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Scope and policies of the Hubzilla Support Forum?

2025-02-11 21:53:00

Hubzilla Support Forum

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

dynamic_hubzilla wrote the following post Tue, 11 Feb 2025 21:52:59 +0100

Scope and policies of the Hubzilla Support Forum?

A minute ago I tried resharing part of a conversation that was ongoing here, which I thought was ok because the forum is public, but maybe I shouldn't have done that. I have deleted the reshare and wanted to double-check.

This also caused me to take a closer look at the channel information for the Hubzilla Support Forum, and saw that it's described as "Forum for hubzilla admins to help each other." I hadn't realized that this forum might just be for admins; I'd thought it was a general support channel, so I'd also like clarification on the scope of the forum.

If there is additional documentation on the forum and its policies beyond what's visible on the upper left when I view the forum, I'm not sure how to find it.

show all 25 comments

2025-02-11 22:28:53

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@dynamic_hubzilla I think (but I'm not sure) that the forum was probably originally intended only for admins. However, it has now developed into a general support forum that is just as open and useful for users.

2025-02-11 22:32:43

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

Do we know who all can edit the channel?

And any thoughts on the degree of impropriety of sharing content from here? Repeat and Reshare seem to be enabled, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those tools should be used...

2025-02-11 22:37:47

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

Note: There is also an unofficial support forum: Hubzilla Users Support.

However, this is relatively infrequently visited.

In the official forum here, users have the advantage that a large number of admins and members of the Hubzilla Association can also read and competently answer. And it is suitable for sending suggestions to the developers.

2025-02-11 22:37:51

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@dynamic_hubzilla Since we don't have boosting a reshare potentially disconnects the members of the original thread from the reshared one, That's why i wouldn't do this.

2025-02-11 22:52:00

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@*_jayrope

I previously "repeated" stuff from here, but that felt weird when Mastodon people started replying and the replies were not visible to the people on the threads. That's why I did the reshare instead. Would a reshare that tags all thread participants be appropriate?

2025-02-11 23:00:08

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

"Do we know who all can edit the channel?"

I specifically am curious about this because if the function of the forum has changed over time, it might be good for the description to match that.

By the way, I really appreciate how helpful you've all been in answering my questions.

2025-02-11 23:14:27

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@dynamic_hubzilla I'd say try it out :)

2025-02-11 23:21:00

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@dynamic_hubzilla Ah, right, we have repeats i.e. boost now. In fact I completely forgot. Hubzilla didn't have this for a looong time.

2025-02-11 23:24:37

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@*_jayrope

I'd say try it out :)

This is a useful perspective to hear, because I'd actually been a little leery of doing so because I thought people might be annoyed by high-visibility tagging. If others feel differently, that's important to know too...

2025-02-12 00:41:33

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@dynamic_hubzilla Differences and friendly discussion thereof are good to evolute.

2025-02-12 13:12:11

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@dynamic_hubzilla sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a big thing. The reason I mentioned it on your reshare of my comment, was that I felt that the comment on it's own lacked the context that was necessary to make sense of it, and that the comment was made in an ongoing discussion at a given time and in a given place.

While the forum is open for reading from outsiders and anyone can join, it's still a sort of confined space. Anyone can walk into the room and take part in the conversation, but the intended audience is still the people in the room.

Anyways. I don't think we need any hard rules as to what is "allowed" or not. Sometimes it may make sense to share posts or comments from the forum to the outside, and sometimes it may perhaps not. And we don't have to agree all the time, either, but it must also be ok to say so when we feel it's not.

2025-02-12 16:32:21

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

Part of the issue is that the Hubzilla.org website does not make it clear that there are other forums (or even forums at all), and there is no official user support channel. Many public Hubzilla servers have their own User Support Channel.

I think the @Hubzilla Users Support forum is technically for Zotum.net users and @Hubzilla Monster Support forum is technically for Hubzilla Monster and @Loves Tech / Support forum is technically for Loves.Tech users. but we're friendly enough where we will answer anyone's questions.

I have been meaning to update the Hubzilla.org website so that it has better navigation, but I have not had time yet.

2025-02-12 17:11:36

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Harald Eilertsen

I don't think you did anything wrong! I think your concern is legitimate and gave me legitimate pause. I asked the question because I want clarification. I don't think you made it "into a big thing."

But also it was the second time in 24 hours that I'd had an interaction where it appeared I might have misgauged cultural expectations, so I think the sanity check is valuable.

2025-02-12 18:15:05

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

I have also been thinking of creating a forum for the Hubzilla Community that was a non-support forum. Basically a place to talk about common interests that are not related to support. So I decided to create one.

https://hubzilla.monster/channel/forum

And I was also thinking that when people sign up for Hubzilla Monster, they usually don't know anyone, but are interested in Hubzilla and the fediverse. In Hubzilla, you can set it up so that people automatically follow certain channels. I am thinking of having new members of Hubzilla Monster automatically join this and the Hubzilla Monster Support Forum. We'll try it out and see what the response is. Hopefully it will increase engagement and help people find new people to talk to.

The forum isn't just for Hubzilla Monster members though. Anyone that wants to talk about topics related to Hubzilla, Neuhub, and the fediverse, but that aren't necessarily a support issue, is welcome.

I might do the same with other sites. For example, I have a recipe related domain, which will eventually be a Hubzilla community. Instead of following Hubzilla Community Forum, I might have them automatically join recipe related forums on the site.

2025-02-12 18:19:44

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

One thing to consider is that, be default, Hubzilla forums require you to be a member of the forum (connected / following) in order to post or comment on the forum. If you boost a forum post, outsiders are unable to reply.

There is a way to accept moderated comments from people outside the forum, but they have to be approved first, which means someone has to monitor it and manually approve each outsider comment. Unless you pick custom permissions, that is.

2025-02-12 19:15:44

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Scott M. Stolz

I just sent a connection request to the forum, although I'm a little confused about the intention. "Common interests" sounds like a catch-all category of things to talk about, but the rest of your post seems to suggest that it's intended as a space to talk about Hubzilla itself.

I'm... not quite sure how much I have to say about Hubzilla beyond asking for help getting things to work. Maybe talking about features that I wish existed? Not sure.

I do think that community-building is an important part of existing on Fedi, though, so I appreciate that you're setting something like this up!

2025-02-12 19:17:41

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Scott M. Stolz

There is a way to accept moderated comments from people outside the forum, but they have to be approved first, which means someone has to monitor it and manually approve each outsider comment. Unless you pick custom permissions, that is.

I think this applies to general channels as well. It's a little frustrating that---without specifically visiting the post in question---there doesn't seem to be a good system to notify the moderator that there are comments in need of review.

2025-02-12 19:19:20

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@dynamic_hubzilla The discussion is welcome :) Just didn't want you to feel bad about anything :)

2025-02-12 20:16:19

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@dynamic_hubzilla Forum and Personal channels operate that way. Public channels, anyone on the fediverse can reply.

2025-02-12 20:27:08

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Scott M. Stolz Kind of a Hubzilla Users Tea Garden, heh...

2025-02-12 20:28:37

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Scott M. Stolz I'm not quite sure if moderated comments from non-connections are such a good idea. Most of the time, it'll be spambots commenting on every last thread on the channel.

2025-02-12 20:39:32

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Jupiter Rowland If it becomes a problem, I can turn it off. But right now it is not a problem. And their posts don't show up unless approved by the owner of the channel.

For those wondering, you can change the setting in Privacy: /settings/privacy
"Accept unsolicited comments for moderation Otherwise they will be silently dropped"

It is off by default.

2025-02-12 20:40:00

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Jupiter Rowland Yeah, almost exactly like that. :)

2025-02-12 20:42:11

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@dynamic_hubzilla

I just sent a connection request to the forum, although I'm a little confused about the intention. "Common interests" sounds like a catch-all category of things to talk about, but the rest of your post seems to suggest that it's intended as a space to talk about Hubzilla itself.

It is meant for discussions related to Hubzilla, Neuhub, and the Fediverse. As @Jupiter Rowland pointed out, similar to the @Streams Users Tea Garden.

Basically, it's for "I want to talk about something related to Hubzilla, but it's not a support issue." Although it can also include things that would be of interest of Hubzilla users, but not stuff that is too far off topic.

2025-02-12 22:51:14

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Harald Eilertsen

The discussion is welcome :) Just didn't want you to feel bad about anything :)

Thank you for this. I did feel a little bad at first, but this check-in has been really good for me, and I don't feel at all bad now, so it is all for the best.