The Discourse software can redirect the forum to a specific domain, but for that you will have to write to Discourse support, because without a valid domain the forum will not load, and we certainly do not have root access to the physical machine it is on.
@frabrunelle should write to them from the email with which he was registered in the forum and when he give me the IP of the forum I will be able to create a dev.autonomi.community
I think when you guys say redirect, you mean host.
You can redirect a domain to another domain, or you can host a site on a new domain. You can’t redirect the dev forum with an expired domain, you can host at a new domain.
The forum itself is hosted on the Discourse servers and I doubt that it has been stopped, but its software can only work with a domain, if you type the IP it will not load. That’s why I say redirection, there is such an option that we also used for the current forum. Accordingly, it cannot be used for the dev forum, because since there is no domain, we do not have access to its admin menu and @frabrunelle have to write an email to their support to move it manually.
Seems like there is unnecessary tension here. @happybeing I see your perspective and I see what you have contributed to the dev forum should be seen and readable. I also see that it wasn’t as popular or functional to others besides maybe a select few. Putting Jim on blast doesn’t actually solve anything either.
No decision will lead to everyone being happy, happy being. So we must bite our lip, refrain from burning bridges, and focus on the future.
The overall vision is the same so let’s not get lost in the imperfections.
Hopefully by weeks end we can find a way to resolve the accessibility of archived content, create a poll with options to move forward, act on the results shortly after.
It’s still going to be a long bumpy ride I’m guessing but we’be lasted this long. Not trying to give in to sunken cost fallacy but persistence does usually pay off.
There is a point where biting my lip was no longer healthy for the project. As noted, I’m not really meaning to have a go at Jim, though it’s impossible to ignore him being the main interface and the way things have been handled for months - whatever the reasons.
You know well how committed I am to the success of the project and I would not be voicing these things if I wasn’t seriously concerned this is now in jeopardy.
David has responded to some comments I made in another thread and gives some re-assurance. But it doesn’t change unless it changes, and we have next to no time for that now.
But I am not going to keep on with this. I just feel that you deserve a response here so don’t want to ignore you.
Thanks, though I’m primarily referring to these discussions. I’m not saying it won’t be a bigger step away, that depends. But right now I’m working on my stuff, clearing some technical debt.
We had a team chat about the dev forum yesterday. So please know your requests are not falling on deaf ears!
Largely what we got to was:
@happybeing and dev forum proponents have good points (and they’re not alone, the team do see benefits here too)
Buuutt at the moment we don’t have bandwidth to readily have devs across more places. (It is just not practical to have an acceptable feedback loop just now).
We want to get to a place where we can have the team look at something more dedicated to devs and be responsive there.
In the meantime, we touched on the idea (which has been punted here) that for now perhaps we can have a dedicated topic on this forum for dev work.
And down the line we work towards reestablishing a dev forum, ideally with some dedicated team members to help folk or funnel things to more specific devs as required.
That’s kind of where we got to and is admittedly a bit “kick the can-y”, but does reflect the reality of things just now.
I’m unsure if that’s enough for folks? But maybe with that aim in mind and if someone is able to get a domain setup for the dev forum, we’re working towards a better path?
Personally I see that as a decently fair compromise given there is consideration of Maidsafe dev availability.
Working towards a dedicated space but more importantly, dedicated support and technical necessities will be far better than the mysterious void we currently inhabit.
I will second the kick the can-y but your acknowledgment and honesty are very much appreciated. This is a start, thanks @joshuef.
It would be good to poll on what community devs would be interested in within the stated parameters.
We are also pushing (internally) to have the 4 data types (register, chunk, transaction and account packet) completed and documented properly immediately. It should be a quick win and give devs and actual documented API to code to.
I think some mini apps will be great and help test the network properly in all its forms. So I am super keen on getting that small part of work done and made critical right now. I feel very strongly that the client API is not where it should be and I agree with @happybeing that it’s essential for launch and not tomorrow, but yesterday. So I am pushing hard for this as I see everything else as secondary.
Just been informed the API will be published next week. I am pushing for an early preview for everyone to see it happening in real time.
This is progress and the team have been working very hard on it, just in silence, but I hope to change that and get you guys what you need and the team the praise they deserve for their work so far.
Very encouraging noises from David.
I just hope he is not overworking himself too soon. But I get the impression that he has been doing some effective “encouraging”
That is a sensible position - ie consistent with my arguments and calls into question why we should effectively kill off that forum indefinitely, including letting the domain go. There are 30 days since I reported the expiry to renew it, so it should still be possible.
I’d have thought that the existing forum could be the basis for what comes later even if for a while it is suspended with a helpful notice pinned to the top, allowing access at least to what is there and some sense that it will be revived. I think most believe Discourse is for now the best option for this kind of thing, so I don’t see an argument for killing the domain, even if the content is hosted elsewhere.
Better still, how about even if the team aren’t over there, there are knowledgeable folk including myself who can answer most questions there - I still visit every single day to ensure nobody is left unanswered - and can relay or ping a member of the team should the occasional non-answered question arise. I’m happy to continue that and will restart posting and discussions there if it has a future.
The docs David is talking about would help an enormous amount in relieving team members of having to jump into answer things there, including if we had a dedicated topic here. It is clear that the team don’t have time for this in a topic here or “in the other place.” So I don’t see a topic here as helping the team much either - my criticism was never about the team not being available. I’ve always been able to get answers when asked directly, but have held back a lot to avoid distracting them. Knowing they could use our support makes this easy to solve I think. Being left wondering what the heck is needed has been a problem.
So if it is a matter of the team not having time to go there, I’ll pick that up, and probably other devs who were already starting to be there when we were stopped in our tracks, will share that with me.
This would be a very big win for the team and everyone else, not just devs but anyone coming to the project who wants the facts. And it would take some load of the team once in place and understood outside the team.
The importance of having third parties working on apps - not just so we have apps and demos - but to test the network has been falling on deaf ears so I’m very happy to see David championing this.
Great to hear. This was promised by end August so again it is unsatisfactory that it isn’t officially announced it won’t quite make it, even if it is a small delay. It is already way late while being incredibly important to the success of the project. Delays without communication, lack of engagement with questions about this and so on, that have undermined my confidence in the project. This instance may seem like a small thing, but it is one of many and over time they add up to what appears to be a bigger problem.
So a couple of key bits:
@joshuef I hear your proposal but don’t see why myself and other devs can’t shield the team from having to hang out on the other forum, and answer lots of questions. So please can we renew the domain and keep it going? There should still be time to renew that domain.
@dirvine I’m very relieved to hear you championing these things. I think API and third party use is vital to have way before project launch. I still have serious concerns about the fitness of the network itself, and I’m not the only one, for a launch by end October. There’s now very little time to address that, and I still don’t understand the dissonance between seeming to have shut down marketing for months because of that, and not being able to consider a revised schedule. Yes we need goals and focus, but pressuring a team for months to deliver something that has much of the time slipped away as fast as progress is made (my judgement!), leads to mistakes, things being overlooked, burnout and footguns IMO. I spent a decade as a developer and product researcher in a software product company with devs growing from two to dozens in that time. Our only income was from the flagship product, yet we had product release delays from weeks to a year in one case, and in that decade I worked normal hours, and over a weekend once or maybe twice - and mostly to get the quiet for focus! Same for almost everyone in that company, except the founders of course . That company was a success year on year until into exit. No external finance, just £100K from the founders at incorporation.
@dirvine my focus has been on the forum, but there’s another important reason to recover that domain, and time is short.
Not only will we lose traffic that should be redirected if we kill forum, we risk the domain being taken over and visitors being sent elsewhere. To a porn site, random scam, or even the forum for a rival project.
It’s never a good idea to let an established domain go without managing the process. And .org domains are cheap.
) and agreed on October, but a stumbling block was hit in execution.
and calls into question why we should effectively kill off that forum indefinitely, including letting the domain go. There are 30 days since I reported the expiry to renew it, so it should still be possible.
So I don’t see a topic here as helping the team much either - my criticism was never about the team not being available. I’ve always been able to get answers when asked directly, but have held back a lot to avoid distracting them. Knowing they could use our support makes this easy to solve I think. Being left wondering what the heck is needed has been a problem.
. That company was a success year on year until into exit. No external finance, just £100K from the founders at incorporation.