Welcome to our AI-generated Daily Summary topic! (5:00 AM Edition)
This is the topic where a daily summary of meta’s activity is collated by our good friend Bert, and posted here so everyone can get a rundown of some of the top discussions over the past 24 hours.
To account for our global audience, we have three editions (this one, Daily Summary (9pm UTC), and Daily Summary (1pm UTC)), which fire at different times of the day so you can get one at a time most convenient to you. All of them cover the last 24 hours (respectively), so the main difference is when they land.
If you’d like to get a ping whenever a new one is posted just set this topic to Watching (and if you change your mind, change it back ).
Feedback is certainly welcome. We’ll be tweaking and refining the idea as we go, so all input is encouraged. We do have a separate topic for that so as to keep this one just for summaries. You can find that here - Daily Summary Feedback
Enjoy!
Small caveat… AI (even GPT-4) does hallucinate, it is unavoidable. Don’t treat everything it says as truth, as there will likely be some lies mixed in. We’ll try to manually correct any if we spot them, but still… keep an eye out.
A user reported login troubles on Android, leading to a discussion about potential causes including SSL issues and network interference. supermathie provided detailed troubleshooting steps.
Discourse released version 3.4.0.beta1 with new features including “Hot” replacing “Top” in default menu items, an unseen feature indicator, and improvements to polls.
A bug fix release 3.3.1 was announced, addressing minor issues and performance improvements.
The new Discourse Doc Categories plugin was introduced, replacing the previous documentation sidebar component and generating discussion about potential features.
pearsonified introduced a new design tool for customizing Discourse called Golden Ratio Typography (GRT). This adaptive design system adjusts proportions automatically when fonts or sizes are changed. Falco expressed interest in how it works with Discourse’s existing font system read more.
Lhc_fl released a new Review with Reason theme component that requires moderators to provide a reason when reviewing actions. Lilly praised the component, calling it “awesome” read more.
Don introduced the Compose Center theme component, which integrates new topic functionality into the DMenu. Lilly appreciated the feature and its visual design read more.
The release of Discourse 3.4.0.beta1 brought several new features, including “Hot” in default top menu items and a new feature indicator. sam highlighted a new Proofread Text option in the composer gear menu.
The upcoming community manager webinar has been confirmed, with Bas announcing that the button has been pressed to make it happen. Danielle added that a replay and recap will be posted within the next week. read more
merefield shared appreciation for the Guest Gate Theme Component, noting a significant improvement in sign-ups since installation. Don is considering changes to the show settings, potentially using discovery routes, categories, and tags instead. read more
The Voice Recorder Component discussion continued with suggestions for button labels and functionality. Arkshine acknowledged the feedback, and there were questions about iPhone compatibility and storage considerations for audio clips. read more
Isambard reported issues with a recent update, experiencing site unresponsiveness after updating to 3.4.0.beta2-dev. The discussion focused on debugging methods, log analysis, and potential Redis-related errors. read more
A user inquired about changing images/icons with CSS, and Don provided a solution with a simple theme component, demonstrating how to swap the header avatar with a bell icon using only CSS. read more
A developer asked about rendering reviews for common users, seeking to display review links in the sidebar for non-admin/moderator users, specifically for topics in pending status. read more
Users reported an issue with the Data Explorer editor not maintaining cursor position between content changes. The problem seems to have been introduced in a recent commit. read more
An issue was reported where backups to S3 fail when IMDSv1 is disabled on EC2 instances with the “s3 use iam profile” setting enabled. This appears to be a security-related problem affecting the backup process. read more
A user asked about the behavior of the chat dm retention days setting, specifically whether it deletes chat threads based on creation date or last activity date. read more
A discussion about disabling user cards was initiated, with a user asking how to navigate directly to user profiles when clicking on avatars or usernames instead of showing user cards. read more
supermathie provided troubleshooting advice for an issue with iDrive’s S3 endpoint being rejected by Discourse, suggesting checks for input formatting and potential console testing. read more
Osama announced the launch of a new and improved /about page for Discourse. The redesign includes a banner image, extended description support, 2-column layout, and expandable lists of admins and moderators. Users can enable it by adding groups to the experimental redesigned about page groups setting. Several users provided feedback on potential improvements to the layout and functionality.
Users reported issues with PostgreSQL getting stuck during rebuilding after updating Discourse. tgxworld offered to debug the problem for users willing to provide server access. A workaround involving adding base_image: discourse/base:2.0.20240708-0023 to the containers/app.yml file was suggested.
Another user encountered problems updating Discourse, with the process getting stuck. pfaffman suggested it might be related to RAM/swap issues and recommended adding more swap space or RAM if only 1GB is available.
A user asked for advice on finding experienced Discourse developers for customization work. Several developers and agencies offered their services, including Pavilion and Literate Computing.
Users reported issues with uploading images to user profiles after updating to Discourse 3.4.0.beta2-dev. The problem was traced to the Topic Previews Sidecar plugin, and a fix was released.
The Voice Recorder Component received updates, with Arkshine submitting a pull request to add chat support. Users discussed potential improvements, including time limits for recordings and auto-transcription features.
Users reported issues with the Sidebar Theme Toggle, expressing interest in a public solution to help with work involving multiple user accounts.
The new and improved /about page was discussed, with users noting that category moderators were not displaying correctly. tobiaseigen acknowledged this as an oversight and mentioned plans to address feedback before finalizing the changes.
A user reported being stuck during an update process, with the database system ready to accept connections but not exiting. merefield provided a link to an open issue addressing similar problems.
The Locations Plugin faced performance issues with large user sets, prompting discussions about potential improvements and the possibility of making it a subscription product.
Users discussed troubleshooting email issues on new Discourse installations, with tips shared on checking SMTP settings and using the discourse-setup command.
tobiaseigen addressed concerns about the new /about page, acknowledging the oversight regarding category moderators and promising to create a list of potential improvements based on user feedback.
HAWK shared information about the Digital Services Act requirements for online platform hosts regarding the display of average monthly active EU recipients.
patrickemin inquired about creating a “my friends” group in user profiles. Community members suggested various workarounds, including using the About Me section, creating a list in a private message, or potentially developing a custom plugin.
merefield identified a bug in Ranked Choice Polls where the first vote causes an exception and fails to display the outcome. A fix has been proposed in a GitHub pull request.
david announced that Discourse core is switching to pnpm for JS package management, bringing significant improvements to install speed and storage requirements. Users with managed hosting or standard installs don’t need to take any action, while those with custom environments will need to change yarn commands to pnpm. Read more.
RGJ introduced the Category Restrictor plugin, which allows staff and category moderators to silence users in specific categories. The plugin includes a manage button in category settings for admins and an icon on the category page for moderators. Read more.
Jagster reported that the AI helper is hiding in the composer on mobile devices. The issue seems to be intermittent and affects different devices. Read more.
NateDhaliwal suggested adding color schemes to their forum. Moin provided instructions on how to install color schemes through themes or by adding them directly in the appearance settings. Read more.
blncblck asked if there was a Spanish-speaking Discourse community to help with their first forum creation. This highlights the need for language-specific resources within the Discourse community.
qiancsf raised a question about mandatory tagging for topics, seeking to understand how to set up required tags for new posts. ondrej provided a detailed explanation of the category settings for required tags.
nwnuyhs sought help on how to disable a specific prompt in their Discourse instance. JammyDodger offered a solution, suggesting it might be related to the ‘emails disabled for non-staff users’ setting.
karussell reported success in resolving a PostgreSQL issue during rebuilding after performing Docker version upgrades, emphasizing the importance of keeping the underlying infrastructure up-to-date.
ondrej discovered and praised a new composer right corner button feature, showcasing Discourse’s ongoing UI improvements. Moin identified it as likely being from the composer-peek plugin.
saquetim, Danielle, Saif, Lhc_fl, and SaraDev also made contributions to various discussions, demonstrating the team’s active engagement with the community.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!
JammyDodgerannounced his departure as community moderator, thanking the community for making meta an enjoyable place to work. Many users expressed their gratitude for his contributions and wished him well read more.
lindsey shared an update on the status of chat threads for DMs, explaining that while there’s interest, there’s no current timeline for implementation.
pmusaraj gave an update on the iOS CSS loading issue when navigating between subdomains, mentioning a potential fix in WebKit.
sam encouraged contributions to improve the Discourse Math plugin to handle LaTeX to MathJax conversion more effectively.
gerhard suggested improvements for German translations and provided insights on browser-specific UI elements read more.
david discussed the implications of switching to pnpm for JS package management in plugins, mentioning plans to update the plugin skeleton in the future.
JammyDodger announced his departure from the Discourse team, leading to an outpouring of appreciation from community members for his contributions. Read more
nwnuyhs suggested implementing a feature to show User ID Number in Profile, sparking a discussion on its potential implementation as a theme component.
RGJ questioned the speed improvements claimed for pnpm installation. david explained that the benefits are most noticeable from a cold start, particularly in CI environments.
nolo encountered a strange selection when using the “hot” filter in the Featured Lists component. Moin provided a solution, suggesting to order the actual hot list by activity.
tisawyer asked about the best way to set up a new Discourse instance on Debian 12 with an existing older database. merefield and pfaffman provided guidance on the migration process.
Neel_Shah reported site glitch issues affecting content display for some admin accounts, seeking assistance after unsuccessful rebuild attempts.
KhoiUSA experienced difficulties with the “Require Edit Reason” theme component, noting that it wasn’t functioning as expected for trust level 0 users.
david was active in discussions about Discourse’s switch to pnpm for JS package management. He pushed a fix for an upgrade issue reported by a user and explained the speed improvements observed with pnpm, particularly in CI environments.
Users reported issues with the quote system, including broken quotes and strange behavior in the composer. The problem seems to persist even in safe mode, suggesting a possible core bug.
There were questions about why the launcher pulls an update on ‘enter app’ for ARM installations, with discussions about the differences in image handling between Intel and ARM versions.
Users discussed the Discourse Category Experts plugin, with one user reporting a 422 error when trying to approve an Expert topic, which resolved itself when the user logged in.
There were inquiries about sending bulk user invites and discussions about various methods for managing this process.
A user asked about Discourse AI and NSFW content detection, sharing their current workflow using Azure Functions and OpenAI, and inquiring about upcoming AI features in Discourse.
A layout issue was reported in the Admin > Badges page after updating, which appears to be related to locale settings. Richie provided steps to replicate the issue, and david investigated, finding it’s partly due to missing translations and partly a layout problem. read more
There was a discussion about managing tags in bulk, with users seeking ways to create tag groups from CSV files and manage tags more efficiently. read more
A user encountered a migration error during installation, with the message “relation ‘user_required_fields_versions’ already exists”. pfaffman provided a solution involving database rebuilding and backup restoration. read more
There was continued discussion on the Discourse Chatbot plugin, with users reporting issues related to non-English usernames and seeking solutions. read more
Users discussed potential improvements to the Add Likes Column theme component, including requests for category-specific settings and mobile theme support. read more
tobiaseigen clarified the discrepancy in member numbers between different parts of the Discourse interface, explaining which users are excluded from certain counts.
A discussion was started comparing Discourse vs Skool, exploring the features and popularity of Skool as a community platform. Users debated the pros and cons of each platform, with Discourse being seen as better for organized communities and Skool appealing to influencers and course creators.
Users reported missing icons after a recent update, which was identified as an issue with the Font Awesome Pro plugin. The Discourse team is working on a fix.
A user encountered a broken layout for admin login after updating to version 3.4.0.beta2-dev. The issue was resolved by disabling Cloudflare’s auto-minify feature.
A user asked about downloading specific content from a Discourse site for backup purposes. Various options were discussed, including exporting user data and using backup features.
Guidance was sought on creating links to start new topics with pre-filled information. A Python script was shared to generate such links easily.
The Discourse team announced improvements to pageview metrics with a new site traffic report, offering more comprehensive and accurate engagement data.
awesomerobot addressed the issue with missing icons related to the Font Awesome Pro plugin, promising a fix soon and providing updates on the progress.
HAWK moderated a discussion about Discourse vs Skool, ensuring fair comparisons between platforms.
sam commented on the potential for automatic translation features in Discourse, mentioning the possibility of integrating it with Discourse AI for more flexible and cost-effective solutions.
Falco discussed AI embeddings and vectorization in Discourse, explaining the automatic backfilling process and mentioning support for open-source models.
A user sought help with CSS for comments on their Ghost blog using Discourse. Lilly provided a solution by sharing information about styling embedded content and linking to relevant documentation.
A user reported massive spam using Google accounts on their forum. pfaffman suggested using a custom field with a community-specific question and enabling user approval as potential solutions.
A request was made for a Rich Text Editor Plugin to replace the default Markdown editor with a WYSIWYG editor. sam recommended delaying the project as Discourse is currently working in this area.
sam addressed a bug with anniversary badges being awarded one day and one year after the last anniversary badge, explaining the current logic and potential fix.
Discourse announced the launch of their new Starter plan, offering public or private sites with unlimited members at $20 a month. This new plan aims to provide an easy and fast way to launch a community with Discourse.
pfaffman shared their positive experience with the Discourse AI Helper, highlighting its ability to generate CSS for adding watermarks to pages and other customizations.
There was a discussion about adding more data to the user approval process. fzngagan updated a theme component to align with recent Discourse updates but noted that support for User Reviewable IP addresses is still pending.
A user asked for advice on migrating from a Salesforce community to Discourse. The discussion touched on the benefits of Discourse for community experiences and the ease of maintaining multiple sites on the same platform.
A question was raised about configuring SAML with RelayState for integration with the Linguise translation service. The user was seeking confirmation on whether the Discourse SAML plugin honors the RelayState parameter.
david helped troubleshoot fabricator issues related to duplicate names in test databases, suggesting a solution to drop and recreate the test database.
ellaconfirmed a fix for the ‘description’ field replacement issue in the admin badges section.
A discussion continued about implementing true blocking functionality in Discourse. Heliosurge argued for the benefits of a more complete block feature to reduce conflicts between users.
Moin created a new theme component for generating prefilled composer links. This component adds a button to the editor that creates a link to a prefilled composer based on the current content.
tudinhtu98 encountered a BlockedSerializationError when adding a custom field to the tags table. They were seeking assistance in resolving the error while maintaining compatibility with newer Discourse versions.
#hosting
jrivettcsa shared observations about gradually increasing memory usage on their Discourse instance after restarts. They noted that memory use had increased from 1.23 GB to 1.8 GB over a few days.
sam discussed potential improvements to the AI Bot’s context handling, including plans to add a “summarize” strategy for handling large contexts with small token counts.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!
EricGT inquired about the announcement of ask.discourse.com, which was quietly released for testing. mcwumbly explained it’s still in early stages and more tuned for hosted customers currently.
nolo shared progress on a breadcrumbs component he’s developing, based on code from the central theme. The approach aims to be more performant and customizable.
eisammy expressed appreciation for Discourse after 6 months of use, highlighting the platform’s customization capabilities and community-building features.
Small caveat… AI (even GPT-4) does hallucinate, it is unavoidable. Don’t treat everything it says as truth, as there will likely be some lies mixed in. We’ll try to manually correct any if we spot them, but still… keep an eye out.
