Welcome to our AI-generated Daily Summary topic! (9:00 PM 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 (5am 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 from Android on a specific Discourse site. supermathie investigated and suggested it might be due to protocol interference on the client side, possibly by the user’s ISP or something on their phone. The issue was resolved when WiFi was turned off.
ganncamp requested an auto-refresh feature for the review queue to help manage a sudden influx of spam accounts. This sparked a discussion about potential solutions and the need for such a feature.
A bug was reported regarding the timeline on mobile devices, where the floating timeline remains slightly visible after selecting a post. Moin linked to a previous report of a similar issue.
Shauny reported a bug when editing badges, where the trigger always reverts to “When a user changes trust level” regardless of the original setting.
Rick_Jing highlighted a relative date format issue in the Chinese language version of Discourse, where unnecessary spaces are added to the date format.
Saif announced the release of Discourse 3.3.1, a bug fix release including minor improvements and performance enhancements.
hugh shared an update on the new documentation plugin currently in development, designed to enhance navigation and accessibility of documentation hosted on Discourse.
hugh announced the new documentation plugin in development, which aims to improve navigation and accessibility of Discourse-hosted documentation. He also updated the Discourse Doc Categories plugin topic, noting that it replaces the deprecated Discourse Docs plugin.
awesomerobot made updates to the Discourse Central Theme, addressing user feedback on various UI elements and improving the overall user experience.
Saif released the 3.4.0.beta1 update notes, highlighting new features such as the “Hot” topic sorting option and an unseen feature indicator. He also announced the 3.3.1 stable release with various bug fixes and performance improvements.
pearsonified introduced a new design tool for customizing Discourse based on Golden Ratio Typography. The tool aims to simplify font and spacing adjustments across the platform. Falco expressed interest in how it integrates with existing font systems.
The community celebrated Discourse’s 10th anniversary, with users sharing their experiences and congratulations. alefattorini mentioned being a Discourse fan since 2014.
The 3.4.0.beta1 release was announced, introducing “Hot” to default top menu items, a new feature indicator, and the ability for polls to show absolute numbers. sam highlighted a new “Proofread Text” option in the composer.
nolo pointed out a jumpy logo transition on meta and discussed the small logo’s utility in desktop view. Moin suggested using a full-width theme as a potential solution.
wisedesk inquired about hiding specific pages like About, FAQ, TOS, and Privacy Policy. keegan explained the evolution from hamburger menu to sidebar UI.
Users discussed the compatibility of the Discourse Doc Categories plugin with Discourse 3.3. RGJ pointed out an incompatibility issue, which was later addressed.
Arkshine provided an update on the Voice Recorder Component, demonstrating its functionality in chat and discussing potential improvements for sending recorded audio messages.
Isambard encountered issues with the latest Discourse update, experiencing site unresponsiveness within hours of updating to 3.4.0.beta2-dev. They sought advice on debugging methods and log analysis.
Osama announced the launch of a new and improved /about page for Discourse. The redesign includes features like a banner image, extended HTML/markdown description support, and expandable lists of admins and moderators. Users discussed potential improvements to the layout and customization options.
Users reported issues with PostgreSQL getting stuck during rebuilding after updating Discourse. tgxworld offered to debug the problem directly on affected servers and provided a workaround using a specific base image.
Alteras reported a bug in the Data Explorer editor where the cursor position is not remembered between content changes. The issue was traced back to a recent commit, and sam confirmed it would be addressed soon.
A user inquired about merging two Discourse backups. supermathie provided a link to relevant documentation, while pfaffman cautioned about potential issues with uploads and the need for careful testing.
Users discussed troubleshooting S3 endpoint rejection with iDrive, with supermathie and pfaffman offering debugging suggestions and best practices for CDN configuration.
A user proposed adding a go back to last page button in Discourse, sparking a discussion about existing browser functionality and UI design considerations.
Arkshine shared progress on the Voice Recorder Component, adding chat support. The feature allows users to record and send voice messages in chat. fbpbdmin tested the new functionality and suggested considering a time limit setting to prevent potential abuse.
Alec sought help with a log-in issue for a moderator who was changing their email address. JammyDodger suggested checking the require change email confirmation admin setting and removing mod status to simplify the email change process.
Ed_S discussed potential improvements to reduce local disk space needs by not redundantly gzipping backups. RGJ provided insights into the current implementation, and Ed_S suggested that inlining compression could save space without compatibility issues.
In the Discourse Automation topic, ToddZ and patrickemin expressed interest in assigning users to groups based on preferences, suggesting potential improvements to the plugin’s functionality.
dennisjbr inquired about the protocol used by DiscourseConnect (SSO). simon clarified that it’s a Discourse-specific implementation, not a standard protocol like OAuth2, and suggested alternative options for those with OAuth2 providers.
A user reported issues with Redis connectivity while trying to resolve email activation problems. RGJ pointed out a potential typo in the port number and requested more detailed logs for further assistance.
The Voice Recorder Component received an update with a new pull request to add chat support. Users discussed installation methods and potential future enhancements like auto-transcribing uploaded audio files.
In the Category Banners topic, a user shared CSS code to fix layout issues when using the Who’s Online plugin alongside category banners.
A user reported an issue with badge counts not updating immediately after granting badges in bulk. The solution involves manually triggering the EnsureDbConsistency job or waiting for the scheduled update.
A user sought help adding text beside the logo in the header, as previous methods no longer work due to Discourse updates. New approaches using connectors were suggested.
There was a request for assistance in separating pinned topics using a custom plugin. A Discourse team member provided detailed feedback on improving the code.
Lhc_fl introduced a new Post Folding plugin that allows manually collapsing and uncollapsing certain posts. This feature gives staff and TL4 users the ability to hide less important content.
There was discussion about adding group tags and tag filtering to the new Discourse Doc Categories plugin, similar to functionality in the existing Docs plugin.
Users encountered an issue where editing badge group settings on the Badges admin page resulted in an error message, though changes were still being saved.
A user sought help with connection errors to external Redis in a Kubernetes setup, looking for guidance on Redis configuration and high availability options.
nwnuyhs successfully changed SMTP settings in a working forum after following advice to modify containers/app.yml and run ./launcher rebuild appread more.
david announced the switch to pnpm for JS package management in Discourse core, addressing user questions and providing guidance on implementation read more.
JammyDodgerannounced that this is their last week as community moderator. The community expressed gratitude for their contributions and wished them well. hugh will be stepping in as a temporary replacement.
A user reported gradual memory usage increase after restart on their Discourse instance. The community provided guidance on monitoring memory usage and identifying potential issues.
lindsey provided an update on the status of chat threads for DMs and requested more information about its significance for potential Discourse adopters.
The community bid farewell to JammyDodger, a beloved Community Manager, in the So long, and thanks for all the fish! topic. Users expressed their gratitude for Jammy’s hard work, patience, and positive impact on the community.
gormus introduced a new Notification Banners theme component, allowing for customizable and flexible message sharing on Discourse sites. The component offers various styling options and can target specific user groups.
denvergeeks shared a Breadcrumb Links theme component, which adds navigational breadcrumbs to Discourse forums. Some users reported issues with missing icons and translation options.
A user encountered difficulties translating certain fields in a Reddit-ish theme for Discourse. awesomerobot acknowledged that some strings were not yet translatable and offered to address the issue.
A user asked about migrating from Salesforce to Discourse and integrating the two platforms. The community suggested exploring the official Salesforce plugin as a starting point.
HAWK expressed sadness at JammyDodger’s departure, noting the significant impact he had on the community read more.
awesomerobot acknowledged the need to make certain theme strings translatable and offered to address the issue read more.
Lilly provided helpful suggestions for accessing SSO external IDs and integrating with Google Tag Manager read more.
pmusaraj identified an issue with chat image lightboxes lacking download and original image options, and tagged lindsey to look into the feature request read more.
sam explained the uniqueness requirement for client_id in user API keys and suggested generating unique IDs in API calls read more.
hugh offered guidance on setting up the Discourse Doc Categories plugin and clarified its relationship with the older Docs plugin read more.
JammyDodger assisted users with troubleshooting issues related to chat image expansion and email-in functionality read more and read more.
SaraDev provided detailed explanations on category security settings and email-to-post functionality read more.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!
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.
Clo encountered a migration issue with the error “relation ‘user_required_fields_versions’ already exists”. pfaffman offered guidance on restoring from a backup.
ncaming215followed up on a previous request for sidebar category configuration to follow watching/tracking settings. mcwumbly provided an update on the team’s current focus areas.
IrisBetty reported issues with image display in the Trendy Login theme component on mobile devices and requested advice for optimal display across devices.
lemonchan encountered a 500 Internal Server Error when attempting to change post ownership via API calls. MarcP suggested a modification to the data format.
nolo reported an issue with bulk edit options not showing on the topic list header when the Topic List Author component is enabled. Lilly quickly addressed the problem and provided a fix.
A user inquired about the possibility of using two different layouts with the Topic List Previews Theme Component. merefield explained that the Featured Images style is not selectable by category.
Aaron_Walsh reported issues with the Breadcrumb Links component, including its appearance in chat boxes and on login/sign-up pages for closed forums.
Richie reported a layout issue with the Admin > Badges page after updating to Discourse 3.4.0.beta2-dev. Lilly investigated but couldn’t reproduce the problem.
Users discussed ongoing issues with the quote system on a specific forum, with examples of broken quotes and strange behavior in the composer.
Clo encountered issues during a Discourse update, resulting in a migration failure. The community provided guidance on accessing backups and troubleshooting the installation.
supermathie offered guidance on handling unsent emails when switching SMTP providers, explaining how Sidekiq jobs manage retries for failed email attempts.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!
Font Awesome 6 upgrade: awesomerobotannounced that Discourse is upgrading its icons to Font Awesome 6, bringing new icons and style updates. Users discussed potential impacts on custom themes and icon usage.
Layout issues in Admin Badges page: Richiereported a layout problem on the Admin Badges page when using certain locales. david investigated and found it was related to translation updates and description length.
Affiliate link functions: A user inquired about monetizing their forum with affiliate links. awesomerobot and pfaffman suggested existing plugins and custom solutions.
Notification avatar issue: NateDhaliwalnoticed that notification avatars sometimes show the system avatar instead of the user’s. Firepup650 explained this occurs for multiple notifications.
Randomizing digest times: GeoffSchultzinquired about assigning random digest times to users after migrating from phpBB. pfaffman suggested modifying database values.
awesomerobot was active in discussions about the Font Awesome 6 upgrade, providing details on implementation and addressing user concerns about custom themes. They also suggested plugins for affiliate link functionality.
ludwikc sparked a discussion about Discourse vs Skool, exploring the reasons behind Skool’s popularity and what features Discourse could potentially learn from it. Users debated the differences in target audiences and engagement features between the two platforms. read more
sam discussed potential future developments for automatic translation features in Discourse, mentioning the possibility of integrating it with Discourse AI.
hugh announced significant improvements to pageview metrics with the new site traffic report. The update offers a more comprehensive and accurate view of community engagement by monitoring the sources of individual pageviews and detecting if they came from a real browser or a crawler.
#comparison
A discussion arose comparing Discourse vs Skool, focusing on engagement features and community building aspects. HAWK clarified that opinions are welcome, but referral links are not allowed in posts.
Users reported missing icons in the FontAwesome Pro plugin. awesomerobot pushed an update to fix the issue, which required updating both the icon names and the plugin for the tooling change from yarn to pnpm.
justin_gordon sought help with updating an old Linux droplet that doesn’t support more recent versions. ChatGPT assisted with the upgrade process, including recovering disk space.
A user requested assistance with bulk marking messages and posters as spam. Suggestions included using Administrative Bulk Operations for similar spam posts and considering granting moderator status to trusted members for help with clearing spam.
A community member announced their departure in a thread titled “So long, and thanks for all the fish!”. The community expressed gratitude for their contributions and wished them well.
Assistance was sought for migrating an SFDC community to Discourse. The discussion pointed to similar migration questions and suggested finding someone to modify an existing import script.
A user asked about the best way to use Discourse as SSO for additional services like Wikimedia, Nextcloud, and Immich/Photoprism. The discussion pointed to DiscourseConnect plugins as a potential solution.
RGJ reported an issue with the user_auth_token_logs table, which has grown to 61 million rows, many of which are outdated or refer to non-existent tokens. pmusaraj confirmed that these logs are for debugging purposes and can be safely cleared.
A user inquired about the ideal session timeout settings for Discourse. Jagster suggested a year-long timeout for general use, or 30 minutes for situations with privacy concerns. ondrej provided guidance on how to adjust these settings.
jrivettcsa shared observations about gradual memory usage increase after restarting their Discourse instance, noting that memory use had risen from 1.23 GB to 1.8 GB over a few days.
tudinhtu98 encountered a BlockedSerializationError when adding a field named type_tag to the tags table in a plugin, seeking assistance in resolving the issue.
tobiaseigenannounced that anonymous users will no longer be included in the user directory or user tallies on the directory and about pages.
samcommented on the lack of support for tools and streaming in OpenAI’s new o1-preview and o1-mini models, mentioning that they’re exploring potential workarounds.
pmusarajprovided information about the purpose of user_auth_token_logs and suggested checking the weekly cleanup job for managing these logs.
saquetimcommitted to addressing issues with the Discourse Web Page Watermark theme component over the weekend.
maikisuggested that integrating phone call systems with Discourse could be achieved using APIs and webhooks, noting that voice/video call systems would be hosted independently.
HAWKshared a video link to provide information about migrating from Salesforce communities to Discourse.
davidclarified that Discourse sets all cookies to SameSite=lax by default and advised against changing this setting.
Lillymentioned having a theme component that allows customization of group flair sizes.
joffreyjaffeuxresponded to a bug report about changing emoji for user statuses, requesting more information if the issue persists.
jancernikreported that a fix has been implemented for an error related to moving the default notification state for a tag.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!
A user encountered difficulties adding a theme from a private repo due to interface changes. pfaffman suggested improvements to the instructions and proposed adding a prompt for SSH links when using private repositories.
Moin introduced a new prefilled composer link generator theme component, which adds a button to generate links for prefilled composers based on current content.
A discussion arose about improving desktop view for mobile users, highlighting issues with post/reply buttons, category views, and composer functionality on mobile devices using desktop layouts.
An admin sought guidance on upgrading an old Discourse installation (version 2.9.0.beta1) that was failing to update. pfaffman recommended moving to a new virtual machine due to outdated OS and Docker versions.
A user shared their positive experience after 6 months of using Discourse, expressing appreciation for the customization options and community-building features.
mcwumbly provided information about the early stages of ask.discourse.com, explaining that it’s currently more tuned for hosted customers but has overlap for most questions.
keegan acknowledged a bug report and submitted a fix for the Windows version of the proofread text shortcut in the AI helper.
sam discussed potential improvements for AI Bot Max Context Posts, mentioning plans to add a “summarize” strategy for handling large contexts with small token counts.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!
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.
