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I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-19 17:37
by jzdudek
In the process of troubleshooting a graphics problem, I did an internet search using, among other terms, the keywords: debian, user, forums, and located another forum that bears an uncanny resemblance to this one: http://www.debianuserforums.org. What's the relationship between the two, if any?

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-19 18:09
by dasein
Think of DUF as a "fork" of FDN. ;)

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-20 08:51
by Randicus
another forum that bears an uncanny resemblance to this one
Might be because they are both fora of Debian users? Now that I have pointed out the obvious, :twisted: the short story is that many DFN members (most of the knowledgeable ones) left and started DUF. This board is still strong, but lacking knowledgeable members. (Most have left.) DUF has faded to the point of being in danger.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-20 09:41
by llivv
dasein wrote:Think of DUF as a "fork" of FDN. ;)
or maybe a
pitchfork

:lol:

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-20 23:57
by golinux
Some history. IIRC DUF was started as a result of this controversy.

"Free Cynwulf now" -- an analogy
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=59929

Justice was served, an apology to the forum members
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=59842

And a few months later . . .

The Decline of this Forum
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=67232

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-21 02:15
by Birdy
forums.debian.net is abandandoned.
As long you don't consider a post which says "please set your thread as solved" as administration.
Me shitting, you say? Front page, click on "the team" at the bottom of the page. Ever see any of those people? Are they still alive at all?

Will forums.debian.net recover? I doubt it. The remaining few staff members still got enough nuncupate will to keep out anyone worth it
(In a shithole it really ain't no big problem if a dump is dropped in the wrong corner).
You can't blame them for it, btw. They are volunteers and destroyed this forum in their free time. You can't expect any more from volunteers (they did their best to destroy it, then vanished in voluneer's nirvana).
(i could point out that Debian is done by volunteers too ... let's not be confusing).

-
"The internet is seriously broken" dude from irc, to me.
^^ That. But at least there is free porn'n stuff.

"It was nearly a magical place"
telemachus

Let's hope i didn't answer you question.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-21 03:19
by Randicus
Not completely abandoned. Mez shows up every March for a week or two and makes as many as half-a-dozen posts! :shock:
That is the yearly celebration of forum bliss and Mez glorification.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-21 08:22
by vbrummond
I am still here, hello. :)

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-21 09:34
by Randicus
I am still here, hello. :)
Sorry I am rarely around, I work most days.
Having to work for a living sucks, doesn't it? :cry:

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-22 03:57
by llivv
this thread brings back sweet memories from day of yore.
seasons greetings, yall

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-22 04:02
by golinux
Happy solstice!

(Thankfully the yearly rituals that follow will soon be over . . .)

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-22 07:30
by vbrummond
Randicus wrote:Having to work for a living sucks, doesn't it? :cry:
No, having to work 9 days in a row does.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-22 12:13
by saulgoode
Birdy wrote:forums.debian.net is abandandoned.
As long you don't consider a post which says "please set your thread as solved" as administration.
... Front page, click on "the team" at the bottom of the page. Ever see any of those people? Are they still alive at all?
In the case of forum administration, it is misguided to conclude that a lack of evidence of activity is equivalent to evidence of a lack of activity. Over the past three days, the logs show over 130 actions taken by 10 different members of "the team". This quick sampling is typical of what is done on a daily basis by members of the forum staff. Hardly what one would expect from people who weren't "still alive" or who lacked interest in maintaining the forum.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-22 15:50
by Birdy
saulgoode wrote:
Birdy wrote:forums.debian.net is abandandoned.
As long you don't consider a post which says "please set your thread as solved" as administration.
... Front page, click on "the team" at the bottom of the page. Ever see any of those people? Are they still alive at all?
In the case of forum administration, it is misguided to conclude that a lack of evidence of activity is equivalent to evidence of a lack of activity. Over the past three days, the logs show over 130 actions taken by 10 different members of "the team". This quick sampling is typical of what is done on a daily basis by members of the forum staff. Hardly what one would expect from people who weren't "still alive" or who lacked interest in maintaining the forum.
You know better.
Two moderators resigned and that was completely ignored by the top level forum administration. One of those two was craigevil, the other was you.
You know it, i know it, and i got no idea why you try to hide that fact.
I for one know at minimum of a third administrator who said he doesn't want to go on, and it was completely ignored too (He didn't say it in public, so i won't do it neither).

I didn't deny that just something is getting done. If you consider just doing something as doing it good, then i have to disagree.
quantity is not quality.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-23 03:10
by Randicus
saulgoode wrote:In the case of forum administration, it is misguided to conclude that a lack of evidence of activity is equivalent to evidence of a lack of activity.
Username Joined Posts
1 Mez 24 Apr 2009 224
2 Ganneff 01 Mar 2012 1
I am not presumptuous enough to speak for others, but I my mind, when the people in charge ignore the board, for all intents and purposes, it is abandoned. Mez makes half-a-dozen posts every March and this Ganneff person has only made one post, ever. Ask anyone who has sent a PM to any of the top dogs if their PMs have received replies. They either ignore messages or never "bother" to check. In other words, they completely ignore the board they are supposedly in charge of.

Some of the lower level "staff" do participate and conduct administrative duties. As much as their efforts are appreciated, the fact is, the helmsmen have abandoned the rudder and are holed up in their cabins, while the people taking care of the board are bailing water from the sinking ship.

My guess is, now that the 100,000 spam accounts have been removed, when Mez returns in March he will remove the "administrator's" power to delete accounts and return them to moderator status.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-23 07:58
by vbrummond
If the time comes that this place no longer becomes interesting to visit, I will probably just start frequenting irc instead.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-24 02:53
by /tmp
Randicus wrote:I am not presumptuous enough to speak for others, but I my mind, when the people in charge ignore the board, for all intents and purposes, it is abandoned.
Birdy wrote:Will forums.debian.net recover? I doubt it.
From an administration point of view, yes, we have issues to resolve. However, for every difficult situation or troll post there are terrific contributions of insight or humor. As a community we can make these boards as great as we want them to be. One of the ways I do my part to help make this a better place is to put serious time and effort into answering questions...even if those questions seem "obvious" or "simple."

From the post "How to Help Someone use a Computer"
Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions.
Regarding The Decline of this Forum
lou wrote: lack of interest in learning [GNU/] Linux...
'googling' is an alien concept...
instant gratification is the norm of the day
Thus far in my life I have found the above mentioned issues to be indicative of a flawed social and traditional educational system rather than specific to computing. What I have observed is that some people are unmotivated to do anything because that is the attitude they have inherited from their elders and/or peers.

Through patience, a positive attitude and compassion we can help break this cycle. :)

lou wrote: Noobies pissing in the soup...
some of them have never been to debian.org,
know nothing of the Social Contract...
their Microsoft habits is all they practice.
Free Software is more than just a price; it is an entire shift in the philosophical, legal, technological and ethical ways of computing. Since our [the Free Software community's] way of solving problems is antithetical to the way proprietary companies instruct their userbases how to use computers, there will be frustrations.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-24 03:29
by Bulkley
The doppelganger, as the OP calls it, only gets a couple of posts per day. I don't know why anyone sees it as a threat to this forum. I think a bigger threat is a combination of hand held devices and social media. People are gravitating away from desktops and traditional forums. Desktops and forums will be around for a while yet but they don't dominate computing like they did a couple of years ago.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-24 04:33
by /tmp
Bulkley wrote: I think a bigger threat is a combination of hand held devices and social media. People are gravitating away from desktops and traditional forums. Desktops and forums will be around for a while yet but they don't dominate computing like they did a couple of years ago.
That's an interesting way to look at it. I used to use a forum reader called Tapatalk until the developer purposefully broke the paid application to force people to "upgrade" to a new version.

Re: I found your forum doppelganger

Posted: 2013-12-24 08:20
by alderaan
vbrummond wrote:If the time comes that this place no longer becomes interesting to visit, I will probably just start frequenting irc instead.
You might find that the Debian mailing lists are interesting and full of knowledge.
IRC is great but lists and forums contain knowledge that is useful and available forever.

Try this one first:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/

and keep trying:
http://lists.debian.org/