Holes in KDE (fork of "Changes in Git Infra" thread)

[Ian Wadham]

On 10/01/2015, at 8:49 PM, Luca Beltrame wrote:
> For reference, I'm one of the KDE Community Forum adminstrators (aka the 
> "green guys").

> In reply to what Ian Wadham wrote:
>> So what CAN I do?  This needs major re-phrasing --- hopefully as positives
>> rather than negatives.
> 
> This comes from the upstream software we use - phpBB. I admit it's written 
> in a not-so-friendly way, but there's little we can do at this point: mainly 
> because we try (reasonably) to avoid modifying the upstream software too 
> much, because that has a maintenance cost (and we already are short on 
> skilled people and we already have some modifications to the forum software 
> wrt upstream).
> 
>> I have one.  Otherwise, I would have to register a new KDE Identity in
>> order to reply, for example, to a "maintainer wanted" post(?)
> 
> Yes, the forum requires a valid KDE Identity login. 
> 
>> more.  Another possible turnoff.  Speaking for myself, I almost invariably
>> click away from sites that want you to register, unless I am really,
>> really interested.
> 
> Unfortunately, this is unavoidable as forums as large as KDE's attract a 
> whole load of bots, spammers, and other ad-spewers. Even with registration 
> enabled (and checks to external services to prevent obvious spammers) we 
> have to kill several spam posts per day.
> Also IMO registration is to keep a minimal barrier of entry to prevent 
> flames and other unwanted behavior (granted, the forums behave exceptionally 
> well - few times we've had to poke people to behave). 
> 
> Hopefully this clears things up.

Yes, it does.  I understand.  I guess I could add a rider paragraph to anything I post,
to reassure newbies to persevere with the way the site does things and to say that they
will not sign their life away or receive endless emails and ads by getting a KDE Identity.
KDE really does need new recruits --- badly.

Cheers, Ian W.