300? That's about 10% of the registered members list.

This is interesting. Yesterday I checked the statistics in the top menu and it showed 9 thousands and a few hundreds for participants. Now it shows 3317. I guess it was last year that I checked the number of members and it was a little more that 7 thousands. So I guess it depends on how you count it?

-- Edit:
It seems that the 9 thousands is the number of all registered members, and the 3317  is the number of all members who have had at least one post.
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Ni Nurta, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 5:49 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 5:49 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1070 Join Date: 2/22/20 Recent Posts
Atthchment leads to dukkha.
My suggestion is to burn everything down to the ground.
The value of this site are people, not the content.

And if impermanence was to be too big shock then site can be ran in background for some time or something.
Jellyfish, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 6:41 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 6:12 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 8 Join Date: 1/21/21 Recent Posts
Pepe Yes, please put DhO back with Liferay 7.1 in read only mode, and start from scratch in a new platform.

That sounds perfect. All content stays where it is, can be accessed with the old (7.1) interface, links remain valid, history is preserved, and the new platform is a clean slate.

In terms of losing users, moving to a new platform only has to be done once, but a platform that doesn't handle basic functionality well has to be dealt with every day. Things like going to "Recent Posts", seeing who's posted what and where, and being able to see how their posts fit into the context of a thread, that's essential stuff. I think the ongoing lack of this would turn away more users in the long run.

BTW, Pepe, thank you so much for your compilations! I use them all the time. Much appreciated.
Gary Kirk, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 6:44 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 6:44 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 3 Join Date: 9/23/20 Recent Posts
New member, here, but an example of a Discourse based forum might be helpful.
Derek2, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 7:20 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 7:19 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 230 Join Date: 9/21/16 Recent Posts
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 7:23 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 7:20 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Gary Kirk
New member, here, but an example of a Discourse based forum might be helpful.

This is their demo on their website:
https://try.discourse.org/

And a case study on their front page:
https://community.cartalk.com/

​​​​​​​To me it looks too busy. But I guess it could be simplified. Although it's based on ember.js and Ruby, which is different from Liferay platform. So it means there may be a need for new skillset in the tech team? 
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Noah D, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 8:23 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 8:23 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Ni Nurta
Atthchment leads to dukkha.
My suggestion is to burn everything down to the ground.
The value of this site are people, not the content.

And if impermanence was to be too big shock then site can be ran in background for some time or something.
Lmao this is not true the content is super important.  
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 8:57 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 8:56 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 712 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
After a quick look, what I can see is that in Discourse forums (just watched three) you can't see at the top the chronological order of the posts, that replies are inserted (hidden) after the post to be replied (and not at the bottom as in Liferay 7.1), and that the width of the column of posts is short. It seems to be designed to be browsed in a smartphone, not a PC or other bigger screen. It's much like being in a Facebook group. Given that DhO posts tend to be longish, I find Discourse not suitable. Don't know how much customization tools does it provides.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software

Flat vs. threaded
  • flat forum is one where each message is added onto the end of the discussion, with no set relation to any prior messages (other than being on the same discussion topic — except in case of Off-Topic posting). But, there is normally a feature to 'quote' another user's post, to allow referencing back to other posts.
  • threaded forum is one where users can specify their message is a reply to an existing message. Threaded forums can display relationships between message topics and associated replies, such as by indenting replies and placing them below the post they reference. Threaded forums are most commonly used for discussions where individual messages tend to be short, such as on social news sites (e.g. Slashdot or reddit), or in commenting systems like Disqus.
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Josef C, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 11:02 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 10:39 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 85 Join Date: 6/16/20 Recent Posts
I do agree with this one.  I have used sutta central before and its interface using my pc and it  is not that great. The hidden replies or replies in the discourse sutta central forum is confusing in the long run. I think what we currently have with the reply tree and with some improved usability could be better. In my opinion the gamification functionality and the liking and disliking is not that conducive  to the discussion.

(Personally I prefer the look of dhammawheel or dharmawheel  since it is easier to navigate and use compared to the confounding sutta central  ).  Threaded forums are better for navigation.  I would be willing to donate for the improvement of DhO too   emoticon   
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Noah D, modified 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 11:23 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/27/21 11:23 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Josef Kyle Chan
I do agree with this one.  I have used sutta central before and its interface using my pc and it  is not that great. The hidden replies or replies in the discourse sutta central forum is confusing in the long run. I think what we currently have with the reply tree and with some improved usability could be better. In my opinion the gamification functionality and the liking and disliking is not that conducive  to the discussion.

(Personally I prefer the look of dhammawheel or dharmawheel  since it is easier to navigate and use compared to the confounding sutta central  ).  Threaded forums are better for navigation.  I would be willing to donate for the improvement of DhO too   emoticon   

+1 whatever "the wheels" run on is sufficient/clean/has been working for years.
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Ni Nurta, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 4:34 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 4:34 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1070 Join Date: 2/22/20 Recent Posts
Josef Kyle Chan

(Personally I prefer the look of dhammawheel or dharmawheel  since it is easier to navigate and use compared to the confounding sutta central  ).  Threaded forums are better for navigation.  I would be willing to donate for the improvement of DhO too   emoticon   
Isn't Dhammawheel running on phpBB or something derived from it?
It is imho one of the best general forum engines and I have never had any issues on any site which use it.

It was actually my first thought when registering on DhO: why doesn't this forum use phpBB? emoticon
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 4:57 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 4:57 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 712 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
Yes phpBB!

Here's a typical phpBB forum demo, there are some functionalities that could be interesting such as polls and have a sub-forum with password required for more private/sensible stuff.  

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/prosilver/demo/3.2 

As for the board style of the forum, there are plenty of options: 

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styles/board_styles/light-18 

​​​​​​​
genaro, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 7:19 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 7:18 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 126 Join Date: 11/23/19 Recent Posts
Don't know discourse, but i have used phpBB (which kind of works).
The new liferay seems to be a bit slow: I recently upgrade my PC to a faster one, sites that i had to wait for ages for now load quickly ( like nearly instant), yet the DhO takes a few seconds, it's noticably different from before the great hiatus.

Is there any need to have a wiki 'integrated', how would that work? I honestly don't understand what people mean by  'integrated'.
What's the downside of running a wiki an parallel? Shirley you can add links between the two??
---------------------------
​​​​​​​
Doh! there's no preview button!
genaro, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 7:21 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 7:21 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 126 Join Date: 11/23/19 Recent Posts
yes     S - L  -O - W ....

t h a t    p u b l i s h   b u t t o n    t o o k   a b o u t   1 0   s e c o n d s   t o    r e s p o n d .   .   .   . 
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 7:50 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 7:49 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Hi,

As i was the one that suggested Discourse to Daniel i guess i should give my two cents.

I really don't have a strong opinion on Discourse vs. phpBB, however my biggest problem with phpBB personally is that it feels .. unmodern. The whole thing feels very 2005 from an UI standpoint.

With that said, that's mostly cosmetic. phpBB has been around for a long time, as has Discourse at this point and I don't have a super strong opinion either way.

From a technical standpoint, I've been helping Daniel with the DhO for quite a few years now, and either Discourse or phpBB would be so much easier to keep running than Liferay, which is a real pain in the ass. I have no problem supporting either Discourse or phpBB.

I have setup quick and dirty test environments for both Discourse and phpBB on the DhO server they are available here:

https://dho.theoak.se/
https://phpbb.theoak.se/

Ignore the SSL warnings.

Feel free to create accounts, posts etc. they will be wiped in the future, it's just for testing.

As to Daniels points:

First: any migration to a new forum would need to be a real migration, ie. users and threads/posts would be migrated from Liferay to the new software. A conversion would never be perfect, but could probably be pretty good. For example all users could be migrated over, but passwords would likely have to be reset for everyone.

1) Permalinks.
We have two choices.
  a) Keep the Liferay forum running forever so all the old threads are available.
  b) When importing threads from Liferay to the new forum, keep track of a mapping of liferay threads to new forum threads and do automatic redirects from old to new links. I can put something together that will handle the mapping.
B is more work upfront but A is more work over time. Both are do'able.

2) Liferay Wiki integration
Honestly, there probably wouldn't be one. The liferay instance and the new forum would be two different entities.

3) Same as 2.

4) User attrition
Maybe? Technically i think we could make the transition pretty smooth. I'm not sure what people would think about new forum software in general. But with existing user accounts and threads migrated over i think it wouldn't be to bad.

Also worth remembering that the transation would be to a (hopefully) better more capable forum, which should be good in the long run.

5) Not really sure, i think spending some time with the different options and seeing how they feel and can be configured is a good starting point.

Simon
Derek2, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:41 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:41 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 230 Join Date: 9/21/16 Recent Posts
That was quick!

Discourse was flavor-of-the-month a couple of years ago, but several people have indicated usability problems.

I agree that phpBB looks dated, but hey, it works, and it has a large ecosystem.

Vanilla Forums ("talk to sales") and Xenforo ($160 first year) are some paid alternatives.
Alex H, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:54 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:53 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 13 Join Date: 3/8/19 Recent Posts
yeah for UI I think Vbulletin is the best. 

I never loved the Discourse UI, although suttacentral have set it up quite nice.

As for phpbb, I think why do such a huge migration and move to something 20 years old.

Balancing it all up, I think Discourse would be my choice and play with the design a bit.

Discourse can look good... https://forums.woot.com/
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 9:02 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 9:01 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Derek2
Vanilla Forums ("talk to sales") and Xenforo ($160 first year) are some paid alternatives.

We have a customer running a large Xenforo forum, but I've never really seen what it has to offer over phpBB. More/better customizability i think?
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 9:09 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 9:09 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Alex H

As for phpbb, I think why do such a huge migration and move to something 20 years old.
That was my primary motivation for suggesting Discourse over phpBB.
But then i'm not really up to date on what the current go-to forum solutions are.

Simon
George S, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 9:38 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 9:35 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
Thanks Daniel, Simon, Manish and everyone else who supports this forum.

I like dhammawheel format (phpBB ) over suttacentral (Discourse), it seems better for detailed text based discussions with quotes and references.
I think that being able to follow links back to old threads and/or follow a user’s posting history is one of the most valuable features. A full migration with updated links would be best, but it sounds like a lot of work to get all the links and user references working. It would be better to have the old version archived than migrate everything and have the links and user structure not working properly. But then again there’s the cost of keeping the old forum archived as well as running a new forum. I would be happy to contribute to the cost of migration, as well as ongoing running cost, as would many users I imagine.

If migration to a new forum is not possible then I would prefer to go back to Liferay 7.1. I preferred the flat view with quotes (and the tree summary at the top) rather than the threaded view which makes it hard to find the latest posts. Also due to the “More Messages” button at the bottom, if you have a link to a post past that point in a long thread then it doesn’t work.  There's also the things already mentioned - speed, lack of preview button, format and messages.
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 4:01 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 4:01 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Do we know if this flat versus tree view type can be changed in this version of Liferay?
I guess people could live with this version of Liferay if that problem was solved.

I did a quick search on its documentation. In Liferay6 admin doc, there is a mention of this view type, but in version 7 I couldn't find anything.
 
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:19 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:18 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 I saw this in the Liferay 7.x breaking changes list, saying that the support for flat view has been removed. That means probably there is no workaround for it?

https://help.liferay.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017892092-Breaking-Changes#removed-support-for-flat-thread-view-in-discussion-comments
 
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:26 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:25 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Siavash
 Do we know if this flat versus tree view type can be changed in this version of Liferay?
Don't think so no, which is one of the reasons i brought up the topic of switching to something else with Daniel.
The Liferay forum is getting wonkier with each release in my opinion, but never upgrading isn't an option due to security issues.

Simon
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:34 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/28/21 8:30 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
 Thanks Simon.
Then that's a dead-end. Can't go back and can't go forward.
Without that flat view, and without a better tree view, this board doesn't have proper functionality, and could not be maintained.

Then I guess the question is not Discourse or Liferay. The question is: Which forum software should replace Liferay on DhO?
  
Alex H, modified 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 9:24 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 9:23 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 13 Join Date: 3/8/19 Recent Posts
Depending on the technical knowledge of the volunteers, there are also:

https://flarum.org/ - PHP, looks and feels the best, but has been in "beta" for years and just now they are talking about it being stable.
https://nodebb.org/ - Javascript, looks similar to discourse.

Leftfield Option

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/circle-12 - Circle, paid, would allow for knowledge base (like the wiki daniel mentions).
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 12:33 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 12:33 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 712 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
Simon,

I haven't had the  opportunity to thank you for all your work supporting DhO, so hats off to you! 
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Steph S, modified 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 12:46 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 12:45 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 672 Join Date: 3/24/10 Recent Posts
Here's a Discourse based forum that looks pretty good for the most part. I don't know that I like the snapshot of frequent posters, other links, etc that shows within the OP in each thread, but at least that can be expanded/collapsed.

https://www.elektronauts.com/latest
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 1:38 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 1:38 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I'm used to phpBB. It has been working great for all the years I have been moderating with that. 
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J W, modified 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 8:29 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 8:29 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 671 Join Date: 2/11/20 Recent Posts
I am in favor of either Discourse or phpBB
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Pepe ·, modified 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 9:34 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/29/21 9:33 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 712 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
Here's a demo of a modern style phpBB forum, where you can navigate a bit:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/prolight/demo/3.2 

Question #1: In the "normal forum" you could find all (recent) posts in chronological order while in "unread forum" only the ones you haven't clicked yet or be subscribed to? 

Question #2: These subscriptions, are they to specific threads or to specific categories?

Having read the recent "Fun Forum History" thread with those discussions in AN and DhO, I think it would be nice if users could have the ability to choose in advance both which threads and categories of threads they are interested to be displayed in the "unread forum" (while having the whole enchilada in the "normal forum"). 

That would not only reduce the signal-to-noise issue mentioned for current DhOers and old posters that have jumped to sister forums, but also would be more attractive to new users. Some topics may be off-putting for some kind of readers (e.g. Magick, Claims to Attainments, the Battleground, reincarnation/karma debates, etc) while others would want to skip (our beloved) off-topic threads (e.g. The Bar(do) of Last Resort, DhO Collab Band, the Humor section, etc) or non practice topics/threads (Uncharted Territory, Corporate Mindfulness, etc) or science/tech topics (those on fmRI, polls, etc or those like this one on forum software issues). 

The idea is to be able to have both worlds, so you could focus on what you're interested while keeping the ability to see everything in the "normal forum". Not like Facebook, where you cannot see what you haven't been showing interest lately.

Thoughts?
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 3 Years ago at 1/30/21 11:17 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 1/30/21 11:14 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2669 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
Why not just join DhO with Awakened Network? AN already is hosted on my favorite format anyway emoticon isnt that phpBB ?  Something need be done as Im not able to follow some of my fav threads/logs here (old posts are past and new posts seem in the middle and one needs to load more new messages to get to the last one etc ... (this is much more worse than my last re-observation) emoticon 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 2/2/21 9:55 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/2/21 9:54 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
You think joining two forums would entail less problems than upgrading one? emoticon Haha, good luck with that. 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 2/2/21 10:00 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/2/21 10:00 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Whatever we do, could we please not have like-functions and/or dislike-functions? :X It just seems very counterproductive to have an intentionally reaction-triggering system based on craving and aversion on a dharma forum. 
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Chris M, modified 3 Years ago at 2/3/21 1:38 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/3/21 1:38 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 5104 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
You think joining two forums would entail less problems than upgrading one? 


Yes, it's definitely harder to merge forums than it is bringing up a new forum. There's more to it, like mapping of users, and posts, and such things rather than just starting with new software. That's not to say that it hasn't been done, and done well.

emoticon
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 2/3/21 2:14 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/3/21 2:12 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I'm sure it can be done, but just like Chris said, it seems to be a lot of work that someone would have to put in. And in addition, there might be differences in cultures and expectations among the people responsible for and active on the forums (apart from the differences that already exist within the groups) - although I know that in this case there is an overlap. Very cool when people are onboard with such a merge and go through with it. I'm not against the idea if that should be the case here. Personally I'm too burned out to take on the task of merging all mergable threads, though, just to be clear. Unfortunately, knowing my own hang-ups, I would freak out if someone else were to to do those mergings in ways that would mess up the context of people's posts - and of Daniel's research data if he does make use of the forum for that purpose. Context is important! So if such a forum-merge were to happen, I would fight for the alternative solution of crosslinking between threads instead. 
Alex H, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 8:48 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 8:47 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 13 Join Date: 3/8/19 Recent Posts
Daniel M. Ingram

2) How to integrate the Liferay Wiki/links/etc. functionality with Discourse and how exactly that would work.

​​​​​​​
Was looking around for the wiki feature Daniel mentioned.

Why is there such random links here: https://www.dharmaoverground.org/dharma-wiki

"Crafting a Nickname that will Help in the Dating Game" et etc.

It looks like SEO spam from a hack.
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:19 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:18 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
I guess you have to go all the way to the end of the string and append something, and can't respond to specific posts or people...

I suppose I could just trouble to repost what is said so I can dialog, but what sort of functionality is that...

what was so wrong with the way things were, why not go back to that? it made immediate sense to someone just happening upon it, whereas as this seems very primitive, like folks making random comments in a linear fashion inappropriate to discourse... very random and social media like... no thread to the thread, really...

terry
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:20 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:20 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
buggy slow too
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:22 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:22 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
not even a top button, have to scroll all the way every time...

​​​​​​​what?
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:28 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:28 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
I suppose I could "jump to a sister forum" if the ship here is really sinking...


lol...


(I didn't even know we had sisters)
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:43 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 12:42 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
being able to access the archives seems important to me...

old threads are often revived and updated, and maintain a deeper continuity than just leaving everything in your wake and burning everything to the ground at every moment...

some good stuff in those archives...

​​​​​​​all literature is archival
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 1:02 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 1:01 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
I guess I don't need "help" as the way things were has been fubar'd and there's no help for it...

my sense is that the new platform is designed to modify posters behavior to improve flow, thereby enhancing control by people to whom the content is irrelevant...

​​​​​​​bathwater kept quite nicely once baby is eliminated...
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 1:15 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 1:14 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2669 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö
Whatever we do, could we please not have like-functions and/or dislike-functions? :X It just seems very counterproductive to have an intentionally reaction-triggering system based on craving and aversion on a dharma forum. 
I agree! My concern is not about this being a Dhamma forum as I dislike those Likes and Dislikes in any shape or form. Its simply put its a LAZY reply and those who wrote the original post might actually benefit from a more personal verbal reply (the one with words in it) ! 

I really hate those LIKE buttons on Awakened Network! If you have no time to reply , well ... dont effn reply emoticon but if you do have time then compose a personal reply with "words of wisdom, let it beeee, let it be".

Yeah, so long story short, Im with Pippi Langstrump on this one emoticon emoticon emoticon 
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 1:20 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/4/21 1:17 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
terry
I guess I don't need "help" as the way things were has been fubar'd and there's no help for it...

my sense is that the new platform is designed to modify posters behavior to improve flow, thereby enhancing control by people to whom the content is irrelevant...

​​​​​​​bathwater kept quite nicely once baby is eliminated...


It's much simpler than that terry.
Previously DhO was running on Liferay 6. Liferay 6 had security issues that made the DhO vulnerable and DhO got hacked as you remember. So it had to be upgraded to Liferay 7. They upgraded it to Liferay 7, but Liferay 7 has removed some of the features that were used in DhO previously, so that is why this thread exits, to talk about the possible options. Simple.
  
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terry, modified 3 Years ago at 2/6/21 2:48 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/6/21 2:47 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 2424 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
I must be stupid then.


I was going to just start a thread so I could perhaps participate somehow and can't figure out how to do that.

No doubt it is simple.

I wonder if i post a thousand words if it will take a half hour or just fail...
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Siavash ', modified 3 Years ago at 2/6/21 4:21 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/6/21 3:36 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Liferay has its private customers and good income from that, and it seems that they don't care much about their open source message board (which is used here), and its user-friendliness. That is what I meant by simple, other than the fact that DhO needed an upgrade.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 3 Years ago at 2/7/21 3:57 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/7/21 3:57 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Are you saying that I'm Pippi Långstrump or that she's on our side too? Either way - Yay! emoticon
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Noah D, modified 3 Years ago at 2/10/21 6:42 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/10/21 6:41 PM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
I saw some comments that discourse looks less than ideal in the suttacentral instance. I wanted to add that another forum im on (unfortunately it's invite only) looks completely different on discourse.  So I think the specifics are highly customizable beyond mere cosmetic variations.
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Chris M, modified 3 Years ago at 2/11/21 6:55 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/11/21 6:54 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 5104 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Just a brief note: Liferay is highly customizable, too. It has a lot of powerful options, formats, and functions. The downside of using customizable forum software is that it's more difficult to implement and maintain. It requires training and/or a lot of time to tap into the power of customization. The changes we've seen recently here on DhO after the upgrade are due to the loss of the customizations that were implemented on the pre-upgrade forum software.
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J W, modified 3 Years ago at 2/11/21 9:57 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/11/21 9:54 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 671 Join Date: 2/11/20 Recent Posts
terry-

"not even a top button, have to scroll all the way every time...<br /><br />what?"

Little shortcut I do while we wait for our new fancy software to get installed,
Command+Down Arrow (scrolls all the way down the page)
Or END or CTRL+END, if you are on Windows...
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 3 Years ago at 2/11/21 11:29 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/11/21 11:29 AM

RE: Discourse Forum vs Liferay: Thoughts?

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Thanks for all the indeas and pointing out the Wiki hack: I think I fixed the Wiki, anyway, but unclear how they managed to edit it, as the permissions appear correct. Will contine to ponder best options vs staying with Liferay vs custom development of Liferay.

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