Discourse is opensource-forumsoftware. Het wordt ontwikkeld in javascript en Ruby on Rails, en onderscheidt zich van traditionele forumsoftware door features die hun oorsprong hebben in sociale media, waaronder infinite scrolling, live updates, expanding links en het kunnen toevoegen van attachments door middel van drag and drop. Discourse wordt onder meer gebruikt door BoingBoing, HowToGeek en Ubuntu. Na maanden van ontwikkeling is nu de eerste stabiele uitgave van Discourse beschikbaar gekomen en dit is een stuk uit de aankondiging daarvan:
Introducing Discourse 1.0
Today we are incrementing the version number of Discourse to 1.0. We’ve been working on Discourse in public for about a year and a half now – since February 2013. Turns out that’s about how long it takes to herd an open source project from “hey, cool toy” to something that works for most online discussion communities.
Version numbers are arbitrary, yes, but V1 does signify something in public. We believe Discourse is now ready for wide public use.
That’s not to say Discourse can’t be improved – I have a mile-long list of things we still want to do. But products that are in perpetual beta are a cop-out. Eventually you have to ditch the crutch of the word “beta” and be brave enough to say, yes, we’re ready.