Reorganizing ISPConfig and HowtoForge

First of all thank you for being so transparent about this and for including us in the decision making process!

As far as the forum software is concerned I dont really mind which route is taken. If a modern version and theme of XenForo is used, that would be perfectly fine in my opinion.

I would run the forum on an ispconfig.org subdomain so that the connection between ISPConfig and the forum is immediately clear. Almost everything that happens in the forum revolves around ISPConfig which brings me to the next point: I would completely remove the ISPConfig 2 forums and significantly reduce the "Linux Forums" section aswell. Maybe even include the german version of the HTF forums into it's own section.

A new website is definitely a good and important step to increase ISPConfigs visibility, and making up to date documentation publicly available is in my view, the right approach. Thank you for that!

Even though GitHub has been facing criticism and controversies repeatedly especially in recent times I still consider moving away from a self hosted Gitlab to a public solution like GitHub to be the right step in order to further increase the projects visibility. Another benefit of of that could be the cleanup of old MRs, Issues etc.

 

1.1 – For the forum software, I would prefer option A. I personally am not a big fan of Discourse or similar platforms, although they are still good software—no offense intended.

1.2 – Regarding the domain, if discussions are limited strictly to ISPConfig, hosting the forum under the ISPConfig domain makes sense to keep it focused and uncluttered. If broader Linux or related topics are allowed, then keeping the forum under the HowtoForge domain is reasonable, as it aligns with the “forging” concept and naturally allows wider discussion. I assume only one forum would be maintained; linking out to another forum via boards, even if supported by some software, does not materially change this consideration.

1.3 – As for removing ISPConfig 2 content, it may be better to move it into an archive board rather than removing it entirely, to preserve historical reference.

2 – Good to hear about this; looking forward to seeing how it develops.

3.1 – Agreed, this is the right approach. Much of the content already exists publicly, while a PDF version could offer added value through curated extras, practical tips, and a more structured, easy-to-follow format.

3.2 – This could also be offered as an app, either free or with optional paid features, complementing the website and PDF. Similar to the Proxmox VE mobile app, an ISPConfig app could optionally manage and monitor servers while providing practical guidance. Paid features would focus on convenience and productivity, and offer an optional way for users to support the ISPConfig ecosystem without adding burden to the core team.

4 – I would vote for GitHub as well, mainly out of familiarity rather than any strong preference for additional features.

 

Been a lurker for a few months.
Created a user to give input on this.
I can't stand Discourse - New theme would be great.

It would make a lot of sense to change the domain. It took me sometime as new to realize this is the officiel forum for ISPConfig and not just another random internet forum.

 

no problems with an updated theme or different forum software.. not so keen on switching to discourse or similar. not sure that format will really work for multiple technical topics, it'll be harder to find/follow individual issues.

making the ispconfig docs available in an online format i think is probably long overdue, it should make it a lot easier / quicker to update information as changes are made to the software.

overhauling ispconfig.org, and switching from gitlab to github - no issues with any of that from me.

putting the ispconfig forum on an ispconfig subdomain.. guess it makes sense, but then i don't think howtoforge should just disappear either, it's got a good reputation as a source of info.. plus good SEO rankings..
perhaps splitting the forums out... move the ispconfig sections to a dedicated forum on an ispconfig subdomain.
but keep howtoforge going as a separate general purpose linux forum, maybe open it up to include windows / mac too..
maybe dedicated sections on general networking... homelabs.. home automation.. lots of room to expand with tutorials and forums for things outside of just the linux OS.. plus it's about time places like stack overflow had decent competition... no more questions closed / deleted without answer because they think it's been answered before and point you to a question that's actually completely unrelated

 

I really feel where you going with this, but the time of traditional general purpose forums is long over. Even Stackoverflow is on this death bed since the rise of LLM Tools for the masses (https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/stack-overflow-is-almost-dead/) . And I don't think that there is a really significant amount of traffic that is going to HTF anymore, but maybe @till can give us some insight here.
It is a sad thing to see, but I don't think that we can do anything about that. Just have a look at the general Linux section of the forum right now, there is almost nothing new for weeks/months.

 

yeah... don't want to use llm's for resolving technical problems though... they get it wrong too often, sometimes giving answers that are outright dangerous..
would like to keep a forum area that AI is blocked from accessing so that questions can be asked, and answered by people that actually know what they're doing.. not some crappy AI that's been trained on the bullshit spouted by people who read something somewhere, didn't understand it, then regurgitated it in a broken format as if it's the gospel truth.

 

that's the problem though....
AI is getting smarter, but it's still quite dumb, but as it gets smarter, most of the people using it seem to be getting dumber.

it seems like no-ones teaching people how to actually think and reason for themselves any more.

 

ouch.. that's a lot of wrong answers AI is handing out to everyone...

 

I think we are all on the same page regarding that topic. It is really sad to see that traditional forums die, to stay on topic, we should keep a small section for general purpose sysadmin related topics in a new forum, but I personally don't think there is any value in trying to fight a war that is already lost. IMHO we should keep the focus on ISPConfig and related software.

 

Wow, that's massive!

I'm running my own forum with a team (totally different subject, sim games) for about 6 years now, with a downloads section too.
Traffic is growing year after year (as is the download section).
Also visitors, pageviews, hits etc. is growing every year (after taking the growing number of bots/crawlers into account to some degree).

Though non-download posts on the forum are declining every year.
Mostly due to a discord server of one of my fellow team members, which is a bigger attraction to the younger public.
I hate it as I can never find anything. Discord is way to volatile. It's a generation thing I guess.
And of course we're also suffering under the AI crap being fed to people.

I would stick with a fresh new look. Maybe if desired on different but similar software.
Forums are a treasure. Information archives that can never be achived on other platforms in my opinion.

 

Modernizing the website and the forum is an excellent decision.

On the broader points:

1. Decline in technical website traffic
In my view, this results from several converging factors: AI tools, Reddit, StackOverflow, Discord, YouTube, etc. At the same time, some technical projects are actually gaining visibility. The common pattern seems to be a shift from classic forums towards structured, versioned documentation combined with real-time community channels.

2. Risks related to AI-generated configurations
AI mainly fills a gap where documentation is hard to find, fragmented, or outdated. A solid official documentation corpus should significantly reduce incorrect installations and support noise.

3. Tutorials and value beyond SEO
The advertising-driven SEO model is clearly declining with the rise of AI and the fragmentation of channels. Tutorials, however, remain essential for software adoption, technical credibility, and community support. For infrastructure software, documentation is part of the product.

4. GitHub visibility
From a user’s perspective, discoverability is crucial. Personally, after initially looking on GitHub, I would not have found the bug tracking system without a forum member pointing it out. Moving to GitHub would clearly improve the contribution flow.

5. Public documentation and paid PDF support
Making the documentation public is a major step. Highlighting a high-quality paid PDF as a way to support the project would be a sensible and sustainable model.

Overall, after modernizing the public-facing interface, centralizing the ecosystem around ISPConfig with stronger documentation could be one of the most impactful changes for both users and maintainers.

 

I've got introduced to ISPConfig through my Job I now have for a bit more than a year.
The Forum is clearly helpful, the move into a subdomain of ispconfig.org would be really good, as was already mentioned I also didn't realize that this here is the official ISPConfig-Forum.

reducing/reordering the forums that ISPConfig is listed first to show it's the main topic here feels right for me.
I like discourse as Forum software, but this classic Software running here is also fine for me.

A move to github might be helpful for discoverabillity but puting the main codebase to a service that is closely connected with microsoft and their AI-shinanigans I would like to recommend moving to https://codeberg.org (german non-profit, hosted in europe etc.) if maintaining your own gitlab is to much overhead...

just my 2 cents
TJ