The time has come for a few improvements to the OpenGL forums. The plans below have been created with the help of @Dark Photon and vetted with the OpenGL Working Group. We’d like to hear your feedback and comments on this proposed change. The thread will be open for a period of 2 weeks, closing on July 14th 2018:
We are proposing that the OpenGL forums will be better served by merging them into the Khronos main forums, and switching the platform to use Discourse (sample forum using Discourse). We are taking care to ensure that all links will continue to work so no content will ‘disappear’. The steps to make this happen are:
1 - Post this announcement on the OpenGL Forums: 2 weeks ending July 14th.
2 - Merge some of the current OpenGL categories:
OpenGL (General) <– Important items, Math and algo, toolkits, high-level, suggestions
OpenGL: Advanced Coding <– OpenGL Coding: Advanced
OpenGL: Basic Coding <– OpenGL Coding: Beginners
OpenGL: GLSL <– OpenGL Shading Language
OpenGL: User Software <– User Hardware, Software & Gaming Help
OpenGL: Drivers <– OpenGL Drivers
OpenGL: Windows <– OpenGL under Windows
OpenGL: Linux <– OpenGL on Linux
OpenGL: macOS <– OpenGL on MacIntosh
In Discourse this will become:
Category: OpenGL
Tags: general, advanced coding, basic coding, glsl, user software, drivers, windows, macos, linux.
3 - Send out an official “notice of move” to the OpenGL Forums users allowing people to opt out and close their account (GDPR rules) - 1 month - date not set.
4 - While #3 processes, debug and test the merge and redirects of OpenGL forums into forums.khronos.org.
5 - After #3 expires (1 month), merge OpenGL forums into forums.khronos.org
6 - Once the dust settles from the merger, the forums.khronos.org would be moved to the new Discourse platform, to be hosted at forums.khronos.org
FAQ:
Q: Is OpenGL dead?
A: Absolutely not! We are upgrading with the aim of improving these community forums and making them THE place to get help.
Q: Moving the forums will mean all my links to posts on the forums will break.
A: No. We are taking care to ensure that all links will continue to work as expected.
Q: Why not move OpenGL directly to Discourse and then merge into forums.khronos.org.
A: Unfortunately Discourse does not offer a solution for merging different Discourse forums together. vBulletin has solutions to assist in merging forums.
Q: I have an account on both forums, OpenGL and Khronos. What will happen to my information?
A: Our understanding at this point is that we can merge these accounts.
Q: I have an OpenGL account that is the same username as someone else on Khronos?
A: Most likely these will be handled based on who created their account first and who has the most posts.
Q: I don’t want my account moved/Can I close my account?
A: We understand that not everyone will want their accounts to be moved to khronos.org. We will be sending out a notice in a few weeks with a process advising how users may close their accounts on OpenGL. All posts from closed accounts will continue to live on in the forums, but any personally identifiable information will be anonymized.
If you are a moderator or frequent contributor and feel we should have spoken to you first, please accept our apologies. We did our best to communicate with the most active users. We have no intentions of turning our back on, or ignoring any of one in this great community.
If you would prefer to give your feedback privately, please email me directly at webmaster at khronos.org. Otherwise, please post your feedback here. I look forwarding to hearing from you.
- James