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Georgina
Georgina
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Construction seems to have stopped on the New Forum Site - has this project been abandoned?

New Web Site
Wednesday, August 21 2019, 02:11 PM
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  • Accepted Answer

    Saturday, August 24 2019, 07:01 AM - #Permalink
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    To me, it doesn't doesn't matter which category you use to continue the discussion as I don't use them for browsing. I just use the main landing page which has the latest posts (which is why the Clear Token thread is at the top - It has the latest post in the stickies).

    You are welcome to post feedback from you evaluations.
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    Georgina
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    Saturday, August 24 2019, 02:12 AM - #Permalink
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    Thanks Nick

    the ones who pay everybody's wages, and at the end of the day, it is a balancing act, juggling limited resources

    That's nothing unique to Clear. Others with a similar business model manage a nice clean site. Will say nothing more on this.

    Would there be any interest in continuing the evalution of firewall software on this site in say "Water Cooler" where the specific topic would be better placed than here? Expect the process to take several weeks depending on the number of finalized candidates for installation trials.

    Georgina
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  • Accepted Answer

    Wednesday, August 21 2019, 08:25 PM - #Permalink
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    The Community Meeting is a relatively recent initiative and it does take place weekly. Attendance can be sparse and Dave is not hot at writing up the minutes. There was a meeting last Saturday where recent issues were discussed and a user raised questions about developer documentation.

    The Forum is (understated) sub-optimal and very slow and acknowledged to be so. I am also looking forward to a change, but it takes time and money. It would be great to improve on it and try to increase user participation, but product development is also important. There are stacks of issues the Community would like fixed and also a fair number which would be good for Business customers - the ones who pay everybody's wages, and at the end of the day, it is a balancing act, juggling limited resources.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Georgina
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    Wednesday, August 21 2019, 06:49 PM - #Permalink
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    Thanks Dave for the response. Not what I was expecting. ClearOS WebSite under resourced i.e. no personnel dedicated to maintaining and development? Community low priority? Asked the question as ClearOS seems to have a good reputation - but am disappointedf by the WebSite. See below.

    Presently evaluating firewalls; initially for home use. Software such as nethserver, pfSense, ClearOS, IPCop, IPFire, Smoothwall etc. First step is Documentation and Support. Brief glance at the first three so far and first impressions.

    nethserver

    Web-Site - Quick, well organized, nice simple clean page layout, easy to navigate
    Documnentation - Administrator Manual well thought out and complete
    Wiki - good response time and participation, search good with lots of options to drill down, knowledgeable answers
    Community - active and good spirit. Alessio Fattorini the Community Manager seems very welcoming to newcomers and encourages participation


    pfSense

    Web-Site - Quick, neat home page. Reasonably well liad out but a few things slightly harder to find.
    Documentation - not so easy to find the oddi item but once found on a par with nethserver for quality
    Forums - Well laid out, fast, very active, as with nethserver a very good search function with many options to limit results, good knowledgeable responses
    Community - pfSense participation very focussed on technical matters. Very large number of forum users, many active users.


    ClearOS

    Web-Site - Fussy long Home Page that goes on and on. Much of this material would be better served separated into omdividual page topics?
    Documentation - messy - didn't expect lots of download info before finally finding the Install Guides. Shouldn't download be a seperate section? Once there the User Guide looks good and comprehensive.
    Forums - Initial topic Clear Tokens err???, response a bit slow. Lots of wasted white space between Subject and reply-view-vote-like boxes. Search is abysmal - cannot find any options to limit hits. Particpation so-so but seems a bit like a one man band for responses.
    Community - lacking if the Community Report is anything to go by.

    Obviously the actual quality and function of the software is of vital importance, but so too is support when really required.

    Georgina
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  • Accepted Answer

    Wednesday, August 21 2019, 04:11 PM - #Permalink
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    Georgina,

    Yes, progress on that has slowed. I was given the requirement not to lose any SEO in the conversion process which means that I need to both import all of the threads from this old site as well as create app appropriate redirects and at the same time, keep the site on the same domain URL. That is a bit tricky, especially when we are in the middle of so much development. If community members would like to assist with tasks, they can come to the meetings on Saturday and ask how they can help. We have lots to do.
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