Radical changes coming

Hi Guys, long time no post.

In his initial post, repeated in later ones, Artashes noted that many of even the most popular discussions have entered a decline. I know this is true in the ones I follow most closely, about business managing and writing/editing.

I propose closing out and archiving all those large, unwieldy discussions. While many of them contain useful information, reading through thousands, or even mere hundreds, of posts takes time and energy, and so cuts into what should be the principal occupation of anyone reading them: a flourishing freelance practice of [you name it.].

Those of us who are historically minded might like access to these older discussions but, in many cases, information and standards have changed enough that I don't recommend relying on either business management or writing/editing information from even 3 years ago.

A new platform deserves new discussions.

(In addition, I've always found a lot of misinformation, or highly-localized information, floating around the discussions I monitor. This is not helpful.)

Originally Posted by Lowengard I propose closing out and archiving all those large, unwieldy discussions. While many of them contain useful information, reading through thousands, or even mere hundreds, of posts takes time and energy, and so cuts into what should be the principal occupation of anyone reading them: a flourishing freelance practice of [you name it.]. Those of us who are historically minded might like access to these older discussions but, in many cases, information and standards have changed enough that I don't recommend relying on either business management or writing/editing information from even 3 years ago.

Thank you. I would like to support this decision in closing very old discussions. I will have to go forum-to-forum eventually to make sure some very old subjects cannot be brought back to life. The beauty of the new platform is that it is based on new/recent posts being displayed first, in a continuous flow of discussions and questions that members then can segregate further by subject. This will naturally help eliminate older subjects and promote new ones.

As for the new software, Discourse isn't as simple as I thought initially. Requires Ruby on Rails, so that means getting a brand new server that will support it. Vanilla doesn't have that problem. We will still try to port TF into Discourse (things are being done in a test-server environment) and in the meantime there is still space to talk about the pros and cons and see what people gravitate towards.

My least favorite part of Discourse is the thread information pane that is located below the original post of every discussion (attached). To me it seems like a less useful piece of information. Vanilla doesn't have it, but then the way you work with the thread is more traditional. Overall, Discourse does look like a more interesting framework.

Attached Images

discourse thread info.png (108.1 KB, 11 views)

Artashes, you have to have faith that old and worthwhile information in discussions, or entire discussions, for that matter, will re-emerge organically in the new platform, whichever one you choose.

I say this based on my more-than-a-decade experience teaching business management in online programs. I learned that there is no need to seed discussions before the course opens, as someone will always ask those critical questions. In addition I believe there is some value to redefining those critical questions by asking them anew, and some advantage to having them answered by someone likely to be monitoring the discussion (and so available for follow-up questions).

This wouldn't solve the issues around such questions as "help! the taxman is auditing me! what should I do?" but IMO that's an issue of how to ask a question, and not how to provide a useful answer.


Is there a way you could simply archive all of the current platform?

Originally Posted by Lowengard I learned that there is no need to seed discussions before the course opens, as someone will always ask those critical questions. In addition I believe there is some value to redefining those critical questions by asking them anew, and some advantage to having them answered by someone likely to be monitoring the discussion (and so available for follow-up questions). Is there a way you could simply archive all of the current platform?

In regard to archiving, I have to discuss what's possible with the developer.

However, if your proposal is to completely leave all content behind and starting with a blank sheet, I am worried about that move for a few reasons. Apart from a ton of great early content that will help us get some organic traffic and ranking in the engines, we still have hundreds of old members, some of whom might give the community a chance if they see real changes taking place. These are the members who at some point have given up on TF, but they are also the ones who built the community. If we were to strip them of their status by removing/archiving content, this might lead to them being upset.

Between the two (removing content and archiving), I of course pick archiving. The simplest way to achieve that would be to lock old discussions so they do not get bumped if someone where to decide to reply to them. That way we'll have members generating new discussions, even if those critical questions are the same. Times have changed, solutions have changed, so on that I agree with you.