Users won't use my forum; network effect issues

[spirobel]

@Jagster

Another issue is geological and culturel. Discourse is very… anglo-american. Yes, I understand why and for me it no issue at all.

I am glad I am not the only one
I brought up a similar point here:

@spirobel

The issue is: potential users and potential customers cant complain.
A user interface is like a language. Our ability to understand this language is influenced by the culture we got socialized in. If we don’t verbalize the underlying paradigms we employ while creating these user interfaces we will embed our culture into these systems. This means that they are easy to use for people like us but not necessarily in general.

@Jagster

It is too limited and too hard to use, It must be WYSIWYG.

I think so too. But the change will not come from the discourse team. So I started to work on it. Have a look:

Discourse Basic Editor - Beginner friendly composer!

Hi, I am working on a plugin at the moment that replaces the standard editor with a wysiwg editor. I think its easier for beginner users like myself and others. Here is a short video on how it works so far and what my plans are: [Discourse.org - A more user friendly editor for beginners] I think it will be finished in the next few months ( depending on my motivation ) I would be interested if others are interested in using this as well. Thaaaanks P…

Its not impossible, but its too much as a single man open source project without funding. I am still working out the funding and deciding if I should get rid of the composer and replace it with something similar to what you mentioned here:

@Jagster

Perhaps it should be more simple, just a writing box and drag’n’drop? Something like what Wordpress offers, there is both options.

that being said, I started to work on it more actively again and I hope to have something presentable soon