Discourse: Open-Source Community Forum and Discussion Platform

What is Discourse?

Discourse is a modern open-source community forum platform designed to bring discussions online with a beautiful, easy-to-use interface. Built with Rails and JavaScript, Discourse provides community forums, discussions, and knowledge sharing capabilities for organizations and communities. Over 200,000 communities use Discourse to foster engagement and collaboration.

Unlike traditional forum software or Discord/Slack which are ephemeral, Discourse creates searchable, organized discussions that build community knowledge. Organizations deploy Discourse on-premises or self-hosted, maintaining complete data ownership.

Discourse serves as the hub for community discussions. Users ask questions and share knowledge. Community members help each other. Organizations build engaged communities around products and services.

Key Features and Capabilities

Discussion and Engagement

• Topics and Replies: Threaded discussions organized by topic
• Categories: Organize discussions by category and subcategory
• Tags: Tag topics for easy discovery and organization
• Likes and Reactions: React to posts with likes and emoji
• Quote and Reply: Quote specific posts in replies
• Private Messages: Send private messages to other users
• Notifications: Get notified of replies and mentions

Moderation Tools

• User Trust Levels: Earn trust through participation
• Automated Moderation: Spam detection and automatic flagging
• Post Moderation: Review posts before publishing
• User Suspension: Suspend problematic users
• Post History: Track edits and deletions with audit trail
• Flagging: Users flag inappropriate content

Knowledge Building

• Solved Topics: Mark topics as solved
• Wiki Posts: Convert posts to wiki for collaborative editing
• Bookmarks: Save important posts for later
• Search: Full-text search across discussions
• Topics List: Browse trending, recent, or top topics

System Requirements

Server Requirements

• Operating System: Linux (Ubuntu 18.04+, Debian 10+)
• Ruby: Ruby 2.5+ with Rails
• PostgreSQL: 10+ required for database
• RAM: 2GB minimum, 4GB+ recommended
• Storage: 20GB+ for uploads and database
• CPU: Dual-core minimum

Installation

Docker Installation

docker run -d 
  --name discourse 
  -p 3000:3000 
  -e DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME=discourse.example.com 
  discourse/discourse

# Access at http://localhost:3000

Use Cases

Customer Support Communities

Companies use Discourse for customer support communities. Users help each other reducing support burden. Knowledge base grows from discussions.

Product Communities

Product companies use Discourse to build engaged user communities. Users share tips, plugins, and extensions. Feedback informs product development.

Advantages

• Modern Design: Beautiful, intuitive user interface
• Mobile Optimized: Great experience on mobile devices
• Built-In Moderation: Sophisticated moderation tools
• Knowledge Building: Discussions create searchable knowledge base
• Customizable: Themes and plugins for customization
• Complete Data Control: Host on your infrastructure

Pricing and Licensing

Software Cost: Completely free and open-source under GPL License

Deployment Options:

• Self-Hosted: Infrastructure costs $100-500/month
• Discourse Hosting: Managed hosting available