Forum Assistance: a question about the forums

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fanderal

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Seems this particular forum (Forum Assistance) is a popular place. Folks keep posting here but don't realize it's for help using the site, not for help with their OS or computer.

Of the 20 most recent threads since August 2012, only four of them are questions about the site. Only one of those four got a reply but was soon abandoned and left unresolved. The forum title hasn't changed for clarity, and those 16 remaining threads haven't been moved so others might notice and respond. Yep, many of those threads got some kind of response.

What I'm seeing are threads with zero replies but, in fact, do have replies; double posted threads because of software errors; the intro thread I started and replied to a few hours ago still shows the last reply was yesterday afternoon; no auto-subscribe sent to my regular email when starting a thread... and more.

This seems a friendly place and I'd like to support its success, but I think using the forums is more difficult than it needs to be. Kinda defeats the purpose of putting folks together when they hafta hunt through a bunch of individual threads just to see if there's been a reply or follow a discussion. At other places, a quick glance at a forum's threads offers the same info. Maybe editing some of the under-five-posts member attributes might help?

My question... will anything mentioned here be addressed/implemented to make the forums easier to use?
 


Ditto! This forum's software is buggy. When I finish writing this and click on "Post," I will get an error message indicating that the post failed. Naturally I would want to try again, but if I do I'll get a second error message telling me I have to wait longer between posts. So I refresh the page (after clicking on yet another warning about leaving the page), and sure enough - there's my "failed" post, successfully posted.

The forum appears to be unmoderated as well, since posts are not moved to the appropriate sub-forum, allowed to go unanswered for months on end, and one profanity-laced thread in Member Introductions has not been removed.

I half expect to find the site shut down whenever I visit, for apparent lack of anyone to maintain it. I thought maybe someone from tuxers.com would know what's going on (since there's a sub-forum for that "group (?)," but tuxers.com appears to be just a blog rather than a group.

It would be a shame for this cool domain name to go to waste (again?). But it looks for all appearances as though this site has been abandoned by those who created it and failed to desgnate anyone to help maintain it.

I'm going to see if this thread gets any kind of response from a moderator/owner/operator/representative/custodian/whatever, and if not, after another few weeks, I reckon I'll just be moving along.

Mildly ticked off,
Artim
 
Thanks for those links! I'll likely be visiting those later today. In another week or so if it's just the same old stuff here, I'll likely just abandon this one. The only post I care about is the one warning kids to stay off that stupid Diaspora social network.
 
It would be a shame for this cool domain name to go to waste

Thanks, Artim, my thoughts as well.

Of the linked sites, LinuxQuestions has the most traffic, a lot of sharp people and does a great job keeping the atmosphere friendly and helpful. JustLinux is kinda quiet but the core group is friendly, thoroughly know their stuff and have been around Linux since the late 90's. LinuxForums is a good site, too. I've read the TechGuy forums more for friends' Windows stuff, which is their strong suit, than for Linux.



There are plenty of other places to go

Yes, there are, and I've read and posted at the sites you mentioned. However, politely shooting the messenger for stating the obvious and asking a question doesn't address the reason for this thread... or the question.

Nope, I didn't start the thread so everyone could jump in and badmouth or complain about the site. Quite the opposite and clearly stated in my first post: "I'd like to support its success." But that doesn't mean I'm gonna stick around for weeks, hoping for an admin's answer or a change to the forums.

The PTB will reply, or not...
 
I'm with you, I'd love to see this site succeed, and I'll give it month before I give up on it. Hopefully one of the moderators or administrators will see this thread and respond. Thanks, Fanderal, for starting it.

Artim
 
YW, Artim, appreciate your comments.

A few minutes ago I tried to send a PM to Rob, the admin, to mention this thread. Finally remembered I needed to have 5 posts to do it... then I realized I already had six and this post brings the total to seven. Lol...
 
Well at the bottom of the index page there's a little indicator of who is online. Last night and earlier today "Rob" apparently was online here. He hasn't replied to this thread, but I'd be interested to know if he replied to your PM. The profanity-laced thread in Member Introductions is still there, unedited, and unmoderated as of this evening. It isn't looking good from where I'm sitting so far.

Artim
 
Guess I wasn't too clear. I wasn't able to send Rob a PM... it was blocked. Tried it a couple of times but kept getting "You must have at least 5 posts to send a PM." Thought about it and realized I did have more than 5 posts when I tried the PM.

This forum isn't the only one run by the admin. I sent a PM this afternoon at one of the other sites but haven't seen a reply so far.
 
Artim, I got an answer. Went to check for a reply after posting here last night and found no record of the PM I'd sent. Tried to send you a PM with some info but was blocked by the "need to have 5 posts." I'm done here. Linuxforums dot org is where I often stop by to read. If you don't mind me saying so, your knowledge and approach would be better served, and appreciated, at any of the other Linux forums.
 
Hey there guys - It's been a while since i've had some time to go through and make sure everything is working correctly on here - I'll take a look and try to generate some errors myself to see whats going on, etc..

On a side note - I noticed that one of the tables was marked as crashed.. I just repaired it. Could be the reason for the issues lately.

Rob
 
Since this post we've changed over to a different forum software and have also changed the domain name from linuxforum.com to linux.org..

I'm going through this section now and moving non 'forum assistance' type questions into the proper places :)
 
Hey there,

This thread is 6 years old :) . We rarely have issues with members on here and have a great group of users and moderators that are super friendly..

I'm generally the type to let the users police themselves for the most part. Users are allowed to do things here that they may not be able to do on other sites like post links to other Linux sites (we actually do that a lot when we find valuable info elsewhere that we think will help people!).

Anyway - that's our opinion. If there's a problem user, and it's obvious, we'll ban them. But that probably only happens like once/year (unless they're just a spammer - which happens daily).
 

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