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Getting Rid of Forums and Moving to Reddit?

drobbins

By drobbins
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drobbins Proficient

drobbins

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  • Funtoo Linux BDFL
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Hi all,

 

I'm seriously considering shutting down our funtoo forums and just redirecting everyone over to https://www.reddit.com/r/funtoo/for 'forums'.

 

Reason: reddit gets funtoo a lot more exposure and provides a popular forums-style discussion area.

 

Before making a decision, I want to get feedback from people here. It is cool to have our own forums but there is also some downside that only a fraction of Funtoo users participate in forums and new users may have an easier time posting questions to reddit. It also ensures that our funtoo reddit community will be 'staffed' with true funtoo users, which is important.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

-Daniel

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hencb Newbie

hencb

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I think it's a good idea,

 

Advantages:

- If it lowers the strain on you guys and allows you to focus on more important issues, I'm all for it.

- More exposure is great.

 

But there are downsides (or rather, issues to be resolved):

 

Automation:

 

this one hurts the most in the long run. Can we connect reddit to the chat in the same way the bugtracker and git commits are

integrated into the chat? Reddit might be more interested in displaying ads than helping us with using their platform. And you

cannot display ads to an automated script.

 

- How do you create backups of reddit posts?

I mean, not everyone posts to the bug tracker, and if for example a bug is resolved in a reddit post, how do you index that?

I've heard of mailing lists containing priceless information on the fine details of how a distro works, without backups. If you loose

the mailing list, you'd be in serious trouble.

 

- How do you distinguish real funtoo users from gentoo users on reddit?

I'm not against them helping people, but I really would like some visual identification that someone actually using funtoo is

replying to issues. The more funtoo diverges from gentoo (like the epro profiles) the more we'll be in trouble with gentoo

users assuming they know what they are doing.

If I see a reddit post, I really want to be able to glance at a reddit post and see that a funtoo user responded.

 

Also, there are also guides on the funtoo forums on how to setup stuff e.g.:

http://forums.funtoo.org/blog/13/entry-15-setting-up-a-web-server-nginx

http://forums.funtoo.org/blog/10/entry-11-adding-ssl-to-tengine-nginx/

 

- If we're in the same boat as reddit, we also inherit the reddit community

All the trolling, spamming, DDoSing etc. If reddit goes down (hell, github was taken

down some time ago) do I loose anything?

 

I think they shouldn't be lost, A half-decent backup would be great.

But I'd make a good backup of the forums and store it somewhere safe.

 

Also relevant:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1148643/pg1

This is a serious issue: reddit is a company and should be distrusted in the same manner as any other company.

They're not a community: they are a company.

 

I'd recommend to do a complete search on the bad sides of reddit, and to do it with multiple search engines.

I'd post more but I'm kinda strapped for time this week.

 

TL;DR I'm for it, but make sure you're aware of the disadvantages.

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nrc Rookie

nrc

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I think henchb has hit on most of my concerns.  I follow a few subreddits because that's where the community of interest has collected.  I'm not really a fan of the interface.  The lack of structure and organization are bothersome to me.  I don't suppose that in a community this size that it will be that big of a problem, but for larger distros it's chaos.

 

That said, if the consensus is that it would benefit Funtoo through better exposure and less effort required to maintain a forum, then I'm fine with it.

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drobbins Proficient

drobbins

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A lot of good points. I especially like the constructive negative comments which make it helpful to think through the pros and cons.

 

While we don't have a lot of inbound links from reddit, we do have a ton of organic traffic flowing in from reddit.

 

-Daniel

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mitzip Newbie

mitzip

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Posted

Not a direct answer, but some things to think about along same general lines.

 

I'm seeing a big trend in moving away from forums to more instant communication, like Gitter or Slack with IRC bridges enabled.

 

I'm a big fan of important problems solved in instant communications being posted in wiki and not relying on a forum to archive solutions.

 

The "Yours Network", reddit fixed with bitcoin (voting, curating and publishing are rewarded monetarily in a decentralized manner), is launching early 2017.

https://tech.yours.org/articles/2016-10-19-micropayments-web-wallet/

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Tassie_Tux Newbie

Tassie_Tux

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Let's give it a go. :) Also, if reddit does not work out there is nothing stopping us restarting a forum or even moving on to another platform altogether.

 

 

Before 'deactivating' the Forum we should try to transfer these guides to the Wiki.

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Sandro Newbie

Sandro

Posted
Posted
I hoped there were many more "lovers of Funtoo" ... while many who use Gentoo remain on Gentoo. I have tried to open a small gap in facebook to make known Funtoo :)

But it is not a "fervent space" ..... as, for example, "Gentoo Italy".

 

Sin peche this forum as it is building was built very well in my opinion is really very nice.

 

I hope that the change is not negative about new users.

Anyway ... I repeat .... Funtoo must never dies :P :P :P

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erikr Newbie

erikr

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Sorry to say I will most likely not join on the reddit.

 

I have earlier looked at using reddit but turned it down. I have trouble finding myself around on reddit and the "modern forms style" like facebook etc. I really appreciate this old fashion board-style forums with topics. It is difficult to find what's in there and everything is a mess. 

 

I this move happens I don't know how to proceed, perhaps take my calls in the gentoo forums or join reddit in case of critical problems that I fail to solve and stay with that.

 

BTW I don't have facebook or twitter either. 

 

// Erik

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dougbmorris Newbie

dougbmorris

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I don't have experience posting on reddit, just reading the occasional post. Riddle me this: Is there spam at the funtoo reddit? I'm looking at you, "M? r?al story ?b?ut s?x d?ting sit?", and "M? real ??p?rien?? with girl for ?ou guys". I understand about wanting to grow the Funtoo user base. Jenny, I might not be smart man, but I know who the linux distro genius is. I will just go with whatever BDFL decides. And if there is a floss get-hot-chicks package, I will add it to my @world asap.

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biocyberman Newbie

biocyberman

Posted
Posted

This seems to be settled, but I still would like to say something anyway because of my experience with reddit. I find reddit interface visually messy, and I don't know how forums structure would be translated into reddit's one. Therefore  I support to keep both the forums and reddit page, even though I don't know what requires from administration point of view.

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