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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?

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?

Once you decide to start a community you have to decide which forum software to use. Choosing the best forum software depends on your specific needs, such as ease of use, customization, and community features. Here are some popular options: Discourse: Modern and user-friendly, with features like real-time discussions, mobile support, and extensive plugins. phpBB: A classic, open-source forum software that is highly customizable and has a large community. Vanilla Forums: Offers both open-source and paid versions, known for its clean interface and integration options. Flarum: A lightweight and modern forum software that is easy to set up and customize. Simple Machi…

How many of you have used a software package that wasn't coded in PHP? To me PHP has always been a spaghetti model. All kinds of mish mash that seems to work when put together.There are many options to choose from that don't use PHP. Perl is less used these days. It was what all software packages were coded in at the beginning. Ruby is what Discourse is coded in. If you get into Discourse you can appreciate the elegance of Ruby. ASP and .Net are lesser known. All of the Microsoft tech forums and blogs are coded on the .Net platform. C# i think. In any case if you ever visit technet forums you'll see how powerful .Net is. Especially when paired with SQL Serv…

Background In the past, Discourse has shipped with e-mail normalization off. As a result of this, users can create multiple accounts using the same canonical e-mail, through the use of plus addressing. For example, a user with an account tied to bob@discourse.org is able to create another account tied to bob+again@discourse.org. Discourse comes with the normalize_emails site setting which can be flipped to either allow or disallow this. When turned on, it considers both e-mails above to be the same for purposes of unique account validation, and Bob won’t be able to create the second account. Why are we changing it? We have seen a big increase in spam sign-ups lately, wi…

I have made the transition to IPB on https://bash.zone. The new Invision Community test site is located at: https://testing123.info It is running beta 3 at the moment. If you would like admin access to check it out let me know and I'll send you the test admin log in info.

Before choosing the software to power your forum, take advantage of free trials and demos beforehand. You might blindly choose a software that you end up hating to use. Then, you have to go through the trouble of merging software. Sometimes, you have to use another software just to be able to merge one to another. It can become a nightmare. Test it out first and go with what you love best. What do you all think about this sort of thing?

Thinking back - what was the hardest part about starting your forum? How did you overcome it?