![[TEST] Document Foundation Community](https://communitytest.documentfoundation.org/images/discourse-logo-sketch.png){kind=logo}
Since I got no response to an earlier post to this list, I attempted
to post in the Ask forum. Numerous attempts to post failed. I guess a
bug report in Bugzilla is now the only option.
I recall some murmurings about TDF seeking an alternative to the Ask
software. In my opinion, this should happen sooner rather than later.
Dave
Dave,
I never had a problem with ask. I just get there the easy way by clicking Help -> Get help online.
Type you question (or keyword) to find equivalent questions and answers, after that click the orange button to ask the question.
Success,
Rob.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Rob.
Unfortunately my experience of Ask is the total opposite of yours.
I log into Ask enter my question, add the details, tags, go through
the "I'm not a robot" reCAPTCHA and click the "Ask Your Question"
button and ZIP, nothing happens.
Tried with 4 different browsers and 3 OS, with same result.
Dave
Hi Don,
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Yes, as I said in my previous post "I log into Ask".
Even though I am not a fan of forums, I have posted to Ask in the past
and I was able to get my question listed. I guess there is some kind
of pretend AI sniffing at Ask questions and coming up with false
positives. Although I find it impossible to see anything in my very
reasonable and rational question which would trigger this defect.
Dave
Dave,
Like Rob, I've never had a problem with the mechanics of asking on AskLibO, but a few weeks ago asked a "meta"-question related to yours ("LO help communities", Jan.21, if you want to look it up in Nabble): How to determine the best place to ask a question. LO has a rich panoply of help resources -- most notably AsLibO and this list, with some great people sharing their knowledge on both, but usually (with notable exceptions) staying within one venue. [AskLibO tends to get more traffic than this list.]
Given that diversity, and the fact that time is limited, it's perfectly reasonable that people with knowledge, and a conscientious willingness to share it, simply won't see questions for which they might have answers. I don't know how to mitigate that problem, because I don't know how to integrate the web-based AskLibO with a mailing list (or even with the web-based Nabble forum).
Reading between lines of the archives, I infer that the Ask system is or was a project of Drew Jensen, who has been extremely helpful also as a content contributor to LO in lots of ways, including on this list (and the earlier OO list), as well as on AskLibO. Your LO email address indicates that you may know him or have worked with him. Maybe you could take it up with him directly on both these issues. Likely he has answers about your posting problems, and he may have thoughts, from his Ask experience, about the number of questions that don't make it to the full range of people with answers. If there are concerns in TDF about the Ask system, that could be a particularly apt discussion at this time.
John
Hi all,
Just to let you know, we, at TDF, are working on replacing the Ask forum
by Discourse. We have had a test period with the members regularly
answering on Ask. If Discourse is not fully replacing a Q&A forum, it is
the most appropriate at the moment and we can extend it to serve other
purposes on the future.
The difficulty is currently to migrate the Ask archive to Discourse, but
that will be worked out by our infra team on the next months.
Concerning your difficulty to post on the forum, Dave, you should ask
for help on the website list, I will have a look at your account on Ask,
but it's better to describe your problem on this list.
Dave,
[...]
Kind regards
Sophie
Just to let you know, we, at TDF, are working on replacing the Ask forum
by Discourse.
Hi sophi, that is a good news! Thank you very much and we are waiting
happily for that. Greetings to all LibreOffice developers.
Hi Sophie,
Thanks for the update on the possible future of our forum.
I doubt my account is the cause of the issue, because I have no trouble
logging into Ask. The problem only manifests itself when I try to post.
However, I will follow your recommendation and post on the website list.
Best Regards
Dave
Looks interesting, and seems to have potential to subsume also the mailing list system. (It needs to be integrated with a MTA, which it does not provide, but merging web and mailing list forums seems to be an explicit objective.) If so, that could solve the problem of which forum (AskLibO or mailing list) to use for a question. Is the intent to also migrate the mailing lists to Discourse?
BTW, it was amusing to learn that not everyone is a fan. The Wikipedia description is the third hit on a search "discourse forum" in both DuckDuckGo and Google, but they summarize it differently:
Google: "Discourse is an open source Internet forum and mailing list management software application ..."
DuckDuckGo: "Discourse is an awful open source Internet forum and mailing list management software application ..."
FWIW, I look forward to seeing it,
-John
> Just to let you know, we, at TDF, are working on replacing the Ask
> forum by Discourse. We have had a test period with the members
> regularly answering on Ask. If Discourse is not fully replacing a
> Q&A forum, it is the most appropriate at the moment and we can
> extend it to serve other purposes on the future.
> The difficulty is currently to migrate the Ask archive to
> Discourse, but that will be worked out by our infra team on the
> next months.Looks interesting, and seems to have potential to subsume also the
mailing list system. (It needs to be integrated with a MTA, which it
does not provide, but merging web and mailing list forums seems to be
an explicit objective.) If so, that could solve the problem of which
forum (AskLibO or mailing list) to use for a question. Is the intent
to also migrate the mailing lists to Discourse?
I seriously hope not! Discourse works OK as a forum but the mailing
list side is very much a poor cousin. Far easier and better to use a
plain mailing list IME & IMHO.
Hi all,
Just to let you know, we, at TDF, are working on replacing the Ask
forum by Discourse. We have had a test period with the members
regularly answering on Ask. If Discourse is not fully replacing a
Q&A forum, it is the most appropriate at the moment and we can
extend it to serve other purposes on the future.
The difficulty is currently to migrate the Ask archive to
Discourse, but that will be worked out by our infra team on the
next months.Looks interesting, and seems to have potential to subsume also the
mailing list system. (It needs to be integrated with a MTA, which it
does not provide, but merging web and mailing list forums seems to be
an explicit objective.) If so, that could solve the problem of which
forum (AskLibO or mailing list) to use for a question. Is the intent
to also migrate the mailing lists to Discourse?I seriously hope not! Discourse works OK as a forum but the mailing
list side is very much a poor cousin. Far easier and better to use a
plain mailing list IME & IMHO.
haha! this is always the same: some dislike it, others want it
absolutely 
So to make it clear, we will not replace mailing lists,
but maybe, as we do between IRC/Telegram/Matrix, add a bridge between
Discourse and the mailing lists, something like what Nabble is doing
currently (allowing then to remove Nabble which is an external service),
making everybody happy This will be in a second step, moving from Ask
is the first, we have several languages hosted on Ask, so it's a huge move.
Cheers
Sophie
I sympathize, Dave; I also like a mailing list or newsgroup. It sounds like you know Discourse and find the mailing list side wanting. But if Discourse is an attempt to serve in a single forum users comfortable in both media, it may at least /become/ a solution to the problem of a fragmented user knowledge base.
I'm hopeful,
-John
>>
>>> Just to let you know, we, at TDF, are working on replacing the Ask
>>> forum by Discourse. We have had a test period with the members
>>> regularly answering on Ask. If Discourse is not fully replacing a
>>> Q&A forum, it is the most appropriate at the moment and we can
>>> extend it to serve other purposes on the future. ...
>>
>> Looks interesting, and seems to have potential to subsume also the
>> mailing list system. (It needs to be integrated with a MTA, which
>> it does not provide, but merging web and mailing list forums seems
>> to be an explicit objective.) If so, that could solve the problem
>> of which forum (AskLibO or mailing list) to use for a question. Is
>> the intent to also migrate the mailing lists to Discourse?
>
> I seriously hope not! Discourse works OK as a forum but the mailing
> list side is very much a poor cousin. Far easier and better to use a
> plain mailing list IME & IMHO.I sympathize, Dave; I also like a mailing list or newsgroup. It
sounds like you know Discourse and find the mailing list side
wanting. But if Discourse is an attempt to serve in a single forum
users comfortable in both media, it may at least /become/ a solution
to the problem of a fragmented user knowledge base.
In my experience it becomes a way of forcing the email users to use the
web forum instead. The only purpose the email interface serves in
practice is notifying of web posts.
Even a bridge as Sophie suggests is likely to kill the mailing list
IMHO.
...
... It sounds like you know Discourse and find the mailing list
side wanting. But if Discourse is an attempt to serve in a single
forum users comfortable in both media, it may at least /become/ a
solution to the problem of a fragmented user knowledge base.In my experience it becomes a way of forcing the email users to use
the web forum instead. The only purpose the email interface serves
in practice is notifying of web posts.
AskLibO already gives us that. I have to believe (and certainly hope) Discourse offers something more.
Even a bridge as Sophie suggests is likely to kill the mailing list IMHO.
If "kill" means changing the list address, that may be a price worth paying for a larger user base. (FTM, I wonder how the larger user base on AskLibO will react/adapt to Discourse.) If it means losing anyone now on the mailing list, I can only hope that is incorrect.
> ...
>> ... It sounds like you know Discourse and find the mailing list
>> side wanting. But if Discourse is an attempt to serve in a single
>> forum users comfortable in both media, it may at least /become/ a
>> solution to the problem of a fragmented user knowledge base.
>
> In my experience it becomes a way of forcing the email users to use
> the web forum instead. The only purpose the email interface serves
> in practice is notifying of web posts.AskLibO already gives us that. I have to believe (and certainly hope)
Discourse offers something more.> Even a bridge as Sophie suggests is likely to kill the mailing list
> IMHO.If "kill" means changing the list address,
Why on earth would you think 'kill' might mean changing a list address?
It means reducing the number of users of it to zero. i.e. the number of
users who use the mailing list and do not use the forum. The mailing
list will cease to exist as an entity. It will fall off its perch.