Ubuntu has announced the discontinuation of it user forum and all support forums will now be on their Discourse forum found here.
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ubuntu's official forums going down.
- Thread starter kc1di
- Start date
Might as well add this link.
What's posted at the top in the blue explains it all.
What's posted at the top in the blue explains it all.
- Hello, Unregistered. This is an update to the transition of the forums to Ubuntu Discourse.
As previously notified, this site is no longer accepting new support threads pending its closure . Any such threads will be closed. Anyone needing support for Ubuntu or the official flavours should seek help at Ubuntu Discourse (see below).
Forum members will still be able to post to open threads until this site becomes read-only on or about January 9th 2025. This is so that those who had started help threads just before the transition are not left without support. Please do not post requests for help to others' threads during this period. Thread hijack posts, "me-too's" and similar will be removed from public view.
If you have not already done so, you can log into Ubuntu Discourse using the same Ubuntu One SSO account that is used for logging into ubuntuforums. If you are new to Ubuntu Discourse please read this page first. Please be aware that after your first login you will not be able to post any topic in Ubuntu Discourse until you have spent some time exploring the site and reading some posts. The Support and Help section will be the first to be open to you for posting. Thereafter, as you gain trust, you will find other sections of Discourse open to you.
If you are experiencing any difficulty using Discourse and are unable to post there for help, have a look at this thread which will be monitored by the transition team, and where you may ask for help if the answer is not there already.
The closing of the Ubuntu forum is the end of an era for some of us Ubuntu users.
Ubuntu forum was my go to forum where I learned what I needed to learn about Linux.
Sad to see it close down although I understand the reason and the why it is needed.
I believe most if not all of the official Ubuntu flavors are all now using Discourse platform so not really any surprise.
Oh well I'm sure the transition to the new forum will be fine for all who migrate from the old forum to the new forum.
I don't see it as a bad change just a different change.
My understanding with the old Ubuntu forum was it's software being outdated to provide the proper security.
Ubuntu Discourse will be the new go to to find solutions and learn about Ubuntu although a very different style and layout.
It may take some of us older users (myself) a little time to learn to navigate the Discourse forum and where to post specific questions.
Yes only time will tell the outcome of the new forum change.
Nothing really new to add here, but the migration post that was posted to the fridge can be found here
fridge.ubuntu.com
It's primary text was the text as appeared on UF screens (at the time; prior to Dec 9 changes; notice originally posted Nov 21 but notice updated a couple of times). It also includes a thanks to staff of UF, some of whom are now mods on the discourse/community, others opting to retire.
Some flavors still have their own discourse sites running, but those may close in time anyway, moving to the Ubuntu discourse reduces costs, Ubuntu/Canonical pay for main discourse; flavors pay for their own sites/infrastructure via donations.
Ubuntu Fridge | Ubuntu Forums Migration
fridge.ubuntu.com
It's primary text was the text as appeared on UF screens (at the time; prior to Dec 9 changes; notice originally posted Nov 21 but notice updated a couple of times). It also includes a thanks to staff of UF, some of whom are now mods on the discourse/community, others opting to retire.
Some flavors still have their own discourse sites running, but those may close in time anyway, moving to the Ubuntu discourse reduces costs, Ubuntu/Canonical pay for main discourse; flavors pay for their own sites/infrastructure via donations.
Yeah. from what I recall, they weren't using a 'standard' forum software package at all. As with everything Canonical, it was something of a mish-mash; partly phpBB, partly IPBoard, and a boat-load of highly customized, and to a large degree, "re-coded" extensions/plugins.
However they went about it, migration was never going to be simple and/or straight-forward....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the same with the Puppy Forum when John de Murga passed away. Erik ('rockedge'), our current web-master/admin, had his work cut-out when trying to transfer the old Forum's database - with well over a million posts! - to the new, up-to-date forum software in late 2019. The old Forum was still running on way-outdated, series-2 phpBB software dating all the way back to 2002.....so things got put on the 'back-burner' for 12-18 months or so until Erik had got the hang of the necessary processes.
He did manage it in the end, after several false starts and taking many more steps than would normally be necessary. They're still talking about the 'miracle' conversion on the phpBB forums even now, more than 4 years down the road, because no-one there believed a database conversion to even be possible from such ancient software..!
We're all very glad it worked, though.
Mike.
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AFAIK/or could tell, it was a roll-your-own solution that they had going on.
I can't blame them for moving on. I'm not sure that Discourse was a great choice but it is what it is...
Condobloke
Well-Known Member
@KGIII .... If you were organising the 'move', where would you have taken the forum to ? I am not 'up with' the ins and outs of discourse and etc....so I value your opinion.
I see their move as being quite innovative...a good move considering the influx of new users/disenchantment with windows etc....
But 'where' they set up, both to encourage more users and also to deal with the ongoing security problems, is an interesting question.
SMF or phpBB would be my first two choices, assuming they want to go with opensource software running the forum. Of the two, SMF is a bit better at dealing with exceptionally large forums. There are many free 'scripts' to create and manage forums. I've tinkered with many of them.
Full Disclosure: I was once a volunteer on the SMF dev team.
If you want to go with closed source, XenForo (what runs this site) and vBulletin are good choices. In this instance, I'd lean towards vBulletin because they're very good with large loads and are rock solid - especially in the security realm. vBulletin has also been around for a very long time.
What I would not do is what they were doing. I'd not want to maintain a custom code base. It's just a sunk cost factor and an ongoing expense that you can avoid by pushing the development and maintenance off on another company, for pay or for free.
Given the size and activity of the forum, I'd definitely want one with 'enterprise-level' support. That'd be an acceptable expense to me - but I don't really know their financial situation and I don't want to speculate.
They could then move the people who were maintaining the forum's software to other tasks or let them go. With good support, they'll need fewer people and less time to keep things running smoothly and to get things running again when things do break.
Condobloke
Well-Known Member
I am currently reading about SMF
Home of Open Source Free Forum Community Software
Free Open Source Forum Software
www.simplemachines.org
There are a ton of add-ons and themes available. They don't really have 'enterprise support' as an option, or anything like that. You can pay them to remove the SMF branding, but that's not actually paying for support. If anything, that's paying to support the project.
If you've been online long enough, you'll have encountered all of the forum types mentioned.
There are newer, trendy, hip forum options. I can't think of a reason to recommend any of them over the more reliable solutions. When your forum is that large, and has that much activity, you probably don't want to rely on some individual who may get bored of the project and stop development.
Of all of them, XenForo is the youngest - I'm pretty sure. The rest have been around for decades.
@KGIII ;-
From what I can see of it, Discourse is one of the afore-mentioned newer, younger, more "trendy" solutions out there. Personally, I don't like it. The Zorin forums AND Haiku forums both had perfectly acceptable existing set-ups, and both switched to Discourse.
It's interesting to note that in both cases, their userbases seem to have dropped-off considerably since the move. It appears to appeal to those who love the modern 'flat' look, and stuff like that sliding date/post widget that flips up and down the side of the page as you move about. Me, I find it rather 'off-putting'.
But it seems as though it's gradually becoming one of the emerging, "hip" forum choices out there nowadays....
Each to their own, of course.
I LIKE phpBB. It's actually a LOT more versatile than many would think. The majority of forums that use it mostly seem to stick with the standard, default set-up.....but I have seen the odd forum that's making use of all its many & varied bells'n'whistles, and unless you hit the bottom of the page and actually see the phpBB logo, you'd never guess in a million years what they were using.
Merely the addition of a handful of their plugins and themes can make all the difference, and allow users to largely customize its appearance to suit their own personal tastes.
Mike.
From what I can see of it, Discourse is one of the afore-mentioned newer, younger, more "trendy" solutions out there. Personally, I don't like it. The Zorin forums AND Haiku forums both had perfectly acceptable existing set-ups, and both switched to Discourse.
It's interesting to note that in both cases, their userbases seem to have dropped-off considerably since the move. It appears to appeal to those who love the modern 'flat' look, and stuff like that sliding date/post widget that flips up and down the side of the page as you move about. Me, I find it rather 'off-putting'.
But it seems as though it's gradually becoming one of the emerging, "hip" forum choices out there nowadays....
Each to their own, of course.
I LIKE phpBB. It's actually a LOT more versatile than many would think. The majority of forums that use it mostly seem to stick with the standard, default set-up.....but I have seen the odd forum that's making use of all its many & varied bells'n'whistles, and unless you hit the bottom of the page and actually see the phpBB logo, you'd never guess in a million years what they were using.
Merely the addition of a handful of their plugins and themes can make all the difference, and allow users to largely customize its appearance to suit their own personal tastes.
Mike.
I am not a huge fan.
I'd expect that. It could be anticipated, getting more people to use AskUbuntu.
It's solid and has a ton of options. It's a good piece of software.
It's possible to take SMF and turn it into a full-blown CMS, but it's not really the best tool for that. There's bound to be such an option for phpBB, but I've never used it.
Was sysadmin on a vBulletine based forum and converted that to XenForo. vB had problems with upgrades between major versions, XF had import routines for vB so it was a safer job.
XF has a good search function, and it is easy to improve it with google search.
XF has a good search function, and it is easy to improve it with google search.
I have visited may forums over the years and have found them all informative and useful. But this new move to Discourse not sure I like it. It's the people that make the forum and hope Linux. org stay the same 
That sounds right to me, and I'm sure you checked. Of all the forum software listed, it is indeed the youngest. A subset of people probably wouldn't use it because it's not 'new' enough. They want their more modern stuff to stay hip and trendy.
I'm not sure when I first saw a XenForo instance. I probably panned it when I saw that it wasn't open source. Having spent some time with it now, it's not terrible. I'd go so far as to say it is fit for purpose. It isn't great on mobile devices, but I suspect that's a matter of the theme.
I'm not sure that Canonical had anything to do with the old Ubuntu forum.Yeah. from what I recall, they weren't using a 'standard' forum software package at all. As with everything Canonical, it was something of a mish-mash; partly phpBB, partly IPBoard, and a boat-load of highly customized, and to a large degree, "re-coded" extensions/plugins.
However they went about it, migration was never going to be simple and/or straight-forward....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike.
I could be wrong.
From what I've read and seen the migration from the old forum to Discourse was fairly smooth.
An existing forum member just had to go and sign into the Discourse forum and agree to the rules and that's all.
If an existing forum member wants to change their forum name to a new forum name they could do it then.
@The Duck :-
You could also be right.
My own, regular involvement with the old Ubuntu Forums finished probably around late January/early February 2015. That's nearly 10 years ago.
I've looked in on them a number of times over the intervening years, but that's usually from following links. I know up until very recently, although not used for a long time, my a/c was still functional.
I very much doubt that long-inactive accounts would have been carried forward to the new venue, however.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's only in the last couple of years that I've had any kind of interest in the forum software itself, and from what I could tell, although I recognized certain components and followed a couple of discussion threads where other members were talking about the forum software in use, nobody seemed entirely clear as to who actually "paid the bills".....and nobody 'volunteered' those facts, either.
Hence why I say that you could be correct in that assertion. It's a moot point, anyway; now the forum has moved to a new venue, I doubt anything will be forthcoming about the circumstances of the old venue. Everyone will be looking forward.....not back.
Mike.
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