Launch of New Forums!

[nabsltd]

It says something like "Solved by username in post#X" - post#X is a direct link to the solution.

Since the post didn't actually solve the problem as posted by the user, I still had to scroll to see if there was an actual solution to not being able to find the right version of the driver. Despite the user having incompatible hardware, the question was exactly what I would have asked.

So, it should not have been marked as solved, or else the initial post (and thread title) should have been changed to reflect the "solution".

 

[danb35]

So, it should not have been marked as solved

Fair enough, but that's equally a problem anywhere a user can mark a thread as solved. I like Discourse's mechanism for doing so better than the one here, but "false positives" are always an issue.

 

[Etorix]

While I realize this may seem rushed from the community perspective, it's something we've been discussing here for 2+ years internally, so perhaps our perspective is that this is somewhat old news. Again, my apologies since this wasn't communicated well with the rest of the community wider first.

Fair enough, and obviously, it's your choice.
But it is painfully obvious from the current forum that the "organiser" or "classifier" mindset is not present among iX staff, and it is even more painfully obvious that without some good organisation the Discourse forum will just be a big, unsearchable, blob where new users wil eternally ask and re-ask the same questions without ever finding previous threads on the same topic, long drowned by everything that had been posted in-between.

@nabsltd has pointed to "VM" and "Linux" as being ambiguous—and "Linux" is probably not needed at all, unless it is meant to be "Linux VM on TrueNAS", this is not to be a general Linux help forum, is it?
I have suggested labels for "Networking", "Drives", and "Configuration/Build". But here I say "label" because its not clear to me how the dual system of "Categories" and "Tags" is supposed to play out, so I would struggle to provide viable suggestions.

 

[nabsltd]

And where it truly is a group effort, a user can post with "I combined X, Y, and Z, and that fixed it," and mark that as the solution.

Which is going to happen once in a blue moon.

This is one reason moderators need to be essentially full time. They need to be on top of threads that have no marked solution, and press users to actually mark a solution in such a way that the first post and a single post are all you need.

Sure, it's true of any forum, but this is the chance to get this mindset into all the users to make the forums better. One way to do this is have a tag that essentially means "something isn't working right", and require it to be applied to posts that meet that criteria. Then, topics tagged that way that aren't marked "Solved" after a certain amount of time get flagged for review by a moderator.

There are basically very few types of starting posts:

1. I'm thinking of doing something...can I have some advice?
   This is the typical new install/upgrade hardware/try something weird post. It should not be marked as a "problem", and should not have a "Solved" post. I suggest there should be a tag for posts like this.
2. I can't figure out how to do something, or something is broken.
   These are the true "problems", and need to be marked as such and should have either a "Solved" post or an iX employee can mark the topic as an actual bug that will be fixed in a future release.
3. Something isn't the way I want it to be.
   This can be a perceived performance issue, a suggestion, etc. It shouldn't have a "problem" tag to start with, but that might be added later if the discussion reveals an actual issue.
4. Here's a way to perform a particular task, or solve a problem.
   This is your typical resource post.

I'm sure I've missed some, but the point is that now is the time to identify these groupings and start using the appropriate tags. With so few Categories in the new forum, my take is that a topic-starting post should be required to have appropriate tags, and a post without one of a group of tags (defined by the system to match a list like the above) wouldn't even be allowed.

 

[nabsltd]

I have suggested labels for "Networking", "Drives", and "Configuration/Build". But here I say "label" because its not clear to me how the dual system of "Categories" and "Tags" is supposed to play out, so I would struggle to provide viable suggestions.

For me, "Categories" should be fairly broad, and what is there already isn't bad, but there are some issues:

1. TrueNAS General needs to go, and be split into Core and Scale (like here) and "CORE" and "SCALE" need to be removed as tags. Otherwise, virtually everything is going to go into a single category, and only tags will keep it manageable. And, Core and Scale do so many things so very much different that they really shouldn't be mixed together.
2. "Apps and Virtualization" absolutely should not exist as a category. Because Core and Scale do those things so very differently, there should be tags for things like "Docker", "Jails", "VM hosting", etc., and the post should then go into either the "Core" or "Scale" category.
3. Many posts are about how to start with TrueNAS (hardware mostly, but other topics). So many, in fact that a separate "I don't have a TrueNAS install but want to talk about how to start" category might be appropriate.
4. "General Discussion" needs to be either nuked entirely (I personally don't want to see people posting "hi, I'm new here" without an actual tech question, especially since Discourse puts a banner on a first post asking you to welcome the person) or split into an actual "off topic" category and a "technology topics related to using TrueNAS, like network switches, hardware not for a TrueNAS install, hypervisors that connect to TrueNAS, etc.".

As for tags, I like your idea of more specific than "hardware". Your ideas of "Networking" and "Drives" are good, and there could be a few more. As I said, "Configuration/Build" should likely be a category.

Tags also need to exist for all the ways TrueNAS is used to provide storage (iSCSI, SMB, NFS, Apple or TimeMachine, etc.), plus tags for "Feature Request", "Bug" (not for all users), and tags for versions (Cobia, Dragonfly, 13.3, etc.). You really can't have too many tags, as long as each one has a well-defined meaning.

 

[Koop]

I feel like the new forum should have way more Categories and/or Tags. Things seem way too general in the large buckets that exist now with the categories. Basically what @nabsltd just said.

 

[Stux]

Which is mostly useless, since threads with no apparent solution (of which there are many) can't be necro'd with "Same issue...was there any resolution?"

Essentially, anything that is a continuing issue will now require reading in two places, which means an external search engine is the only way to see everything that has already been written.

Most of the threads were FreeNAS threads and were already locked and unable to be necroed.

At least they can be referenced from the new forum.

 

[ThreeDee]

hmm .. can't seem to log in over at new forums ..

 

[danb35]

hmm .. can't seem to log in over at new forums ..

That's because you need to make a new account--users from here haven't transferred to there.

 

[ThreeDee]

ah

 

[victort]

If the forum will go read only, can folks still login?

 

[winnielinnie]

If the forum will go read only, can folks still login?

We better be able to, since I still am trying to figure out a way to download / archive the threads I was in (and export into HTML format.)

 

[NASbox]

As it so happens, we also do Discord as well ;)

I didn't see an answer to the original "Why the change?"

Is IX hosting the forum or are the outsourcing it as SaaS to eliminate the management expense?

Just created a user ID on the new forum, and I'd say I agree with most of the negative sentiment here.

 

[NASbox]

So, if this is not a joke, what about Resources?

Some of us spent many hours creating some, and that makes answering questions occasionally easier.

This forum is well covered by the search engines, and many times a decent search query eliminates the need to repost a question that a dedicated user (like Arwen and others) has spent a lot of time for the benefit of others. When warranted, I have taken the time to go back to my original post and put a TLDR; summary of the answer to an issue to save others from having to weed though several pages of posts unnecessarily. .

 

[NASbox]

Personally, the UI feels way too crammed and dispersive. Not intuitive at all.
Then there are other more fundamental issues, but all come from the (flawled) base concept imho.

"Personally, the UI feels way too crammed and dispersive." I second this one. Also not being able to edit posts isn't good for long content. Great for a slack chat with minimal content but sucks for this type of forum where in depth information is often needed.

 

[Stux]

I may be wrong, but I think being able to edit your posts comes once you reach level 1

 

[NASbox]

I routinely use the following user attributes to determine how I respond.

• Joined date
• Message count
• Likes

The first is useful to help guess at the meaning of a post, when less details are given. Same with message count. If both are just recent, (joined a few days ago and just a few messages), I can guess they are new to TrueNAS and ZFS. That does not mean that I treat them poorly. It may mean I explain more in detail of why something is the way it is.

As for the likes, they give feedback to both the receiver and other posts. I can "like" a post to indicate that I think the information is good and correct, (or just like it). Plus, this allows someone reading it to get an idea of what is useful information.

Now it would be nice to maintain the categories, like "MVP" or "Hall of Famer". Just so we get an idea of how much they have contributed. But, I guess we can use message count...

YES, YES, YES!!!!! History and reputation are very important when evaluating advice, and how to give advice.

 

[NASbox]

I have to say, the feelings of a purge towards CORE and everything related (including the userbase) is real.

Might be a purge of SCALE as well since it is the same forum.

 

[NASbox]

I fear that some of the experienced users around here will either leave or don't visit as frequently and the new forums may slowly die eventually.

Unfortunately maybe not so slowly. There are a number of really experienced and dedicated members here, and if they go, this forum will be of limited value unless other come in to replace them.

 

[Stux]

Memes! TrueNAS, ZFS, and related | (Share your own!)

What's the problem with VMWare anyway? Pricing doesn't seem excessive imho. Most users in many industries have individual licenses costing more than vSphere etc.

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