Go to main content

Textpattern CMS support forum

You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help

#13 2020-12-01 08:08:32

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Textpattern web servers - the next 18 months

Late reply. I missed this thread before. :}

gaekwad wrote #324089:

If all goes to plan, we should also be self-hosting Textpattern documentation.

Good to hear.

gaekwad wrote #324098:

I remember the Slack channel we had, and that fizzled out…

Just as well. Salesforce has bought Slack, apparently, and that makes me doubly glad I killed my slack account.

Offline

#14 2020-12-01 08:37:48

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,134
GitHub

Re: Textpattern web servers - the next 18 months

The OP laundry list is still valid, timescales have slipped a bit given COVID disruption on my professional stuff and a requirement to pay rent every month.

We’re definitely going to self-host docs, Phil has figured out all the Jekyll magic and I need half a day to slot it all in so it’s sustainable from there. At this rate, probably tail end of 2020, early 2021 for some movement on that.

Offline

#15 2020-12-01 08:44:43

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Textpattern web servers - the next 18 months

jakob wrote #324096:

I love the idea of a ‘safe/own space‘ for meetings / chat / video calls. But … how much will we use it? And do we risk watering down our presence/availability? . . . the forum isn’t hugely busy (compared with other fora) and if the frequent posters here on the forum shift to another communications channel, it will become ever less frequented.

While I’m happy Txp is off the centralised exploitation systems (FB, Slack, G+…) for community exchange, I still think there’s merit, now more than ever before, to supplement the forum with an alternative system. Whether or not it’s Matrix or Jitsi might still be worth kicking around, but my feeling is that a decentralised platform offers people advantages never available in web 1.0, namely better control over their own accounts and data.

I’ve mentioned before the idea of a Txp Mastodon instance, but it doesn’t have to be Mastodon. It could be any of a growing number of systems that follow the decentralised protocols. Neither does this mean you would have to merge with the fediverse, because you can easily use the systems as standalone platforms for your community. But you would also have the option, unlike now, to integrate with fediverse whenever desired, or even just select other special-interest instances in it.

I get that people like legacy information and expect it to always be there. Especially the librarians and archivists and digger-uppers of dirt. But that’s increasingly not the world we live in anymore, and forcing people, especially newcomers (which you can’t do anyway because people are getting wiser and won’t commit), to only use a legacy system that can’t easily be exited afterward, if at all, and that they are browbeat down for if they express wanting to, is not practical for growing the community. Not when the trend is moving away from it.

Another old chestnut, that will probably always remain so, but we should want to stop looking at the forum as the everything watering hole and answer base. Questions should be able to come from anywhere (at least more than one place), and then it’s resources like docs, tips, themes, etc that provide answers and solutions to those incoming and common questions. At that point, asking a question or giving someone a link to an answer can be done from any channel.

That’s not to say the forum isn’t important. Clearly there are many interesting and helpful conversations had here. The point is that maybe not all of them are necessarily or ideally in the right place. Imagine if we cut the forum in half. What would be the sections or types of provision that could be removed to other locations more in context to such enquiry and interest? That’s just rhetorical, not meant to pursue here, please; it’s just to suggest how to think into it. There’s a lot of redundancy, undoubtedly, and to my mind a fair few needless sticky posts (perhaps for nostalgia) that only exist because platforms are not better leveraged for communication. As I said, old chestnut, and I’m definitely not trying to spearhead a revolution by we greying and burned out farmers.

But an alternative means for exchange suited to the times and potential new interests of fresh people is a warranted consideration. That’s all I’m saying.

Last edited by Destry (2020-12-01 10:30:26)

Offline

#16 2020-12-05 20:33:13

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Textpattern web servers - the next 18 months

gaekwad wrote #324089:

The broad plan is to make the chat server (likely Matrix Synapse) available for self-registration and 24/7 use

Apparently there are a lot of bridges available for Matrix, too, including Mastodon. Maybe this could be a good way to employ the Txp masto account, through a bridge from your Matrix install.

I’m a little shaky on the details, but it seems you could set up a puppet connection, or double-puppet connection through the bridge and then auto-post to the Masto account with a bot. No humans needed on the Masto side at that point, though someone should probably watch the account there for human enquiries about the software, and whatever is being shared by the bot.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB