Discourse

[JimmyHartington]

This forum seems to be more and more used.
I would like to propose to migrate it to Discourse. It is a more modern forum IMO.
https://www.discourse.org

And it seems possible to migrate it https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-fro ... rse/230968

[magnussandstrom]

Good idea (+1)

[JimmyHartington]

For inspiration here is 3 forums, which uses Discourse:
https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com
https://forum.easydatatransform.com
https://talk.automators.fm

[JimmyHartington]

@pietdepauw
What does Enfocus say to this suggestion?

[magnussandstrom]

Up and up!

Please enfocus, why not make the switch to Discourse? (no pun intended)

[JimmyHartington]

I do not think anyone from Enfocus reads this thread

[vernonvd]

I will also cast my vote

[mkayyyy]

+1 vote from me

[magnussandstrom]

Could the person at Enfocus who are responsible for this forum please consider switching to Discourse instead of this old bot-swarming forum platform?

[JimmyHartington]

Still +1 from me.

And would still mention it should be possible to migrate the existing forum.
https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-fro ... rse/230968

[pietdepauw]

SHOCKER, I've been reading along all this time (insert evil laugh)!

And now seriously... we've been looking into possibilities to improve the forum, including migrating to a different platform. And by "we" I mean my colleage Laurianne, who will become and extra moderator on this forum and myself.

Currently, I don't see a reason to move to discourse. As in:
- We can step up our bot-killing game: stronger captchas, ideally moving user management to Enfocus IDs, only approving accounts manually
- We can explore fluid themes to make this forum mobile-friendly, or get it to work with specialized apps like tapatalk

But that's just my opinion and I built this baby so I'm most probably biased by that. Laurianne is currently making a comparison between systems. Don't know if you can already share something, Laurianne?

[pietdepauw]

I can assure you, the fact that I'm replying on Friday the 13th is merely a coincidence.

[Laurianne Ty]

Hi everyone

Thanks Piet for the warm intro and for building this forum with so much care over the years. But let’s be honest… your “baby” is growing up fast. And like any proud forum parent, I know it’s hard watching it even consider a first date with Discourse (or another platform). You didn’t want to hear that, did you?
Also — yes, I waited until after Friday the 13th to reply. No risks with forum curses.

Last week, Piet and I looked at:

-The forum’s journey (hello, spam bots )
-Short-term improvements: better mobile experience and new layout theme
-Spam control + safer onboarding (improved account approval)
-Potential integration with other Enfocus tools

So yes — small things are already being worked on. But we also explored whether we should think bigger.

[Laurianne Ty]

What Could Discourse Help With?

Today (phpBB) vs. With Discourse (Potential)

Hard to use on mobile
→ Fully responsive, works great on all devices

No reply alerts by default
→ Automatic notifications for replies, quotes & mentions

No solved-topic indicator
→ Users can mark posts as “solved”

Tagging/search can be tricky
→ Smart tagging & fast search filters

No digest/reminders
→ Weekly digests and follow-ups to keep you in the loop

Quiet threads stay quiet
→ Bumping, mentions, and auto-reminders help posts get seen

No reactions/emojis
→ Lightweight feedback tools built-in

No “trust levels”
→ Active users unlock more features over time

Now It’s Your Turn

Have you used Discourse in another community?
What did you like — or not like — about it?

Drop a comment below and let’s get this discussion going!


Thanks again,

Laurianne
Your Extra Mod / Listener-in-Chief / Forum Co-Parent

[JimmyHartington]

Almost all other forums I participate in is based on Discourse.
And I like the ease of use.

Need a screenshot and you have it in the clipboard.
Just paste it.

Syntax highlighting of code based on the language (maybe needs to be setup by administrators).
https://meta.discourse.org/t/configure- ... ing/239717

The only thing I dislike is that sometimes a long thread gets harder to read if a lot of people reply. But that is the same here.