Chris, that sounds all good and I must admit that it might be actually the right approach for this forum. Switching to Discourse or other standard software, although it would be more sophisticated and user-friendly, could destroy some of the charm that makes out this website.

Christoph, for me part of the charm is that this interface has become comfortable over the years. While other software might be more sophisticated, it might not be more user-friendly. Chris' software has always been easy to use, and while it lacks a few features, such as being able to edit posts after they are sent, these additions can be made without substantively changing the easy and positive experience of communicating with each other in a good way.

Daly

Christoph wrote:

Chris, that sounds all good and I must admit that it might be actually
the right approach for this forum. Switching to Discourse or other
standard software, although it would be more sophisticated and
user-friendly, could destroy some of the charm that makes out this
website.

That sounds about right, Chris. A refresh, the ability to edit my own posts, and I'd be good. Muting, hiding a poster is nice but not necessary. I like the idea of a community curated catalog. I often use the site to search for apps to see if it's been posted before.

Chris Murtland wrote:

Thanks to all for the ideas and feedback.

The look and feel will be very similar, just slightly more contemporary,
mainly as a result of using a CSS framework to make everything work well
on mobile. The color scheme and general layout will remain the same. All
URLs will be the same, and no one will have to register again or
anything like that.

I think there is something to be said for having a sort of "dated"
approach on a forum filled with people who do things like install DOS
outliners in 2020. :-D

Hopefully it will be an improvement while remaining in the original
spirit. I have a lot of ideas that should be more feasible once the code
is modernized. For example, I'd love to be able to move toward a
community curated catalog of all the software we discuss so people can
browse by platform, features, etc. And then it would be great to also
show the relevant forum discussions for each application...

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Christoph, for me part of the charm is that this interface has become
comfortable over the years. While other software might be more
sophisticated, it might not be more user-friendly. Chris' software has
always been easy to use, and while it lacks a few features, such as
being able to edit posts after they are sent, these additions can be
made without substantively changing the easy and positive experience of
communicating with each other in a good way.

That may be true. However, the forum should also be attractive to newcomers and maybe younger people. You're right in that the main problem is lack of features (e.g. editing notes, subscribing, bookmarks, reminders, better search, rich-text formatting etc), not user-friendlyness. But yes, meanwhile I agree that having all these features may not be really necessary for this forum and may come with the drawbacks we already discussed.

Btw, an "edit" feature is not so simple to implement as it looks, because it can compromise the integrity of the online communication. It could be abused in forums where people accuse and troll one another, and then change postings and claim they never said something. That's why many platforms (like Twitter) don't allow editing or also store earlier versions for comparison. Luckily, this is not this kind of forum, and I guess nothing bad will happen if we simply allow editing in its simplest form.

Christoph wrote:

Yes, they have both, and both are very active. Discord is for the quick,
synchronous chats and ephemeral chatter, while the Discourse forum is
for the slower, asynchronous exchange of ideas, and for more structured
and long-living threads. It's a bit redundant to have both, but they
serve somewhat different purposes and therefore it works pretty well for
them. But I think Discord is not what we need here.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I'm intrigued by this whole Discourse/forum/mailing list vs. Discord/Slack/Gitter. I'm wondering if we're not going to see a move from the former to the latter, just like many people have moved much of their personal exchanges from email to messaging apps (Messages, WhatsApp, WeChat…). Of maybe this is just a temporary thing, and with time communities will find that low friction is less valuable than exchanges being more organized and searchable. Time will tell; and in the meantime, let's enjoy our old-style forum!

I am happy to go with the conservative view emerging here, but I would love the ability to 'filter out' posts about mac software, somehow. I have gotten excited about new software, only to be dashed on the rocks of my windows environment SOOOOO many times. (muting some voices would also be nice).

Christoph wrote:

Btw, an "edit" feature is not so simple to implement as it looks,
because it can compromise the integrity of the online communication. It
could be abused in forums where people accuse and troll one another, and
then change postings and claim they never said something. That's why
many platforms (like Twitter) don't allow editing or also store earlier
versions for comparison. Luckily, this is not this kind of forum, and I
guess nothing bad will happen if we simply allow editing in its simplest
form.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking one could edit one's posts within some time limit - basically allowing one to fix obvious mistakes or to add detail or clarification shortly after posting. We don't experience too much trolling, but it can make threads hard to follow if some of the relevant context is removed by the original poster.

Good idea, I think if the original post can be tagged with platform(s), that would allow people to ignore ones they're not interested in. Later, I could implement a literal filter.

MenAgerie wrote:

I am happy to go with the conservative view emerging here, but I would
love the ability to 'filter out' posts about mac software, somehow. I
have gotten excited about new software, only to be dashed on the rocks
of my windows environment SOOOOO many times. (muting some voices would
also be nice).

People are probably not going to tick all relevant platform filters, all of the time, anyway.

Also editing posts on forums software fall into two types:
* You can edit anytime (and/or delete post)
* There's a time limit on editing posts

I don't mind either way as this is my last post here.

Best wishes to all.
Bye.
Washere

washere wrote:

People are probably not going to tick all relevant platform filters, all
of the time, anyway.

Also editing posts on forums software fall into two types:
* You can edit anytime (and/or delete post)
* There's a time limit on editing posts

I don't mind either way as this is my last post here.

Best wishes to all.
Bye.
Washere

Why is that? I realize by answering that this won't be your last post.
If it is, best wishes to you also.

LB wrote:

Why is that? I realize by answering that this won't be your last post.
If it is, best wishes to you also.

Thank you for your kindness. It's mainly lack of time. I said before IMHO posting threads needs tending as do even posts, hence reluctance. I believe like the old days when I was a kid, then BBS then early web forums etc if someone says or asks something in your thread or even a post one should at least acknowledge, if not thank. Very rare these days! Also posts. I haven't had time to read most threads here for years. If someone quoted me and I didn't thank them and wished them best, I apologize, I didn't see it. So please no one mention me again, but in my heart I thank you all.

Back to topic: maybe "mention handles" as in some forums with an @ handle prefix to the username would be a good idea too, with notifications for the logged in user.

Best wishes to LB & ALL members & ALL readers here & your loved ones.
Goodbye.

MenAgerie wrote:

I am happy to go with the conservative view emerging here, but I would
love the ability to 'filter out' posts about mac software, somehow. I
have gotten excited about new software, only to be dashed on the rocks
of my windows environment SOOOOO many times. (muting some voices would
also be nice).

Yes, that's one of the issues I had in mind. Mac users are so spoiled in terms of productivity software and they often assume everyone owns a Mac.

Chris Murtland wrote:

Yeah, I was kind of thinking one could edit one's posts within some time
limit - basically allowing one to fix obvious mistakes or to add detail
or clarification shortly after posting.

Agreed, that's probably the best solution. And you won't need to care about keeping older versions then.

Best wishes to you. I am sorry to see you go. Even if you're not able to follow the forum as you might like, or as many of us did back in the day when things were new and time didn't seem so limited, you could still look in as time allowed. I think the word for it is "lurking", and there is noting wrong with that!

Daly

washere wrote:

LB wrote:
>
>Why is that? I realize by answering that this won't be your last post.
>If it is, best wishes to you also.
>

Thank you for your kindness. It's mainly lack of time. I said before
IMHO posting threads needs tending as do even posts, hence reluctance. I
believe like the old days when I was a kid, then BBS then early web
forums etc if someone says or asks something in your thread or even a
post one should at least acknowledge, if not thank. Very rare these
days! Also posts. I haven't had time to read most threads here for
years. If someone quoted me and I didn't thank them and wished them
best, I apologize, I didn't see it. So please no one mention me again,
but in my heart I thank you all.

Back to topic: maybe "mention handles" as in some forums with an @
handle prefix to the username would be a good idea too, with
notifications for the logged in user.

Best wishes to LB & ALL members & ALL readers here & your loved ones.
Goodbye.