Life In 19x19

quantumf wrote:http://www.discourse.org/ for instance. I'm sure that it isn't the only that's moved on from 90's style php web sites.

Ah yeah, I've seen it on ogs. I'm not a fan of the interface, but it's the content that matters most.

oren wrote:

quantumf wrote:http://www.discourse.org/ for instance. I'm sure that it isn't the only that's moved on from 90's style php web sites.

Ah yeah, I've seen it on ogs. I'm not a fan of the interface, but it's the content that matters most.

It's one of those interfaces that's nice on mobile/tablet touchscreen and not so nice to use/look at on a desktop browser.

quantumf wrote:http://www.discourse.org/ for instance. I'm sure that it isn't the only that's moved on from 90's style php web sites.

Being at home in “classical” forums since around 2001, I was quite annoyed when I first encountered the discourse UI in the OGS forum … it took me a few days to get accustomed to it. Meanwhile I LOVE it. It’s so much easier (and faster) to find things, to subscribe to sub-forums or to exclude them from being shown in “new posts”, and perhaps best of all: paste images from the clipboard, and <whoosh> there they are.

But I’m happy with L19 as it is currently, better to have it as it is than to lose it. Oh well, if L19 changed to a “modern” UI I’d certainly like it, but I wouldn’t want to risk losing contributors here.

I'm having trouble understanding what people are seeing as so off-putting about the current forum software here. It's not all that pretty, but what's truly missing or broken? Maybe I don't see the issues because I always come here on a PC, as opposed to a tablet?

Maybe we can start another thread to document the "shortcomings"? But that thread will be useless, and just a source of a lot of carping, unless there is effective way to translate it into action (assuming there is anyone willing to do the work).

So, I have to ask... who runs this place, anyway?

-- Gohst

Gohst wrote:I'm having trouble understanding what people are seeing as so off-putting about the current forum software here. It's not all that pretty, but what's truly missing or broken? Maybe I don't see the issues because I always come here on a PC, as opposed to a tablet?

I agree; I really like this style of forum. But then, I also visit almost exclusively from a desktop/laptop. After reading the thread about what kind of hardware everyone uses for reading or posting on L19, I tried loading the site on my phone; now I know exactly what the gripe is! Honestly, though, I think just a Twitter bootstrap style would be good enough to make it easily useable on mobile devices (that, plus disabling the tapatalk nag-prompt).

Gohst wrote:I'm having trouble understanding what people are seeing as so off-putting about the current forum software here. It's not all that pretty, but what's truly missing or broken?

That's not the point Herman was making, I think. Herman said that when you force a hard integration of the ecosystem with one particular forum/format for the discussions, you increase resistance to move to something better. You may ask "what better? what's wrong with this?" but that's a common mistake of humanity. Not all progress came from fixing something broken. New shapes arise from new capabilities that have come about through all sorts of events and evolutions. Who would have thought that keeping in touch with friends was fundamentally broken up untile the nineties? Then facebook came along and it unlocked an apparent humongous need for people to stay in touch with peers ALL THE *** TIME. The caps are there because I really think it's running out of hand, but again, that's not the point. Who would have thought you want to follow what famous people have to say in 140 characters? What was so fundamentally broken with hotels or taxis before Airbnb and Uber came along? The latter progress is hampered by guild protectionism in the law, by the way. And not always for the worse of it.

I could ramble on. You get the point. Harness the current form into your integral environment and any progress, inadvertent as it may be, might be slowed down.