Laracasts is growing !! but ...

@andy I agree

+1

Plus the search doesn't work so you can never find anything in the mass of threads :P

After about 10-15 minutes or so, if your question isn't answered / has little activity it is lost. Also, there is no real way to flag as duplicate unless someone spots it and knows of the exact question it relates to.

I know this is really wierd because we are php developer. But I suggest to take a look at Discourse (http://discourse.org). This is the greatest discussion platform I have ever known. Or Flarum (under development)

+1

Search works fine. It's just not overly sophisticated. Will probably switch to using ElasticSearch this summer.

We're not switching over to Discourse, haha.

Rather than a bunch of +1s, I'd rather hear some ideas for how to better organize the forum.

@JeffreyWay A Tab / List with "unanswered" questions would be nice. And for sorting maybe with tags something like stackoverflow to get more structure to the forum.

@JeffreyWay Some conversaions don't have an "answer" and there should be a way to say that the conversation won't have an answer.

Maybe have more areas? L4 section L5 section.... Or maybe allow for more tags perquestion?? So I could tag it L4 question or L5 Tip.... That sort of thing... Then people could filter on tags to find what they are looking for.... Search all L4 tags for "..some string.." explode on " " (space) and wirld cards in the where...

I'd prefer categories since I really don't buy into tags. But in a way they are the same without being nested.

Structure:

L5
-- app
-- database
-- config
-- packages
L4 -- might as well let it stay the Wild West of Little Rock since L4 is going to the pastures.
Site
Videos

Basically similar to what is now but putting coding questions into a structure based on laravel itself. The site tag is for threads like this one and the Videos is for all those requests that people put in.

The forum software also needs to account that not all posts will have an answer.

If you add in elastic search a video on that is mandatory ;)

Speaking of the forum software, you gonna post the code for it? :)

@JeffreyWay I would suggest to go with a "classical" Forum style. Separate in different "categories" and show the startpage based on this categories. Within this categories there can be different "forums" and within that, there are the posts. In that case we could do something like (it is just an example, nothing concrete)

-General
-- Announcements
--Offtopic
--Bugs
-L4
-- General
-- Upgrading
-- Best Practice
-- Database
-- Eloquent
-- Packages
-- whatever...
-L5
-- General
-- Upgrading
--...

Additionally i would suggest to give some (reliable) users that are often here and has some social engagement a "moderate" function, to modifying some threads (better title, code tagging, spam deleting, closing threads, whatever). I think it is important not to give it just the users with most threads, or best laravel practice, but a healthy mixing of all.

I dont like categories because you have to go to a special category each time. this sucks .. And then you have to think " mh ... in which categorie should i write in category X or Y". With tags like on stackoverflow you`re so much faster.

I really like the current start site because you have all active threads, maybe you can try to add two columns to have more threads on the first site.

But i think what is missing here is really a tab or what ever for unanswered questions. If your question is not answerd in 30 min. your question is lost :D

1. I would like to be able to "favourite" a thread rather than subscribe to countless emails, just something that I can check back on over time to see how things are progressing.

2. Tags - Maybe things that you have defined so it is limited, Laravel 5, Laravel 4, Eloquent, Database, View, Auth etc

3. Being able to filter on the Tags.

Thanks

@hostianer - I don't show it on the forum, but you can already do this. Just add ?answered=1 to any forum threads page.

I'll find a place to make this more visible.

For example, to view all threads in the "testing" category that have not been answered, go to:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/testing?answered=0

Or, for the opposite:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/testing?answered=1

I do not agree on the L4/L5 sections... What if the question can be placed in both sub-sections? L4 questions will soon be gone anyway.

@bashy i use google for searching laracasts:

eloquent models site:laracasts.com

Functions;

new post since last visit
unread posts
ability to see more of your own posts in the profile section
answered/unaswered posts
closeable and non-closeable (open type of threads)
thanks ability --sometimes a person doesn't answer the question so to say but added information or maybe just somebody cruised by and liked a post 
booked mark / favorite

+1 for moderators I agree it shouldn't just be on experience or postings but rather willing to commit time to the community. Some members may suck at coding but are more than willing to spend hours here a day.

What is general format for the forums? Jeffery, what is the general format for the forum here: traditional forums, stackoverflow or other? Knowing your intentions will help us provide feedback.

I ask a lot of questions which have probably already been answered. I always search the forums first, and inevitably I get zero hits. Personally I think if the search would support multiple terms then half the battle would be won.

I also like seeing all the posts in one place, so I can scan what is going on.

The PHPStorm community seems to work well

What ever happens please make certain it does not end up like StackOverflow - I will not go there it has become such an unpleasent experience.

Discussion tags will look better if they are on the left side of the forum as a list group. Also it will allow more tags to be added. The Forum Leaderboard and latest lesson/episode can go under it.

@keevitaja Well yeah but that's not practical.

Anyway, the tag system is fine don't need categories - that just confuses things. But need a way of seeing unanswered (nice to know there's a way to see answered). The search works but doesn't, maybe advanced search (searching with tags, more tags, multiple tags maybe).

Need a way to sort/show threads you follow (know Jeffrey has seen this and wants to implement it).

Better notifications for replies (not just mentions). Would be nice to follow a thread and get notifications on the site (not email).

if the search can be with tags like

[L5] Route Annoutations

the L5 is the tag for 'Route annoutation' text

[L5,L4] phpspec

to search in L5 and L4 tag for 'phpspec' text

how about this ?

Id really like to have the ability to follow threads. There are several that I find interesting, but I dont comment on them so I have no way to find them after a they become lost in the sea of threads here.

Another idea: Threads that have several pages are really tiring to follow because the thread page selector is only at the bottom. So if a thread is 6 pages long and I only want to see the last page, I have to go all the way down to the bottom of the page to find the selector. There should be one at the top of the page as well, or maybe in the main forum listing.

What's powering search right now? Database or something like Sphinx?

Seriously the categories IMO are fine. It's avoiding duplication and pointing people to the right respources or already answered questions that is the issue.

Without regurgitating all of the information on how I think forums can be improved, here are my thoughts on the similar topic at CSS-Tricks and here (Same thread).

Focus on search first.

Yeah the search is just matching weird stuff and some terms nothing at all. Some are okay though but just need more search abilities.

This should be displayed somewhere!! So great :)

For example, to view all threads in the "testing" category that have not been answered, go to:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/testing?answered=0

Or, for the opposite:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/testing?answered=1

The problem is since L5 is officially out there is a massive amount of questions from people not even having basic php skills. Not very interesting. Even more when they are not interested in learning but in getting-their-website-done-as-soon-as-possible.

It would be cool if a user could add his age, in these situations I would be far more tolerant with a 15yo aspiring developer than with a 30yo not willing to enter the basic learning process.

I don't agree with L4/L5 sections. A tag system should do the job. And Laracasts today is like a stackoverflow for php beginner. Not laravel >_<

And Laracasts today is like a stackoverflow for php beginner. Not laravel >_<

Yeah it is true a lot of questions are not even related to laravel !

Hi, this is my first post here. Until now I only read in this forums, because earlier you needed a subscription to participate.

There are so many questions here which are just about the basics. Those answers can be found in the documentation of Laravel or by getting started with PHP tutorials. Good questions will be unseen, because they won't stay on the frontpage for long. This is sad for people having a "real problem" being stuck at something.

Maybe a user based moderation, rating or similar would improve the situation. Someone could post a link if a thread is a duplicate and the this new thread will be "downvoted" so it disappears. But the op still gets a answer to his question. That would be a principle like Reddit, Stackoverflow etc. and works fine if you don't have the manpower for real moderation.