I’ve been running a community centered around a Roblox game for the past two years now (since July of 2022!), and from the first days of it, I was looking for a forum software to power it. Nowadays, most online communities will look for a PHP Script that just needs a SQL server as a forum, however, even though it is simpler to set up doesn’t mean it’s good. Most of these scripts have issues with spam, where bots auto-register and fill the bulletin board up with rampant topics and replies.
I have tried out both MyBB and phpBB before. Both software have major shortcomings, one of which I find awkward is when you reach the end of a page and want to continue browsing for topics/forum posts, you have to click through clunky pages that break the site down. Not only does it cause a poor experience, it gives an outdated feel to the site. Also, the out-of-the-box UI for both forum software seem old and just not modern, especially for phpBB. Granted, both also allow you to install themes to make it more unique but most themes may also not look modern either and it just makes site owners take more steps to get their site up and running.
When I first started my online community, I wanted it to be a forum with a modern look and modern tools. This is when I discoveredĀ Discourse (www.discourse.org), a forum/bulletin board software that addressed all my needs. From a modern look to powerful moderation tools, it was the solution for an online community.
Discourse takes a dynamic approach to forums. Instead of being built with PHP, it is written in Ruby on Rails and is on the emberJS Framework. Instead of being split down into pages that awkwardly subdivide the site, as you reach the end of the page Discourse just extends it, populating it with more topics and posts for you to read.
If you’re reading a forum post that has many replies, you may notice that it is hard to navigate as it is also divided into pages, with Discourse is extends the pages for you to have all the replies without changing pages and also has a neat scroll bar at the side to scroll through all the replies. It works even on thousands of replies!
Discourse also integrates live chat into the forum, bridging the gap for people who want asynchronous discussions and who want instant messaging. You can also send direct messages to other users, create groups within the forum with special permissions, and more.
The days of people replying to a post with “+1” and “Agreed” are no more, Discourse integrates reactions into posts. Like a post someone published? Press the heart button next to it or hover over it to add a special reaction such as š.
Discourse also puts site moderators and administrators in control, spammers be gone with IP/Email Blocking at your fingertips, silence users from posting, suspend user accounts for the severe rule breakers, and keep a log of warnings for each user so moderators know their violation history. Discourse also allows site administrators to view user IP addresses and email allowing audit and investigation to be simple and to see if users are simply creating alternative accounts to circumvent security restrictions.
New user? No problem. Discourse also brings “Trust Levels” to forums. When a new user first registers, they are granted “Trust Level Zero” which means they have limited access, they can only embed a certain amount of images in posts, send a limited amount of replies, and create a limited amount of new topics. As they continue to read more posts and engage, the system automatically promotes their trust level.
Finally, Discourse has a great out-of-the-box UI that seems intuitive and responsive,Ā the scenes of outdated forums from 2009 are gone and Discourse seems like the forum built in 2024.
To this day, Discourse has helped my online community build itself and gain traction. We’ve surpassed 100 registered users and are approaching 200 soon. Our site has also achieved 2,000 posts across the entire forum. At the time of writing, we have 177 sign-ups and are continuing to grow.
You can read more regarding Discourse atĀ http://ww.discourse.org. If you want to see it in action, visit http://meta.discourse.org. Thanks for reading.