Apologies for some recent downtime and speed issues. The site was having some issues with random slowness, which was related to the downtime and should now be fixed.

We had some downtime earlier this month due to the hosting provider (Linode) “experiencing an unexpected issue that requires immediate emergency work to be performed”. That lasted from about 05:00 to 15:00 (UTC) on April 6th. The instance didn’t come back up properly, due to an issue with podman networking. The networking was mostly fixed but still had random timeouts. The config was adjusted April 16th, which unfortunately resulted in some downtime from approximately 18:00 to 19:00 UTC. The random timeout issue should be fixed and Discuss Online should be generally speedy now though! Please comment if you encounter any issues with the site’s responsiveness

Hello!

Recently, we announced a call for admins following a transfer of ownership. Several people responded, and we’re very grateful to @infinitevalence@discuss.online, @Itwasntme223@discuss.online, and @pulsejet@discuss.online for helping out. They’ve each been helping the Fediverse grow for some time now, and we’re excited that they’ll contribute via admin duties as well. Here’s an introduction from each one of them:

• @infinitevalence@discuss.online

  • I joined the Discuss.Online website as part of the Reddit API boycott. Originally I had planned on setting up my own personal instance but was convinced by JGRIM the original owner and administrator of Discuss.Online to join his instance. I have been a moderator for a few different communities since then, and when the call came out for new admins it did not seem like too big an ask to raise my hand.

    I enjoy self-hosting, computer hardware, video games, 3d printing, keyboards, and I love diving into new areas of tech I am not familiar with as it feeds my ADHD brain.

    I am passionate about Open Source and Free software. I want to move away from corporation owned platforms back to the good old days of distributed services. The Fediverse may not be perfect but its the right idea behind what the web was supposed to be, and what we can make it into again.

• @Itwasntme223@discuss.online

  • When it comes to the internet, I have been on it long enough to remember when the word was capitalized. I spent most of my time on YIM, AIM, gchat, reddit and the like, moderating on reddit and Discord most recently. It was only when things started to go to hell that I began to look for alternatives. It was the time of the Blue bird disaster that I joined my first fediverse instance. Since then I have been living on the Fediverse, helping and supporting where I can!

• @pulsejet@discuss.online

  • I’m a big believer in federated and open systems, I think all voices need to be heard in a constructive and collaborative environment. I run a few niche communities that pique my interests by my intention as a admin is to just ensure the server rules are followed with minimal bias. I’m happy to help keep lemmy going and look forward to seeing the overall community grow and become foundational to the internet.

Thanks, @m_f@discuss.online

Hello!

I’d like to let everyone know about a change in ownership of Discuss.Online. Previously it was hosted and paid for by @jgrim@discuss.online, but he is taking a break from the Fediverse for now to deal with personal issues. He’s handed it off to me to host and stepped down as Lemmy admin. When he’s back, he plans on focusing on Sublinks. He’s done a great job of running and growing discuss.online, and I wanted to help continue the mission and keep the Fediverse stable (RIP lemm.ee). I don’t plan on making any major changes for now, just focus on keeping things stable and smooth.

There was some downtime last Saturday during the handover, announced here. There were some further federation issues with Matrix that persisted until Wednesday and should now be resolved. If you see any other issues, please let me know. I’m working on stability and monitoring to ensure everything keeps running well.

@lazyguru@discuss.online is stepping down as admin as well, which leaves us with no other dedicated admins. The other listed admins are from lemmy.world and have done a great job of helping out but can’t dedicate their full attention to discuss.online. If anyone is interested in helping out with admin tasks, please speak up! It would mostly involve responding to reports and applications. I’m generally pretty responsive to them already, so it shouldn’t involve a lot of work.

Thanks, @m_f@discuss.online

Apologies for the short notice. Should be back up within a few hours

EDIT: Think we’re back up. Sorry again about the short notice, we had to migrate hosts. Will post more later

We’ve gotten a lot of new users over the past few days, and thought it would be good to make a post to help steer people in the right direction.

First of all, welcome!

You’re on discuss.online, which is a platform for, well, discussing things online! 😃

We’re a general-purpose forum hosted in the USA, and welcome casual and serious conversation alike about any topic you’re interested in. To start, here’s a thread that lists lots of active communities you can join (communities are like subreddits) that aren’t focused on politics, news, memes, or tech:

https://discuss.online/post/15026558

Go there, click on interesting communities (they start with !, like how /r/ works for subreddits). As an example, this post is in !announcements@discuss.online.

There’s a much wider universe of people that you can talk to and interact with on here! You’ve probably heard about the Fediverse, ActivityPub, and other stuff like that, but don’t sweat it. Start by finding your footing and finding some nice communities. Once you’ve done that, or if you’re interested in jumping right in, @otter@lemmy.ca wrote a great guide to how discuss.online gives you access to a wider world of other people here: https://fedecan.ca/en/guide/get-started

We also have a chat! Join us at #online.discuss:discuss.online if you want a more casual chatting experience.

If you need help, have questions, or just want to chat and don’t feel like joining the chat room above, feel free to post in the comments below!