Lack of posts to forums

[Fred47]

Over the last week or so I've noticed reduced number of posts to the forums. Have all the problems been solved? People learn how to use search? Or some hidden conspiracy laden reason?

[claydoh]

Could be all the above. Plus a dwindling user base, and/or folks using other forms of community interaction.
We are kinda off on our own little world here, as we have always been separate from any official connection to Kubuntu.

And the forum software *really* needs to be upgraded, or something. Some of it has to be some of the reported wonkiness some are seeing.

[Bings]

One day we may all ascend to the fediverse "The Kubuntu team uses IRC mainly" ok maybe not.

[Don B. Cilly]

And the forum software *really* needs to be upgraded, or something.

Hear hear. It's getting worse by the hour. I mean, this is still on version 4.2.5 of vBulletin. Most other vB forums I know are on 5.6.3

[claydoh]

Linuxquestions does as well, I think, and they are far busier than we are, so the version itself may not be the issue, but an upgrade might solve the issues we have with whatever database/php mismatches our server has.

One thing we should do, and what LQ does, is to remove all VBulletin branding/text from the forum, as are probably scanning for terms like "Powered by vBulletin? Version 4.2.5" whenever there is a new exploit found.

[claydoh]

One day we may all ascend to the fediverse "The Kubuntu team uses IRC mainly" ok maybe not.

irc=telegram=matrix. [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu//r/Kubuntu[/url] gets more traffic than KFN does, most of the time. And that sub is quiet.
askubuntu/stack exchange has some traffic as well.

There is still a mailing list of all things, that a very few luddites refuse to leave. Now THAT is a dead zone.

[Snowhog]

Linuxquestions does as well, I think, and they are far busier than we are, so the version itself may not be the issue, but an upgrade might solve the issues we have with whatever database/php mismatches our server has.

One thing we should do, and what LQ does, is to remove all VBulletin branding/text from the forum, as are probably scanning for terms like "Powered by vBulletin? Version 4.2.5" whenever there is a new exploit found.

"Our" problem is essentially with version 4.2.5 of vBulletin. It is incompatible with the higher version of PHP. As such, we are restricted to using PHP 5.6.40. Our OS (Ubuntu 20.04) can't use mySQL less than 8.0. mySQL 8.0 and PHP 5.6.40 don't play nice together. THAT is our problem, and can not be fixed as long as we are on vBulletin 4.2.5 and stay with Ubuntu 20.04. We can't revert to the earlier version of Ubuntu as it is EOL. Moving to vBulletin 5x resolves all of our issues.

[Don B. Cilly]

Moving to vBulletin 5x resolves all of our issues.

Well? The upgrade is like $200, they have import tools, from what I read it's a smooth transition, I wonder what the problem is.
The 200 bucks? Start a crowd fund, we'll give them to you.

[Fred47]

So is there a reason why the forum software isn't being updated?

[Snowhog]

Our host (Open Source) has purchased a licensed copy of vBulletin 5x. From what I'm able to see, it has been installed on our server. Configuration issues seem to be the major issue he is dealing with.

[whatthefunk]

"Our" problem is essentially with version 4.2.5 of vBulletin. It is incompatible with the higher version of PHP. As such, we are restricted to using PHP 5.6.40. Our OS (Ubuntu 20.04) can't use mySQL less than 8.0. mySQL 8.0 and PHP 5.6.40 don't play nice together. THAT is our problem, and can not be fixed as long as we are on vBulletin 4.2.5 and stay with Ubuntu 20.04. We can't revert to the earlier version of Ubuntu as it is EOL. Moving to vBulletin 5x resolves all of our issues.

Are you sure? We use Ubuntu 20.0.4 with mysql 5.7. No problems at all.

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Release:        20.04
Codename:       focal

$ mysql --version
mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.32, for Linux (x86_64) using  EditLine wrapper

[whatthefunk]

To get it working, we install these dependencies:
- libmecab2
- python3-mysqldb
- apache2-dev

Then installed the mysql client and server using deb files from mysql.com. We use the 18.04 mysql version, but it works fine. They updated the URLs recently so dont know them all at the moment. THis is the one for the server.
- https://downloads.mysql.com/archives...8.04_amd64.deb

[Qqmike]

for those who wish, it's easy to get a paid membership at KFN, $12, $24, ... whatever amount you like, paid on Paypal or through a credit card (processed by PayPal). good for 1 yr; not automatically renewed -- it is only 1 yr, IOW. just a suggestion for those considering it. (go to your Profile, click on left side bar "paid subscription," etc. ...Snowhog handles these, btw)

[Bings]

irc=telegram=matrix. [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu//r/Kubuntu[/url] gets more traffic than KFN does, most of the time. And that sub is quiet.
askubuntu/stack exchange has some traffic as well.

There is still a mailing list of all things, that a very few luddites refuse to leave. Now THAT is a dead zone.

Kubuntu hasn't got a matrix room. liberachat irc, like freenode has a bridge built into Element so you can add it to your matrix rooms that way. I don't know why anyone uses mailing lists, they are awful.

Chat rooms are bad for technical support IMO. Forums are better, they are searchable and indexed by search engines so a lot of the time, you don't even need to post to find your answer. They are also better laid out for reading the info.

[Snowhog]

for those who wish, it's easy to get a paid membership at KFN, $12, $24, ... whatever amount you like, paid on Paypal or through a credit card (processed by PayPal). good for 1 yr; not automatically renewed -- it is only 1 yr, IOW. just a suggestion for those considering it. (go to your Profile, click on left side bar "paid subscription," etc. ...Snowhog handles these, btw)