Server Upgrade + Forum Updates

Announcements
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Hi,

I’d like to update the community on a few “behind scenes” updates that have been going on over the past few months.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Peter a seasoned SysAdmin and Consultant.

The work I do is typically on the backend ensuring a stable and secure infrastructure and most of my work is completed while most others are sleeping.

About 2 months ago I joined the ClassicPress community and after learning from a few of the core contributors and about the overall project decided to lend my skills and time.

== SYSTEM UPGRADE ==

Today I completed an upgrade of our core system (which hosts classicpress.net, directory.classicpress.net and a few other domains). The upgrade doubles our Memory and CPU resources and should give each site hosted a bit of a boost while reducing downtime as I work with the core team to design some redundancy models, early detection systems and scaling solutions.

== FORUM UPDATES ==

Over the past month you may have started to notice updates to the forums in terms of functionality, category “flattening” and removal.

One of my goals this quarter is to continue cleaning up the forums further to make it simpler to use, more easy to navigate and more organized.

Please feel free to share your experiences about the changes.

== PLUGIN / THEME TESTER ==

While temporarily put on the back burner over the holidays, I’m excited to resume development of my plugin and theme tester which will hopefully enter beta stages in the coming months.

== VIRTUALMIN WEB APP INSTALLER ==

Over the past month I worked with the Virtualmin team to add a web app Installer to their product for ClassicPress. Now you can install ClassicPress with ease from their web hosting control panel (both GPL and Pro)

Happy 2025! Let’s make this a year of growth within the ClassicPress community!

Cheers,
Peter Knowles
SysAdmin | ClassicPress

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3

@tpnsolutions Peter, thank you for all your hard work on CP.

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4

Good idea. However there are significant Google Rankings to many of these threads. That’s probably a way people find out about ClassicPress.

For example one that applies for myself “classicpress hosting.” CP is No.4 for that spot (it moves between 2-4 spots).

I’m sure there are many threads that have high Google Rankings, as it’s the main forum for CP. If you start removing those threads, you also potentially lose Google and Bing weight for ClassicPress searches as well.

I’m not debating, I’m just saying prune carefully…

What we do on client sites is just 301 redirect old posts and pages if they are truly out-of-date rather than losing the placement.

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@Web242,

Good point, when it comes to “pruning” we’re removing “categories”, not the threads (generally speaking). For instance “Community Feedback” category was removed, but the threads were added to the “General Discussion” category.

The overall goal is organization and cleaning up categories that either are not used, or where discussion should or could happen elsewhere.

While there is always a possibility that this could affect SEO, other tasks are being planned for 2025 which I believe will overall improve SEO and the visibility of CP in the global web community.

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I see, that makes total sense to cleanup. As it makes no difference to the URL then it’s a non-issue.
Cool.

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@tpnsolutions,

Please also take a look at the homepage of the mobile (small screen) version of the forum.
It looks like the order of threads at the homepage of the mobile version is different.
For example, not all pinned threads are displayed on top in mobile version.

Guido

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@Guido07111975,

Could you send a screenshot of what you mean?

Default forum homepage shows Category view on my phone. When entering a category pinned topics appear at the top, all remaining topics show in the order of last updated, which is normal.

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IMG_7968
IMG_7968828×1685 158 KB

Check image of the homepage of the mobile forum:
Announcements has 2 pinned threads.
But when visiting the category I see 4 pinned threads.

General Discussion has no pinned threads.
But when visiting the category I see 1 pinned thread.

This is an example, there’s more.

(I have updated my reply, because I saw you can unpin a thread when logged in)

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@Guido07111975,

I believe if I understand the way things work is that only 3 category topics will appear “featured” based on a category setting, while all others will be sorted per the standard “most active to least active”.

I just removed a few “pins” from topics that no longer require the pin as well.

If you notice any other oddities, let me know.

1 Like
11

Hi @tpnsolutions

Another question about using the forum.
When posting in the Projects > Localization (sub) forum, I’m required to add at least 1 tag. But there are only a few tags available, that are not always relevant.
In other sub forums of Projects the tags are optional.
Can you make them optional for the Localization (sub) forum as well?
The same may apply to other (sub) forums, did not check all of them yet.

Guido

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@Guido07111975,

Can you provide a bit more info regarding this?

The forums were not originally setup by me, so I’m still going through each category and based on a quick review this may be another axes or updated category in the near future (the one referenced) as at a glance it seems to be a bit dated at least in its description.

I’d recommend reaching out to @ElisabettaCarrara regarding translation requests as she seems to be a bit more familiar with the topic itself.

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The tag feature in forums and sub forums is totally up to you @tpnsolutions. I however can find a tutorial on how to set them up correctly (I don’t have admin access but I know where to look for how-to’s).
Will reach out as soon as I finish dinner

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Admin guide to tags in Discourse - Site Management - Discourse Meta @tpnsolutions this is where you need to read.

Basically what @Guido07111975 is asking is if some forums and subforums like the i18n can be set to have the indication of a tag when posting as OPTIONAL instead of required because the tags offered are not relevant in those forums/subforums to the topic he needs to discuss and having to put a wrong tag because at least one is required is detrimental to the way a forum should work search-wise.

Can you see why in such forums the tag was set to be required and change it back or see if there is a setting allowing users to “create” a new tag if no suggested tag works for the topic?

Thanks!

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I managed to track down the setting that required compulsory categories in certain topics and have removed that requirement.

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