# Switching to Discourse

**URL:** <https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26>\
**Category:** Community\
**Created:** [September 14, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26 "2017-09-14T20:44:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/dzenanz/32/1093_2.png) [@dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/u/dzenanz)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/1 "2017-09-14T20:44:48Z")

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How soon do we switch from mailing list to Discourse? 😃

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**Author:** ![matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/matt.mccormick/32/7_2.png) [@matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/u/matt.mccormick)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/2 "2017-09-14T21:38:08Z")

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Good questions 😅

A few steps that come to mind:

1. We have to finalize the configuration of the instance so you can send an email to an address, and it will show up here.
2. We should create a version of [Using Discourse as a mailing list](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/using-discourse-as-a-mailing-list/67)
3. The community needs to get involved and adopt Discourse
4. We have [discourse.itk.org](https://discourse.itk.org) listed everywhere as a way to communicate with the community
5. Send an invite email to all mailing list subscribers
6. We find a manual or automatic way to direct traffic from the mailing list to Discourse

Other thoughts?

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**Author:** ![fbudin](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/fbudin/32/14_2.png) [@fbudin](https://discourse.itk.org/u/fbudin)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/3 "2017-09-15T17:47:21Z")

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It would be good to have a sticky post (or in the welcome note) that explains or gives examples about what kind of post goes in what category. For example, would “announcement” be limited to new releases or would that include announcements about new remote modules, blog posts,…?

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**Author:** ![dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/dzenanz/32/1093_2.png) [@dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/u/dzenanz)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/4 "2017-09-15T18:00:11Z")

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I think announcements should have a bit more than just new releases. But only important and/or interesting content. @matt.mccormick Can anyone create a topic or move a topic to announcements?

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**Author:** ![matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/matt.mccormick/32/7_2.png) [@matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/u/matt.mccormick)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/5 "2017-09-15T18:16:27Z")

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@fbudin Description updated to give examples,

> Low-traffic category for community news, events, and releases. Examples include library releases, new Insight Journal articles, hackathon announcements.

I do not know about blog posts – too much traffic? Put in _Community_ instead?

@dzenanz Permission changed so you must have [trust level 2](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/3) to post in _Annourcements_.

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**Author:** ![Niels\_Dekker](https://discourse.itk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@Niels\_Dekker](https://discourse.itk.org/u/Niels_Dekker)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/6 "2017-10-24T17:45:44Z")

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I just had my first Discourse experience, trying to post a topic entitled “itk::HoughTransform2DCirclesImageFilter::GetCircles(n) patch”

Unfortunately the title were rejected, as Discourse prompted “Title seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?”

I pressed OK, which was the only option Discourse gave me. Still it refused to publish my topic. What could I have done, to make Discourse accept my topic? Eventually a colleague helped me out, as she broke up the ITK class name and added punctuation: “Hough Transform 2D Circles Image Filter GetCircles patch.” Which was eventually accepted by Discourse: [Hough Transform 2D Circles Image Filter GetCircles patch.](https://discourse.itk.org/t/hough-transform-2d-circles-image-filter-getcircles-patch/350)

Needless to say, I preferred the original title. Hope Discourse van become a bit more user friendly before replacing the good old mailing lists.

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**Author:** ![matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/matt.mccormick/32/7_2.png) [@matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/u/matt.mccormick)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/7 "2017-10-24T17:59:11Z")

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Thanks for the feedback @Niels_Dekker. Sorry to hear about the difficulty you encountered.

The _max title word length_ setting was only 30, and it has been increased to help prevent similar frustrations.

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**Author:** ![Niels\_Dekker](https://discourse.itk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@Niels\_Dekker](https://discourse.itk.org/u/Niels_Dekker)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 11:19am UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/8 "2017-10-26T11:19:25Z")

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> [@matt.mccormick](#):
>
> The max title word length setting was only 30, and it has been increased to help prevent similar frustrations.

Thanks for your reply, Matt! So may I ask, what is the current max title word length?

It appears that the annoying message that Discourse produced on my first attempt to start a new topic, “Title seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?”, might have been avoided by doing entropy = 0 in admin/site\_settings.

As I understood from:

> **[How to turn off a checker for "Title seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?"](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-turn-off-a-checker-for-title-seems-unclear-is-it-a-complete-sentence/55070)**
>
> Even ehought I put a title, I am getting this message: Perhaps, it’s because I am using Korean in the title. How can I turn off the checker? I set “title min entropy” to 0, but I still get this error message. FYI, the title I used is “r0.12...

> **[How to disable "Body seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?" checker](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-disable-body-seems-unclear-is-it-a-complete-sentence-checker/63766)**
>
> I’m an admin of our Discourse server, and I’m in a small group of coworkers of the “We’re all reasonable adults here” sort. How can I disable the “Body seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?” checker? I don’t need an automated program to...

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**Author:** ![fbudin](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/fbudin/32/14_2.png) [@fbudin](https://discourse.itk.org/u/fbudin)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/9 "2017-10-26T13:38:39Z")

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Thanks Niels for the pointer. If this is a problem that people encounter multiple times, we might change the entropy to 0. From my point of view, it is not a bad thing that Discourse gives pointers to the post writer on how to be clearer, so that tip can be useful in general. Since we have started to use Discourse recently, there are probably a lot a settings here and there that can be improve over time.

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**Author:** ![Niels\_Dekker](https://discourse.itk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@Niels\_Dekker](https://discourse.itk.org/u/Niels_Dekker)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/10 "2017-10-26T14:01:01Z")

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Thanks for your reply, Francois. For your information, Discourse did not really give me a pointer on how to make the title clearer. It just rejected the post, claiming that the title seemed unclear: _itk::HoughTransform2DCirclesImageFilter::GetCircles(n) patch_

It also rejected the following title: _Analyzing HoughTransform2DCirclesImageFilter::GetCircles(n)_

Basically it left me guessing how to write a title that is acceptable to Discourse.

Can you please still tell me the current _max title word length_? As a post writer, it’s helpful to know such criteria beforehand, rather than to keep guessing.

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**Author:** ![fbudin](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/fbudin/32/14_2.png) [@fbudin](https://discourse.itk.org/u/fbudin)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/11 "2017-10-26T14:10:20Z")

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The new settings are:  
max topic title length = 255  
title max word length = 150

I tried to create a post with the titles you mentioned and it now works.

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**Author:** ![matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/matt.mccormick/32/7_2.png) [@matt.mccormick](https://discourse.itk.org/u/matt.mccormick)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/switching-to-discourse/26/12 "2017-10-26T19:04:05Z")

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> [@Niels\_Dekker](#):
>
> It appears that the annoying message that Discourse produced on my first attempt to start a new topic, “Title seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?”, might have been avoided by doing entropy = 0 in admin/site\_settings.

It must have been related to the title length. The entropy settings were already at 0.