No it’s totally fair. I don’t like stuff like that either!
Is this more or less going to be the new Forum Technical Feedback thread? I know it’s still all crazy with the forum, but, I’d like to make a suggestion for addressing something once things calm down. Perhaps if we make a new Forum Feedback thread, this post can be moved there? Perhaps this is also more Forum Community Feedback, too.
I’m really happy to see the tags for non English language threads, so, thanks for that. With that in mind perhaps it would behoove the admins/moderators to make that aspect of the forum more clearly communicated in the onboarding process, if it isn’t there already? Pointing towards that functionality for new incoming users might help those threads become more of a known entity and perhaps they’ll even become more active.
Perhaps it could also be made clearer that if you want to make a non English language thread in a language that doesn’t yet have a tag, how you would request that to be done. I mean, sheesh, how come there isn’t a written Japanese language learning thread on here? Aren’t a bunch of you at least casually learning Japanese? Am I underestimating how annoying it is to type kanji or kana on a Roman alphabet keyboard?
If we further emphasize community members to converse in other languages, perhaps it would also be prudent to add something in the moderation policies for how flags or instances of misconduct would need to be handled when the conversation or material in question is not in English, since the process is just going to be markedly less fair and accurate if the presiding moderators aren’t fluent in the language. That’s not my decision, but, if it were, I could see one or more of the following things being stated in the moderation guidelines:
- Non-English language content just has to be explicitly stated to be basically unmoderated if no currently active admins or moderators are fluent in the language in question (not ideal but it’s a realistic line to draw).
- The above would have to go along with some sort of clause about how this community is primarily an English language one, and while you don’t have to be fluent in English to hang out here, moderation decisions may have to come down to whether or not one can explain a situation with a reasonable level of clarity to a moderator in English.
- Users who are flagging unwelcome posts in a language other than English should be prepared to use moderation tools to a higher standard of good faith, and to work with moderation closer. For example, you may have to provide at least a rough translation and explanation of why the content is unwelcome (if perhaps because it relies on idioms or particular cultural references that can’t be easily transliterated, or something of that nature).
- As an alternative to the above, or perhaps in tandem with it, the policies can be oblique in stating that if necessary the moderators will need to make certain moderation decisions based on software based translations of forum content, which of course aren’t as reliable as actual knowledge of the language and culture.
In any case it’s not unfair to anyone to say that there won’t be parity with regards to administration and moderation as it pertains to discussion or content in languages other than English.
I mean, I know I’m overthinking this, as I do, but I’ve always thought it would be really cool to have more of a multi-lingual emphasis around here.
The entire feedback category is now the location for requests, suggestions, issues. So everyone should ideally make a thread per issue/request/feedback and try to avoid creating a big thread of various kinds of requests. I will definitely not be reading every post in a thread that is just miscellaneous requests mixed with discussion. I think it’s best to assume the @moderators will also not read every post in a thread.
As for your request here. I would make it as another post. Since it the viability, expectations, and work involved probably needs to be discussed. Right now I’m not sure anyone has the capacity to really expend on what you’re suggesting beyond the tags that we’ve created.
But to summarize what I think you’re looking for is:
- Add mention of language tags to onboarding process.
- Explain in onbording how to request language tags for new languages. (my guess would be to make a thread in the feedback category)
- How will moderation be handled in other languages.
Again make a thread and this can be discussed further. Thanks!
2 Likes
look at this it’s possible is all I’m saying
11 Likes
what if we just did sigs on for a limited trial period, then did a poll about keeping them long term?
8 Likes
The people yearn for sigs
5 Likes
- It is not possible to make this default on for all users; users must intentionally opt in to have a signature experience.
What are we waiting for
4 Likes
How do we feel about this feature?
Personally, I don’t think I would like being singled out like that.
4 Likes
I’ve hidden this so people shouldn’t see it now.
9 Likes
Evidently I’ve done something dumb to break the forum for me and Googling for the answer hasn’t helped.
The forums work as normal when I access them on my phone, but all images save for avatars appear as broken links when using Firefox on my PC. If I try to access the forums on Chrome I just get an animated loading sign of: “…”
I was doing very above-board stuff on the internet last night, so I had my VPN on. I’ve never tried accessing the site via VPN before, so I’m assuming that’s what’s caused the issues.
Any help is much appreciated.
Edit: Nevermind, evidently things are now broken on my phone as well. I’m guessing this is a general forums issue from looking at another thread and my internet activities are beyond reproach.
1 Like
I’m also on firefox on pc and all images are broken for me as well.
1 Like
The admin team is aware of the issue and @Shane is looking into our broken images. Thanks for everyone’s patience!
6 Likes
Should be fixed now.
8 Likes
The forum feels way more like old times with all the tweaks made to the interface. Thank you for all your hard work @shane!!
I wanted to let you know that image uploads are still limited to 4MB, as well as some other quirks of this platform I’m running up against that feel over-designed/micromanage-y…
I can’t type run-on ellipses without backslashing them out, otherwise they get converted to a single-character “…” no matter the length. This is cramping my style!
I’ve noticed it will even convert two dots .. to … and IMHO this is a prescriptivist modification of the particular voices people write internet posts with.
(fyi for anyone using macOS: option + ; on an ANSI keyboard will produce “…”)
I got this warning for reviving a thread that hadn’t been replied to in over half a year, which runs counter to the established attitude of the community here. It didn’t stop me from reviving the thread, but it does have a redditbrained hostility towards “necroposting” that I’m worried will discourage new posters from engaging with old topics.
I just got this error for attempting to wish someone a happy birthday in the Tell Everyone It’s Your Birthday thread. My post was going to be two lines, both header-formatted.
10 Likes
Discourse has a few defaults that certainly are… aggressive in their attitudes toward guiding posts! Don’t worry about them. It’s just forum software, it’s not the community culture!
We’ll poke around at that and see if it can be disabled. Agree it’s contrary to our forum culture. A new member recently PMed me to ask if it was OK to post in an older thread and I emphatically replied yes!
10 Likes
You can now do uploads up to 20mb. “Revive this topic?” is disabled now.
5 Likes
This seems to be caused because of “The minimum entropy (unique characters, non-english count for more) required for a post body.” was set to 7. I’ve set it to 1 now.
3 Likes
another thing that seems off to me is the amount of numbers/tracking info you can see on anyone’s user profile. I understand wanting to know if someone is a new user or how active they are, but all this is a little creepy.
2 Likes
Yeah most of it just kind of nonsense. I’ve been meaning to look into removing it from public view.
