RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
Performance issues have been a real problem lately for ALL web forums, not just this one. This is largely caused by AI bots scouring forums for data to train the AI on, to the point where it accounts for the majority of traffic on some forums.
Yes, I am aware of the AI web-scraping plague, and it probably plays a significant role in the present performance issues. But I have not seen another forum where the performance problems came anywhere near the current experience on this site. There must be ways to deal with this by limiting/restricting bot traffic -- service providers like Cloudflare do it for a living.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
If people “Quote” the Post their replying to this isn’t a problem.
The problem with allowing editing of posts is that a member can go back and edit an old post and this can disturb the flow of the thread as all other posts after the edited one may now not seem relevant. Hence the reason why post editing is typically set at 10 minutes or so - I appreciate even that isn't working in the forum at the moment, but even if the time limit was set to 20-30 mins I don't see it being an issue......
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
I want to edit forever, or at least a month. I often learn something new or spot an error and will always preface an edit with [edit] or similar.
But if you edit your post days later, after the discussion has moved on and other posts have been added below, none of those contributors will see you edits. They will probably not scroll back to your post again -- or might not even revisit that thread, since they don't see new activity there. Better to add a new post in that case.
All you would have to do is add a new Post telling people you added new info to the first Post. Now new people dont have to read the whole thread and the people who have already read it know theres new info.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
But first and foremost, please fix the performance issues of the forum platform! Shane, I know you don't want to hear more about this. But unless this is fixed, all discussion about tweaking the format and the content is moot. It feels like the problems have only gotten worse over the past couple of months. Every other time I want to check the forum for updates, I turn away again because it is extremely unresponsive.
Performance issues have been a real problem lately for ALL web forums, not just this one. This is largely caused by AI bots scouring forums for data to train the AI on, to the point where it accounts for the majority of traffic on some forums. Most of the other forums I read have gone "members only" where you have to be logged in to even enter the forum, not just to post. One shut down entirely last year, which I assume was due at least as much to the cost from all the bogus AI traffic as it was to lack of legit traffic (most of the users had drifted away over the years). A month or two before that forum shut down, I looked at the stats, and it showed a month of few to no posts, as being the most active period in the 17 years the forum was up, in terms of views.
Going members-only is just a stop gap, because where admins previously "only" had to contend with keeping spammers out, now they are in a constant battle to keep the AI bots from registering bogus accounts. One small forum I am on, the admin has talked about walking a constant tightrope between trying to keep the AI bad actors out, while not inadvertently blacklisting legitimate users' IPs. For every countermeasure, the bots' masters find work arounds, and the end result is likely to be the death of web forums in general.
I would be open to a “members only” forum with a small fee for extra benefits. If you buy a Prusa printer or filament you get in free.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
I would be open to a “members only” forum with a small fee for extra benefits. If you buy a Prusa printer or filament you get in free.
That tends to be not so good for the long term health of a forum. Have seen it done before; what tends to result is a short term surge in new registrations, as the more committed lurkers sign up to maintain their access, with a little bit of increased traffic as a few of those newly registered users exercise their ability to post. Then over time, the forum declines due to attrition, since new registrations tend not to make up for people dropping off the forum. Most users aren't going to bother registering to use a forum just to find out what is there. Or often even if they already know, since they had been lurking before it was closed to non-members. Hence why the bot traffic is likely to be the death of many such sites.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
So new, and surely this is the 1 millionth time anyone has asked this-sorry, I have to ask is there a way for me to Post a question? I do not see a POST button
Greetings all;
For those who have joined after 2024 (or is it 2023?) you might not know who I am. My name is Shane and I work for Prusa. Previously I was the Forum admin and I switched departments and the role was assigned to someone else. Just recently I switched yet again (yeah I know, I know... I get bored easily after X amount of years) and with this recent switch, Forum Admin is back as one of my responsibilities.
So after 2 (or 3) years of being away, there is a lot of things I need to go through, so I am going to need some time, but I do see a good deal of posts about the current state of the forum and that somethings need to be worked on. I wanted to write that I do see your posts and I will take them to the correct people and see what can be done. Unfortunately this is something that I can not fix myself, or something that is a quick and easy thing, but I can say I will follow it up and see what options there are.
One thing I would like to also focus on for the forums is improving the community aspect of the forums and increase it's use so it is not just a place for people to come to for help with a problem, but also to be kept up to date with what the company is doing, what we are posting on other sites, and maybe some forum exclusive things. The idea is to make the forum what the community would like it to be.
I know there are posts out there with requests to the forum users asking what they would like to see, but some of them are old and I would like to have a new post with updated requests and combine them with the older ones.
So with that... what would you like to see in the forums (besides the tech issues with the forums.... I know). New sections? Options? Contests?
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
"Read access requires registration" >>> Fewer users will sign up, as @netpackrat said. Why would I bother signing up to a forum and having yet another password to keep track of, if I have no idea what's there?
"Perks for paying members" >>> No thanks. It's the users who bring value to the forum. Why should they pay for that privilege, on top of the time they invest?
I don't see a good alternative to keeping the forum readable for all, and finding technical solutions to the AI scraper overload. If that means solving a capture every now and then, I'd be ok with that.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
Another weirdness. Many/most videos people post will have a message to accept cookies to view. I have to uncheck "do not sell my information" to see the video. That's not really acceptable. Videos should be viewable regardless.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
Another weirdness. Many/most videos people post will have a message to accept cookies to view. I have to uncheck "do not sell my information" to see the video. That's not really acceptable. Videos should be viewable regardless.
That's weird indeed. I have never seen such a dialog pop up on this forum. Where are those intrusive videos hosted -- is it some external service, Google drive or such? Maybe that service has different practices depending on the region the user is base in, and the respective privacy rules?
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
I've started to see it recently as well. It's random. I've seen it mostly with Brave browser.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
I've started to see it recently as well. It's random. I've seen it mostly with Brave browser.
I am using Brave as well, so that can't be it. Maybe a regional/US thing? Are those cookie/consent popups displayed by the Prusa forum itself or by some external video hosting service?
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
I've started to see it recently as well. It's random. I've seen it mostly with Brave browser.
I am using Brave as well, so that can't be it. Maybe a regional/US thing? Are those cookie/consent popups displayed by the Prusa forum itself or by some external video hosting service?
IDK. I've seen so far with YouTube links. But again, it's random.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
Cookie consent are usually required for embedded videos from another sites such as youtube.
I think forum should allow editing post for 15 minutes - it is a safe time span to edit certain typos and retry on failed network connections/slowdowns or when readding images/videos. 5 minutes is too low, anything above 15 minutes usually means the person might changed noticeably their view what they want to say, which may be misleading and confusing for others.
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
If and when the forum software and/or topic structure gets an overhaul -- could an alternative to the "pinned threads" be introduced?
We are now up to three pinned threads at the beginning of this forum section, and I find them quite distracting. I would like to see the new topics at the top of the list, not the official announcements (one of them very stale). A separate header area or subsection for official Prusa threads would be preferable.
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
Another oddity- I can't login to Prusa World, the thing with the map of users, and it doesn't give me any options, just a window offering to login as a different user, that doesn't work. I wanna be on the map!
RE: Knock Knock.... Just a little status update, anyone home?
Hello all;
To give a small update.
This post was up for a little over a week, and the feedback collected on here was gathered and sorted into;
Techincal issues (and including posts from other posts).
Performance issues.
Requested features
Overall community sentiment.
Each category was broken down into positive and negative statements and was all compiled by AI (just to be transparent) and then submitted.
From here, Myself and another member of the community management team will sit down with web developers, go over report and if needed, direct posts will be used for further info. A priority will be assigned to each issue and a timeline will be assigned.
When will this happen? I cant give an exact date, nor can I give an exact date on when things will happen, but it will happen as I can be very persistent when needed
There is already work on trying to see what the slow down issues are with the forums and what can be done to eliminate that issue, and that is a top priorirty.
I am going to lock this thread. Nothing is wrong, no issues, bad behavior or anything else similar to that. I am locking it because all the feedback was submitted already (stopped collecting it from yesterday) and if I leave it open and there is new feedback is added, it will get lost in the shuffle.
I will keep the community updated, and thank you for everyone who provided feedback.
Shane
Shane (AKA FromPrusa)