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A community’s data is more than just numbers and names; it reflects the community’s pulse—what members care about, discuss, and engage with. This data includes all of the knowledge generated through those discussions which should be a lasting resource, always accessible to your community. However, many platforms make it difficult to access your community’s history, or even limit how much history you can access, hindering your ability to retain and leverage valuable insights. Others may prevent you from taking your data with you if you decide to move. Choosing the right platform from the start helps you future-proof your community. This is a companion discussion topic f…

I moved the site off the dev server and onto the main server. Things should run a little smoother. If you notice any issues let me know.

I'd like to welcome the Admin Zone members. Your account and all content is now here. You have to login with your email address and password. If you forgot the email address you used to sign up contact me and I will get you set up. Welcome!!

There's a lot for your members to love with Invision Community 5, and we recently covered five of the best features. Today, I want to discuss five features your team will love. One of the main concepts for Invision Community 5 was to reduce the complexity of power-user tools like theming and page building. These functions had been built around those with deep technical and coding knowledge, locking out many community teams. We also wanted to build new tools to help busy community teams organise, moderate and identify trusted members. Did we achieve that? Let's look at five new features we think your team will love in Invision Community 5. The new them…

I am in the final stages to import Forum² into here. I will get the data imported starting tomorrow and should be done by tomorrow night. Site might be a little glitchy during the time. I have removed the link directory in preparation for the Invision 5 upgrade. Once I get the site upgraded I will install a directory. Also the downloads are being removed. I am building a new downloads system with pages and will use that. Thanks for bearing with me. Things should be better than ever when everything is done.

We are happy to announce native OpenRouter support for DiscourseAI. For those unfamiliar, OpenRouter provides a unified interface that allows integration of hundreds of language models from dozens of language model providers, including Google, Open AI, Anthropic, Mistral, SambaNova, Together AI, Groq, and more. For those who have not yet dabbled in the world of AI due to costs, OpenRouter offers a wide selection of free models, including the free tier of Gemini Models and a selection of free (low context token) Llama models. Models on OpenRouter are often available via multiple providers. The Discourse UI lets you select your provider and quantization, which can hel…

You just opened your first community. You got it set up like you want. You're now ready to engage in conversation with your users. Starting a community is not all roses. There will be problems that arise from the start. What do you think will be the hardest task that you will have to deal with?

Current Projects - December 2024 Welcome to Current Projects, a monthly newsletter about what we’re currently working on at Discourse. (We missed November, but we’re back and still aiming to do these every month). Your questions and feedback are welcome! Kicking off Support for multiple drafts Currently, Discourse only supports one topic draft at a time. We’re starting a project to remove this limitation so that you can have multiple drafts going at once. This change will make it easier to write in Discourse, since you won’t have to worry about completing an entire topic in one go or composing your work in another tool first. Admin config pages for site appearance We’v…

We just added support for the new family of Amazon Nova models. These models are very price competitive; the most advanced model (Nova Pro) is priced similarly to Claude 3.5 Haiku and supports a 300k context window. The models work quite well for common tasks such as translation, proofreading, triaging, and summarization. Tool use means you get the full suite of AI Bot features: Nova joins a very long list of LLMs Discourse AI supports, including (but not limited to) Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Open AI, Mistral, and more. Documentation is at: Configuring Amazon Bedrock services 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

We rolled out experimentally enabling Summarize and AI search with one click. Today we are doing it for Helper. Discourse AI - Helper is now available for Standard, Business, and Free tiers without the need for a 3rd party Large Language Model (LLM) provider. This means Discourse is now providing a hosted open-weights LLM for customers to enable Helper. How do I enable Helper? You have the power to enable or disable Helper at any time from the What's New section. All related customizations are available within the Discourse AI plugin settings. What does being an experiment mean? This means that the AI feature is subject to change at any time, including its featu…

As we’ve shared previously, we have improved our signup and login pages to use a fullscreen design, which provides a more streamlined and focused experience for your members as they join and interact with your community. After thorough testing, we’re ready to begin launching this improvement in our communities. Over the coming weeks, your community will be updated to use this new signup and login screen design. This is a visual change, so how members signup and login should stay the same. Desktop experience Mobile experience If you’re ready to make the switch today or want to test this change proactively, please go to the Admin area, click All Site Setting…

Introducing Web Artifacts in Discourse AI! Web Artifacts allow you to seamlessly create and share interactive, dynamic components (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) directly in your posts. From visualizations and quizzes to lightweight web apps. The above artifact was generated using GPT-4o and the anime.js library CSS Grid demo by Claude 3.5 Sonnet Learn more at: Discourse AI - Web Artifacts 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

I am in the process of importing Forum² data. In the process I have stripped the site down and removed all customizations. This was done so that after the import I will upgrade to Invision 5. Pardon the dust. I hope to have everything done soon.

Welcome to your new Invision Community! Take some time to read through the Getting Started Guide and Administrator Documentation. The Getting Started Guide will walk you through some of the necessary steps to setting up your community. The Administrator Documentation takes you through the details of the capabilities of our platform. Go to the Documentation

Selecting forum moderators is crucial for maintaining a positive and productive community. Here’s a guide to help you choose the right moderators: 1. Define the Role Responsibilities: Outline what moderators will do, such as enforcing rules, resolving conflicts, and engaging with members. Authority: Specify the level of authority they will have, including the ability to delete posts, ban users, etc. 2. Set Criteria for Selection Experience: Look for candidates with experience in moderation or community management. Knowledge: Ensure they have a good understanding of the forum's topic. Communication Skills: They should possess strong written communication skill…

Promoting a user to a forum moderator typically depends on several factors: Activity Level: The user should be active and engaged in the community, consistently participating in discussions. Knowledge and Expertise: They should have a good understanding of the forum's topics and rules, demonstrating expertise and reliability. Community Respect: The user should be respected by peers, showing they can communicate effectively and handle disagreements maturely. Problem-Solving Skills: They should exhibit the ability to resolve conflicts, mediate discussions, and maintain a positive atmosphere. Adherence to Rules: The user should consistently follow the forum rules thems…

I will be importing Forum² into here in the near future. I have consolidated my tech sites and now it time to bring together my admin sites. This will also bring over the skins and other resources I have at Forum². Once the import is done and the dust has settled I will upgrade the site to IPB 5. Stay tuned for more info to come.

How often do you try to post new content on your forum? How many new topics do you post at a time?

When is a forum community not a community? Let us know what you think would cause a forum to turn into something else besides a community. Is it bad if it transforms to something different?

How to come up with new content ideas for your forum? Do you follow a certain strategy? Do you research content before you post it? Do you keep a content to-do list at all?