Discourse
Discourse is an open-source discussion platform built for modern communities and organizations. It enables fluid conversations across teams with features like categories, tags, private messages, and real-time notifications.
opensource
discussion
communities
organizations
conversations
teams
categories
tags
private-messages
notifications
Discourse: Open-Source Discussion Platform
Discourse is an open-source discussion platform built for modern communities and organizations. It enables fluid conversations across teams with features like categories, tags, private messages, and real-time notifications.
What is Discourse?
Discourse is an open-source, highly customizable discussion platform created in 2013. It is designed to build modern community discussion forums and allows teams to have productive conversations.
Some key features of Discourse include:
- Responsive design that works well on mobile devices
- Advanced formatting options using Markdown
- Categorization system to organize topics
- Tagging to help users find information
- User trust levels based on participation
- Notifications to follow discussions
- Private and secure messaging between community members
- Integration with single sign-on providers
- Custom plugins and themes
Discourse is built using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, with React for the frontend. It has an MIT license making the platform free and open for anyone to use. Discourse aims to create more meaningful online communities and productive discussions compared to traditional forum software.
Discourse Features
Features
- Topic-focused discussions
- Real-time notifications
- Private messaging
- User roles and permissions
- Mobile app
- Categories and tags
- Search
- Moderation tools
- Custom theming
- Plugins and integrations
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Open source and self-hosted
Active development community
Feature rich out of the box
Good performance at scale
Extensive theming and branding options
Robust moderation and admin tools
Cons
Can be resource intensive to self-host
Steeper learning curve than some forums
Limitations with native mobile apps
Less flexible than custom developed solutions
Official Links
The Best Discourse Alternatives
Top Social & Communications and Discussion Platforms and other similar apps like Discourse
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