Textpattern CMS support forum
You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Pages: 1
Discourse
I’m intrigued with Discourse, which seems to be a new kind of community discussion tool for the ages. From the site, it “works as”:
- a mailing list
- a discussion forum
- a long-form chat room
That’s ticking all the right boxes for our needs at CSF. We’re going to move to something self-hosted as a G+ alternative, which, if popular enough (and I expect fewer participants, but of the right, focused, and active kind), will replace our G+ community entirely. Based on the kinds of audience we have (content strategists, content marketers, writers, editors, digital agency wonks — all active social media users), I think Discourse would be a better alliterative than a regular bulletin board format like here.
Here’s an example discussion of Boxes and Arrows’ implementation.
Only thing I’m uncertain of, though, is how easy their “30-minute install” actually is, or if an Apache server won’t work (they talk about Linux). Can anyone clarify on that last point about server?
Also, does it have to be hosted at DigitalOcean? That would kill it as an option right there. But I’m not sure from this bog post if that’s the case.
Last edited by Destry (2015-07-07 10:03:22)
Offline
Re: Discourse
Destry wrote #292723:
Only thing I’m uncertain of, though, is how easy their “30-minute install actually is, or if an Apache server won’t work (they talk about Linux). Can anyone clarify on that last point about server?
Also, does it have to be hosted at DigitalOcean? That would kill it as an option right there. But I’m not sure from this bog post if that’s the case.
Doesn’t have to be DO, no – their link is a referral one, which generates 25USD for every person who signs up and deposits 25USD.
From a quick skim, any VPS with root access would work – though DO or Linode will be cheaper than a traditional VPS host.
Offline
Re: Discourse
Destry wrote #292723:
Only thing I’m uncertain of, though, is how easy their “30-minute install actually is, or if an Apache server won’t work (they talk about Linux). Can anyone clarify on that last point about server?
What gaekwad said. Most any Linux server includes an Apache install. A common VPS should work. Don’t eliminate DO or Linode as options. While I use a more “traditional” host for most stuff (Servint), I do have a couple Linode instances. On one, I installed Cpanel (OK, I’m a wimp). One $10 Linode instance has more pure horsepower (CPU) than most regular $50 or $100 VPS will. Really.
On your original point – thank you for introducing me to Discourse. Nice code. Looks like a great choice to kick off a new forum for your group.
Offline
Re: Discourse
towndock wrote #292729:
On one, I installed Cpanel
These might save you some cPanel licence costs if you’re already VPS-capable:
Offline
Re: Discourse
Destry wrote #292723:
Also, does it have to be hosted at DigitalOcean? That would kill it as an option right there. But I’m not sure from this bog post if that’s the case.
It requires Ruby 2.0.0+, PostgreSQL 9.3+, Redis 2.6+, not an easy drop it in a folder and fire up Apache with PHP and MySQL waiting to take action.
Discourse reminds me of Vanilla, which was the first forum to gain traction using the nontraditional look.
As for a straight PHP/MySQL forum that looks and acts like Discourse, check out the Flarum project.
Flarum is a new direction being undertaken using the FluxBB code base, one of the lead developers on Flarum is also the lead coder on FluxBB.
Though I’m more drawn to traditional looking forums, like this one we’re frequenting, I can see the appeal of Vanilla style forums for certain communities.
As for a Mailing list or a Chat room, these are all plug-able into a FluxBB ecosystem.
We Love TXP . TXP Themes . TXP Tags . TXP Planet . TXP Make
Offline
Re: Discourse
Great insights all! Thanks very much.
So what’s the difference between a shared server and a VPS, which I see wikipedia likens to a dedicated server.
I will keep an eye on Flarum, despite the silly name. ;)
We don’t need chat. A mail list is important, but there are options for that. I don’t like putting all my eggs in one tech solution anyway.
Offline
Re: Discourse
Destry wrote #292801:
So what’s the difference between a shared server and a VPS
Loosely:
- Shared server: you rent space, have FTP, maybe a web admin thingy for setting up users, databases, backups, etc.
- VPS: you rent space, have root access, and can do pretty much anything you please, as if it’s your own server, but you have greater responsibility.
DO and Linode offer cheap VPS setups, and if you’re competent you can get a lot of power for little money; however, see above re: greater responsibility. You’re in charge of patches, for example.
The amount of documentation on DO is large. Rolling your own Ubuntu, for example, means that you’re using something so widespread that it’s almost impossible that you’re the only person with a given problem.
Once you’re familiar, you can sprout a new DO instance, with a unique IP, and get a LAMP stack set up and running in about 30 minutes or less. I have a (long) how-to walkthrough that explains it all, but it’s about 90% complete and I got distracted. I’ll make some time later this month and get it live so you can see what’s what.
Offline
Re: Discourse
Hmm… Okay, Well, I’m probably not moving to a new host just for this, nor adding a new one for the same reason. I’ll sit on it a while. Thanks.
Offline
Re: Discourse
gaekwad wrote #292744:
These might save you some cPanel licence costs if you’re already VPS-capable:
virtualmin is the cat’s pjamas …. so loved it on the old Textdrive ….
…. texted postive
Offline
Re: Discourse
Destry wrote #292803:
Hmm… Okay, Well, I’m probably not moving to a new host just for this, nor adding a new one for the same reason. I’ll sit on it a while. Thanks.
Not all VPS’s are roll your own, some are managed for you, all you have to do is upload your sites.
My first experience with a VPS was with a Xen Hypervisor instance, installed and maintained my own Debian install, a great learning experience. Now I’m with DreamHost and my VPS is managed, I have root access, but there’s not much I need to do on the administration end.
What a VPS affords me is isolation from a shared hosting environment, no shared /home directory, and protection from cpu/ram spikes from another user who is running some god awful app in his/her webspace. I have my own memory and disk space allocated, it’s my own slice of a server somewhere on the East Coast of the US.
My current setup has 2000MB of RAM and 60GB of disk space, the speed is great, it’s running on SSD drives. I can run whatever I want, no worries that a particular script may take too long and an evil daemon zaps it because I’m taking up precious CPU cycles from someone else. The best part about it is that I can resize my slice, add more RAM, allocate more disk space, all on the fly.
Web Hosting is going through some big changes now, the Virtual Machine World is upon us, Digital Ocean is rattling some nerves.
We Love TXP . TXP Themes . TXP Tags . TXP Planet . TXP Make
Offline
Pages: 1