Should this Forum keep going?

Yes - I think it should be kept going. It is the one pleasant place to discuss opensuse. I would imagine that one reason for it not succeeding well is either the name or how it is listed on Google or Yahoo.
It is not being "found" very easily, or else there would have been a lot of traffic here.
I myself was pm'd by feathermonkey, and I greatly appreciate the people on this website.
With the state of opensuse on my machines - I am very satisfied, and don't feel much like change at the moment. Things will be different when he 11.2 comes out, and I start to upgrade.
Perhaps if "opensuse" was in the name it would go better - but I don't know what the legalities of this would be.

If this forum closes then I would be left with no choice but to switch distro's. I'm not really looking to switch anytime soon.

I of course vote to keep the forum going.  I'd hate to go back to the official forum.  Its just to sterile feeling.

Things will probably pick up when a new release comes out, and when those cold northern hemisphere days drive people back indoors this winter.

forum must stay open,it's a good alternative for the people who do not visit official forum

+1 to keep it going. It's good to have an alternative but I also think a bit more publicity can increase this forum's usage and members... maybe I should put a link in my signature on the official forum, but then again, knowing how the official mods operate there, I might as well get banned again for the millionth time just for doing that

I just did that. Let's see if anyone will come up with some stupidity to argue against me putting a link to this forum in my sig.... hmmm

@ microchip yes it has been discussed and it is against there rules afaik, Sagemta asked.

http://forums.opensuse.org/forum-usage-support-information/416734-okay-mention-another-suse-forum-here.html

@MattB think the others have said but its your choice really, more so if you can't find someone to take it on. We have tried to get a higher profile but its never going to be easy with the official forum. Every where you look it is the official forum i.e bookmarks konq, firefox  etc...

I always felt that in the grander schemes of things in trying to create a consolidated forum it was going to actually create a more fractured community. A community isn't just about a few users here or there(The waifs and strays are also part of it) but the whole and needed/needs addressing.

@FM

well, this is unclear to me. According to the forum terms and I quote

Advertising/Spam

Members who wish to post advertisements for any kind of good or service (free, paid, digital, or otherwise) must contact the openSUSE Forums staff for approval. Posted advertisements that have not received staff approval, whether or not an approval request has been made, will be removed and the member may be banned.

The staff of the openSUSE Forums reserve the right to determine what content is and is not acceptable under this policy. All staff decisions are final.

Signatures

Signatures may contain up to 256 characters (including spaces) at the forums' default font size and one image. All images must be under 100 pixels wide by 40 pixels high. Links to external sites shall not contravene the clause on Advertising/Spam. Members in violation of this rule will be given an opportunity to adjust their signature within guidelines. If the appropriate action is not taken within 2 days, the signature will be removed by staff.

This will also mean that the link I have which points to my repo is also of violation as it offers free "services" and also the link swerdna has in his sig which redirects to his Linux site with tutorials is also of violation. Yet, no one has ever complained about these things and Kim has seen my repo link and swerdna's link a long time ago and is aware of them. Further, what this thread you pointed to really discusses is related to forum members with low post counts being prevented in adding links to their sigs, as was implemented a while ago to protect against spam.

We'll let Sagemta comment but I believe they got told no and you have 2 staff saying that it is against the rules and Swerdnas' was OK as it was asked. You'll also notice they even removed the Thailand post which strangely enough I didn't think would cause offence. 

Just warning you to be prepared,  I thought it was all a rather pointless discussion and should of been followed up by yes certainly, and thankyou for asking. The rules are to stop advertising products and to lessen spam to which this isn't either.

well, if this is true, it proves yet again how fucked up the forum rules are as I've been arguing for a long time now. Why would you prevent long-time trustworthy forum members to post links in their sigs which 1) offer free software related to the distro itself (I package for openSUSE & SLE primarily, though also do it for Fedora) and 2) post a link to a sister forum which deals with helping out the same distro users and not selling products or something?

You're preaching to the converted, what about the blogs and the personal websites in links yes I totally agree to truly enforce it goes down a road I'm pretty sure they don't want to go down.

All in all perhaps ymmv and nothing will be said to you.

You're preaching to the converted, what about the blogs and the personal websites in links yes I totally agree to truly enforce it goes down a road I'm pretty sure they don't want to go down.

All in all perhaps ymmv and nothing will be said to you.

-feathermonkey

Well, if I preach over there, I get censored and banned for a day as they all resist proposed improvements and changes. That's why I contacted the openSUSE board member guy who's responsible of forum regulations and sent him a lengthy mail about these sneaky practices they seem to do over there

@alastairo: I do not think it is the legal matter of the openSUSE name rather it is like FM says concerning the amount of traffic to draw search engines. We performed several SEO ideas brought up by Swerdna earlier this year and did get better results from searches.

Top referrers
referrer                          visits
www.google.com           5,268
www.google.co.uk            958
www.google.de                712
www.facebook.com          659
search.live.com                558
mybroadband.co.za          489
www.google.ca                434
en.opensuse.org              341
www.google.com.au         336
www.google.it                 325

Top keywords
keywords    visits

alastairo     1,149

All that aside.
@microchip: Thanks for the support! The Official Forum has their policy with regards to links in Signatures and that is their prerogitive. I think kgronemans response, in the Thread FM linked, is fair enough. As to Swerdna's link, I hate for any one to use that as indication of bias. John is a decent chap and does not deserve to be singled out. His site is a great help to many.

Thanks for the plus votes from method, bdquick and welan. The Staff has informed me they all wish to see the Forum continue. Is there any more thoughts that members have on the matter?

@Matt

I'm not singling anyone out. I only mentioned him as it was his link that popped up in my head while writing. Swerdna has an excellent site that many would have missed it if it wasn't in his signature. I've seen users start a thread *just* for thanking him for discovering his site through his signature link and the amount of help it offered to them. There may be others too who also have links to other sites but I don't keep track of signatures that much. Of course his site is helpful and that's exactly the point I was trying to make. Why censor or not allow links to sister sites like this forum who deals with the exact same community as the main forum, or links to sites that help many, like swerdna's tutorial site? I find this really stupid and rules that don't allow such things are flatout idiotic. If staff does not agree with a certain link of a user and thinks it is not related to the nature of the forum deals with (Linux distro, help support, etc), they can remove it. My links specifically deal with openSUSE, one for my repo which offers proggie's, and one for this forum which offers help to the exact same community and distro. I do not place links to some random Linux help forum or links to something unrelated. If this is such a problem, then they should just flat out disable all kind of signatures and close everything behind an iron curtain. No wonder many, and I mean MANY on the SUSE irc channels dislike the main forum a lot and its practices and flawed rules.

I agree with you 100% microchip. I parted way with the Official Forum (mostly) when I realized that I could not accept their methods. As I have stated elsewhere, this Forum (SUSEUnbound) came about after I resigned from the Official Forum Staff. Many friends PM'd me with questions concerning where I might head to or if I had gone to another Forum. IIRC Swerdna jokingly suggested creating my own Forum. This and FM got the rock to start to fall.

However the question of what happens to those who register as members and never post or the falling away of members due to Forum inactivity is stll important. I make the assumption it is based on lacking the questions from new people. However if, as I commented on the Staff Forum, people find something good with what we have now. No matter that it is minimal. Than that would be a reason to keep the Forum going.

Some of the Staff wondered if I would allow someone else to take over the Forum if I needed to step down. The answer would be yes, certainly, if that was the case. Nothing would please me more that someone found value with having this Forum keep going. I do not propose my leaving unless the membership felt this was a way to help the Forum succeed. Yes, we can Ban the Founder if he gets too far out of line.

Yes, we can Ban the Founder if he gets too far out of line.

And we will, if he does. But it's a mighty broad line, and if I'm not wearing my glasses it's even broader and all fuzzy.

And we will, if he does. But it's a mighty broad line, and if I'm not wearing my glasses it's even broader and all fuzzy.

-bozo

And I just found an empty moonshine jug in the mod lounge.  So it might be blurry for a long time.

Should the forum keep going?

Well, people like to drop by.
Nice surroundings (chairs could do with a few new cushions maybe).
It is another option to the "main" (and imho rather stuffy) official forum - and lets be fair choice is a good thing, even if the choice has a minority following.
The irc channel is a good place to be - hell you can just drop by for a mindless chat.

Should the forum keep going?
Be a bloody sad day if it didn't!

Hi Matt,
I totally believe that this forum is really nice and should go on. It is much like it was SLS in the good times.
I gotta apologize for my skimpy participation to the forum, actually I have been far from any forums in the past year. Thats just due to life events. I truly believe this forum is so friendly and nice that it deserves to stay.
I do understand how you may feel though. Just I, like many, would be sad to see this forum and the people in here no longer there

Hello g0nz0! Nice to see you about. Hope life on the Coast is treating you well. I appreciate both yours and eds vote of continuation.