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Has Discourse been considered as a Lemmy alternative? (discourse.org)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I remember watching this project as it was getting started. It was a replacement to all those PHP forums, like PHPBB & Simple Machines BB. This claimed to have more modern features. It's also open-source, and you can self-host or pay them for hosting. (I recommend the latter)

And since we're on the subject, has Beehaw considered using an old PHP forum, like I mentioned earlier? They're really basic and quite nice, IMHO.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Yes. Discourse and Forem have been top contenders, but for different reasons. Main points against them both are the lack of federation and 'forum based' more than aggregation style based. (Like Reddit and Lemmy formats). Discourse also has a very strict developer contribution requirement.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Developer contribution requirement?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This outline and this documentation and their developer license agreement.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

CLA signing is always a redflag for me

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Main points against them both are the lack of federation

As far as I know, Discourse now has an ActivityPub plugin that allows it to federate, but I don't know much about it besides that, or what that would be like to use in practice in comparison to the aggregator styles.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The ActivityPub plugin is very early and has many quirks at the moment. Can't edit, weird text limit things and I believe it is just a one-way federation?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Ahh, good to know. So pretty much only good as a standalone forum then 🫤

Cheers for the info!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Lack of federation? My understanding was that Beehaw planned to migrate away from Lemmy altogether. Has that changed?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That aspect hasn't changed, in so much that we want to keep federation aspect of the community. We don't want to deal with Lemmy, and they don't want to deal with us. Lemmy ~= federation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yes, I see the tension has become worse. I just found and read this beehaw document on the matter.

For what it's worth, I want to continue to be a part of Beehaw. I really appreciate the value that they stand for.

I created this alternate account and stopped using my Beehaw account because it seemed like they're departure from Lemmy was imminent. Today, it seems they're departure is still on the horizon, but not anytime soon. I guess one can only watch and see.