(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Dear fellow Pups and Hounds,

With more than one forum acting flaky during the past few days, I'd like to suggest that we should set up a Puppy Forum in the Distro section at LinuxQuestions.org, where there are already thriving forums for several other distros, from the mainstream (Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora etc) to the niche (AmigoLinux, Yoper, for example). This would mean that we all have a primary refuge for those times when the Murga and Developer forums are out of action for whatever reason.

Aside from that advantage, it also means that some people would stumble upon Puppy by accident (LinuxQuestions.org is a very high traffic site, linked from a lot of other high traffic sites - notably DistroWatch.com), amounting to free publicity, and their forums are rigorously patrolled by a fulltime team of admins who kill spam and keep things running.

I have asked (without prejudice) the folks at LinuxQuestions.org what we would need to do to have a forum on their site. There are only 2 requirements: first, that the forum is linked to from the main Puppy site, and second that there be a commitment from a small team to share an admin account so that there is a regular presence on the forum from some knowledgeable Puppyists.

In practice, many of the distro forums on LQ.org are places where people get redirected to the distro's own forum. This is pretty much what the Vector guys do, for example.

What does everyone else think? Can it hurt to have people directed to this Puppy forum from outside, and to have a backup system against future problems?

Cheers,
Mark

Thanks for checking that out! yes, a positive response from me.
I don't want to continue my Developer Forum any longer anyway
-- I will attempt to extract the posts already in it.

I agree that too much diversity is a problem, but we also find putting all
the eggs in one basket is a disaster.
So, I'll keep my Developer News page going, and it now looks like it will
become a blog, which does provide limited feedback.
John's forum can stay as the main forum, especially considering the effort
John is putting into improving it -- though John will have to express his
opinion here.
And the linuxquestions.org forum can be the second/backup forum.
I will certainly put in time to answer questions on it.

BarryK wrote:Thanks for checking that out!

No worries, Barry.

I agree that too much diversity is a problem, but we also find putting all the eggs in one basket is a disaster.

You're picking up on something I said in amy first comment on your developer blog, but yes, that's why it seems like we need to have a way to keep working and communicating while facing up to the reality that no forum is going to have 100% uptime.

John's forum can stay as the main forum, especially considering the effort John is putting into improving it -- though John will have to express his opinion here.

Speaking for myself, I think John does a fantastic job, and I'm hoping that he will continue to do so. This should remain the primary forum, especially considering how much stored knowledge and experience is available here.

And the linuxquestions.org forum can be the second/backup forum. I will certainly put in time to answer questions on it.

Great. I'll be happy to do the same, as will other Puppy enthusiasts, I'm sure. What I envision is that mostly that forum would be used to direct people to the huge knowledgebase already present in this one and the wiki, and to act as a backup assembly point if there are any further problems here.

That is if is something that a relative newbie like me can answer. If not I can certainly point to the main forum/wiki. I agree that the additional forum will be a definite plus - let us know the specifics when you have them.

Sounds good, guys. I'm more than willing to check an additional forum and answer a few questions here and there, and this will make for a really good backup solution.

Barry, have you tried looking at the database in phpmyadmin? If it appears to be intact, a downloaded backup could be used to extract the posts. Hopefully your provider gives you the option, although so far they sound less than helpful.

Nathan

I think this is a good idea also.

BarryK wrote:John's forum can stay as the main forum, especially considering the effort
John is putting into improving it -- though John will have to express his
opinion here.

I am happy to continue here ...

My provider did get back to me and has done some upgrades to the current server that should avoid future outages, but I think we'll still migrate to a more powerful server in the next few weeks.

Cheers
JohnM

Given the positive responses to the suggestion, together with the lack of negative views, I have asked Jeremy at LinuxQuestions.org what we need to do next. He says:

The first thing I would need is a list of LQ usernames and the
custom title they would like. Once I have that I will create the forum
and make the announcement.

I'm already registered at LQ (same username as here), so if you other guys/girls will let me know yours and what would be suitable titles, I'll get back to Jeremy with them.

A typical title at LQ would be "Chief Puppy Developer" for Barry, for example. It's not conventional to go quite as radical as "Violent Breaker of Puppy Alphas", otherwise I would pick that for myself

PM me if you'd prefer to keep any details quiet.

Cheers,
Mark

PS John, we really do appreciate your work on this forum. The ultimate idea is to have only 2 forums to check instead of a whole bunch, like now.

MarkUlrich
Co-developer?
Supporter?
Puppy-user?

Mark

Okay, I've registered at linuxquestions.org with username "BarryK".

Girls/Guys/Puppies:

I see that I didn't make this clear enough in my previous post. Sorry for that. Each of us needs to register at http://www.LinuxQuestions.org and then I need to give them the registered usernames of those of us who want to have a helpful title. So Mark, raffy, Barry, Nathan, chuck and others, please take a moment to register there and let me know what your registered names are, OK?

Four or five of us should be plenty to get things started there - some of the smaller forums only have one titled user (like AmigoLinux, for example).

Cheers,
Mark

BarryK wrote:Okay, I've registered at linuxquestions.org with username "BarryK".

Kewl. Noted. Your post crossed with mine - I guess that either shows how slowly I type, or how many interruptions I had

I'm JaDy here and JGD at LinuxQuestions.

I registered as LobsterEd (same as on IRC)
Some dubious pseudo-cructacean is using my moniker . . .

I'm MarkUlrich at LinuxQuestions

Registered as stlchuck at Linux Questions - see my PM for details.

Mark
My brother told me about your project - your idea has a lot of merit. My LQ registration is the same as at Puppy Linux - slvrldy17 - as for a title - "Crash Test Puppy" is fine or if you prefer "Puppy Den Mother" - either is OK by me.

Thanks,

Alice

I'm SitHeelSpeak at linuxquestions.org, no spaces.

"Puppyist booting from flashkey on a Thinkpad"

OK, I have registered as "raffyM". BTW, I guess 2 Mark's will be sufficient to be admins in LQ (MarkUlrich and MarkSouth)

In using the LQ forum for Puppy Linux, it will be useful to remember MarkSouth's suggestion:

forum would be used to direct people to the huge knowledgebase already present in this one and the wiki, and to act as a backup assembly point if there are any further problems here

Hi All, the forum has now been created and is up and running. It already has a couple of posts in it.

For details see this topic: http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=54867#54867

To slvrldy17, SitHeelSpeak, raffy: I will get in touch with Jeremy and have you added to the list. Is everyone else cool with the titles that they have? If not, let me know and I'll get those changed as well.

Barry: please put a link on the main Puppy site to the forum, that will complete our side of the bargain. Thanks.