2021 October 13
Changed the Settings/Posting/min title similar length setting
to 200 characters in the hope of getting rid of nugatory warnings
about "similar content". We'll see if it works.
Sent the following message to selected participants in Ratburger:
Subject: SCANALYST Beta Test Invitation
I'm writing to invite you to a pre-release beta test of the SCANALYST
site, the successor to the Ratburger.org site in which you participated
prior to its shutdown in December of 2020. SCANALYST is a very
different project and venue from Ratburger, but if you found the former
worthwhile, the new site may be of interest. SCANALYST has been in
operation since 2021-10-03. You can see the present state of the site
at:
https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/
Ratburger was a WordPress-based discussion site and inherited all of
the baggage of that regrettable software package. SCANALYST is a
Discourse forum, absolutely factory-stock, and will not be modified
in any way other than via settings available from its configuration
panel. It is based on technologies at least two and half generations
beyond those used by Ratburger, and is designed to require minimal
attention from administrators.
SCANALYST is a message board, but may be used much like Ratburger:
posts are called "Topics", comments are "Replies", and "Categories"
serve the function of Ratburger groups. Each category can be thought
of as a separate message board. Only the administrator (I) can create
new categories, but I will be open to suggestions for new ones.
SCANALYST is the venue for postings of the SCANALYZER feature from
Ratburger and, more recently, Fourmilab, and allows comments upon
postings there. A General Discussion category, where all members can
post, can be thought of as the successor to the main feed of Ratburger:
as traffic grows we can add sub-categories beneath this.
Discourse, the software which runs SCANALYST, is reasonably intuitive
and easy to learn and, unlike WordPress, is reliable and not infested
with bugs, gotchas, and pitfalls. Documentation on its use is posted
on the site at:
https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/discourse-user-documentation/91
Like Ratburger, the site is completely free, has no advertising,
requires no disclosure of information other than a valid E-mail address
to confirm registration, and will never knowingly disclose private
information to any third party.
If you're interested, please sign up by visiting
https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/
clicking "Sign Up", and following the instructions. If you have any
problems doing so or have any questions about the site or the process,
please let me know via E-mail to admin@fourmilab.ch. In this beta test
phase, I have to manually approve all sign-ups, so it may take a few
hours before your account is activated if I'm away from the keyboard
when you register: patience is a virtue, even in the age of the
Internet.
I hope to see you at SCANALYST.