New and improved About page at /about is live

[Osama]

As of this commit:

FEATURE: Enable the new /about page for everyone (#29390)

The legacy version for the /about page is no longer available and the new version is the only version available. We’ve also published a new documentation that explains the new /about page and how it can be customized:

Understanding and customizing the About page

The About page in Discourse serves as an introductory section for visitors and newcomers, providing an overview of the community, the people behind it, basic statistics, and contact information. While primarily intended to orient those unfamiliar with the site, administrators can make basic customizations to ensure the page accurately represents the community’s identity and purpose. Accessing the About page To access your site’s About page, navigate to discourse.example.com/about, or look for …

[TheBaby5 (Bug Reporter)]

Since updating to Discourse Version 3.4.0.beta3-dev (9c17588f6a), I’m unable to fully utilize the new Customize About Page feature due to a conflict with existing text. Specifically, the old js.about.contact_info text from /admin/customize/site_texts?overridden=true&q= persists and mixes with any new content added via the About page customization.

The main issues:

1. New About Page Customization Not Overriding Old Text: When I update contact information on the new About page feature, the old text from js.about.contact_info at site_texts still appears, creating a mixed display instead of fully replacing the old content.
2. Editing Site Texts Disabled: The new About page customization seems to have blocked my ability to edit any site texts, as the overridden js.about.contact_info text prevents access to these fields.

Due to privacy concerns, I can’t share the website URL, but I’m running Discourse Version 3.4.0.beta3-dev (9c17588f6a). Any advice on troubleshooting this or suggestions for future updates to address this conflict would be greatly appreciated.

[Richie (Richie Rich)]

@NateDhaliwal

Can there be some sort of toggle so that users can see the numbers across different periods of time

@NateDhaliwal

like the old version with the table

We’re missing the stats that were in the old table

Is that public stats table available elsewhere?

[tobiaseigen]

Thanks for that feedback. What are you missing that is not on the admin home page and reports?

[Richie (Richie Rich)]

The old stats table figures were publicly accessible @tobiaseigen

I miss the simplicity of having all those figures in one easily accessible place, rather than digging around in the reports pages for each individual metric over each time period.

The “active users” over the three time period columns was a good metric for us.

Maybe I’ve just been too used to referencing it for the last seven years and I miss it now it’s not there

Not to worry, I can probably recreate the old table with data explorer

[Hanon_Ondricek]

Currently I have the new About page, but I had to enable it “experimentally” to show it to Everyone. I notice that if I log out there’s still an old version of the page. Is there any way to show the fancy About page to users who are not registered nor logged in and just browsing our site?

If I don’t include “everyone” it doesn’t show the new page at all. I don’t know if the group setting or the entire page is “experimental” based on the text…

[TheBaby5 (Bug Reporter)]

I am not able to edit that as well because of this Customize About Page feature is buggy.

[tobiaseigen]

@Richie

The “active users” over the three time period columns was a good metric for us.

Thanks for the feedback. We’re going to be working on the reports soon, to provide the best data possible for site admins and moderators, and are thinking about what stats to include on the about page in the future, and how much control site owners care to have/need to have over the stats. We can start new topics to discuss this further. When you create your data explorer query, please share it so we can get a sense of which stats are useful to you, and why!

The “User visits” on the table on the admin home page can be a good standin for the “active users” metric. For the total number of members as of today, look for the number next to 0 under the “Users per trust level” heading.

@Hanon_Ondricek

Currently I have the new About page, but I had to enable it “experimentally” to show it to Everyone.

You need to update your site.

@TheBaby5

I am not able to edit that as well because of this Customize About Page feature is buggy.

Sorry you’re having this problem. I am not able to replicate. Can you update your site to latest, refresh your web browser, and try again? If you’re still having the problem, please start a new topic and share more details about your setup, and if any errors show up in the developer consolde.

[Roi]

Thank you, that looks a lot better than the About page we had before!

Is it possible to see the number of overall/total topics and posts again?

/EDIT: Just noticed: I see “Created 2 years ago”. Can this be adjusted? We started our forum in 2012, but migrated to Discourse 2 years ago. So this information is not accurate.

[tobiaseigen]

@Roi

/EDIT: Just noticed: I see “Created 2 years ago”. Can this be adjusted? We started our forum in 2012, but migrated to Discourse 2 years ago. So this information is not accurate.

The only way currently to change this number would be to search for and change the js.about.site_age.year.other setting. Or you could not show it following the instructions in Hiding elements of the /about page with CSS?.

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

@Roi

I see “Created 2 years ago”. Can this be adjusted?

Here’s the query that gets the date:

      result = DB.query_single <<~SQL
          SELECT created_at
          FROM schema_migration_details
          ORDER BY created_at
          LIMIT 1
        SQL

If you’re self-hosted, there should be a way to update the earliest created_at item in that table with some other date. Writing the query is left as an exercise to the ready.

Don't try this at home

DB.query_single("UPDATE schema_migration_details set created_at = '2010-01-01' where id=1")

[Roi]

Thank you Tobias and Jay. Ich changed the database field (to the date in 2012 where we created the phpBB forum). But the About page still shows 2 years. Do I need to delete some cache files or just need to wait as the page is regenerated from time to time?

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

Did you run my update code? If you run the get-the-date code, does it give you the date you expect?

It doesn’t look like it’s cached, but I might not understand.

[Roi]

@pfaffman

Did you run my update code?

No, I directly accessed the DB with a graphical client (HeidiSQL) and changed the oldest row (which was indeed id 1).

If I understand correct, your query does exactly the same and nothing more (in Discourse for example).

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

You can try to run the query that gets the date (that’s the actual code that the about page uses) and see what it gets. If it’s the right date, then maybe go have a beer and have a look tomorrow.

EDIT: And I finally got my development server working again and ran the above code and it says: “Created 15 years ago”, so I think it should work?

[Roi]

Yeah it gets the correct date:

Beer is always an option. And solution.

[Roi]

Did sleep and beer lead to any new ideas about the installation date?

@Roi

Is it possible to see the number of overall/total topics and posts again?

And it’s this possible again?

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

@Roi

Did sleep and beer lead to any new ideas about the installation date

It’s working for me. If yours is still wrong I dint know. But you can run that code that gets the date. Maybe reboot your server?

[Roi]

@pfaffman

Maybe reboot your server?

LOL that did the trick! Restarting the Docker container shows the correct number now! Thank you!

About this other thing: Is it possible to see the number of overall/total topics and posts again?