New software - Discourse

[Lisa]

Has anyone tried this new breed of forum yet?

For full information on the thought behind Discourse, this is a great blog post - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2013/02/civilized-discourse-construction-kit.html and you can find the actual software here http://www.discourse.org/ with a demo in place to test.

I've not spent much time on it so far, but I did find the posting box to be a bit on the strange side, I haven't decided if I like it or not - when you type the text (on the left hand side) the right hand pane gives you a live preview of what it looks like. I'm going to have a further look into it later today and will probably come back and share what I think. In the meantime, check it out for yourselves

 

[LeadCrow]

Interesting pragmas, but if this is the future of forums, perhaps we can concede Facebook won.
Looks a bit too bare for my taste, additionally reducing discovery of existing/old topics in favour of new ones. This would be appropriate for boards with high posting activity, but might not be so for the rest (high readership and low posting activity boards, among others).

 

[Judge Dredd]

I like it - except for the fact that it looks like a social network.

 

[Comeagain]

I like the way it looks to an extent, but since replies are listed multiple times (both under the post they're replying to, and later in the conversation) it gets confusing.

 

[GTB]

I'm not keen on it.

 

[lordi]

confusing at first sight ::

 

[s.molinari]

And at second sight too. I didn't get it.

Scott

 

[xXTHeEddYXx]

The code behind this is a without a doubt FAR superior to any open source forum software out there right now. Excited to see what comes out of it.

 

[GeorgeB.]

This is probably happening multiple times per day as new people who have already demonstrated they are prone to this type of behavior discover discourse:

Oooh look shiny!

*drops xenforo*

 

[Dyonis]

This is probably happening multiple times per day as new people who have already demonstrated they are prone to this type of behavior discover discourse:

*snicker*

Adding onto this, it's not uncommon to have people jump ship from one to the other. Google and Microsoft have their own little battle going on, so it was naturally MySpace and Facebook - Facebook won, Google seems to be moving in an entirely different direction. As far as this new forum software goes, I do not see the Xenforo -ooOooo shiny- mentality. What I do see is a throwback to when the Internet was more social - bear in mind that it was mostly university students, government personel or nerds - it seems the Internet is finally catching up and it's using an AJAX aka Web 2.0 approach. This forum doesn't look new in my eyes, it just has some extra curves - kind of like Youtube comopared to many of the other video sites of the day. Youtube got it right.

Best guess? This thing may actually take off. I can see it happening, it looks cheap and easy to set up, more importantly - it focuses on an entertainment approach which is highly desirable amongst the entertainment websites with money backing them. That doesn't mean it will make for a good enviornment; I make the comparison between entertainment driven sites on the grounds the quality of the forum environment presented. Both are similar.

As far as other forums are concerned, if indeed this crap does take off and pose a threat, other forums will start opting for the rounded shiny approach and they'll be in a similar war such as MySpace vs Facebook vs Google vs Microsoft. God help us if that happens.

Short version? It looks like Tumblr and Pinterest and will probably appeal to a more entertainment driven crowd.

[Edit] After toying around with it, it kind of reminds me of a streamlined version of Gaia Online, just rearranged a little. I'm actually going to just say it is indeed the shiny effect. I felt the same thing with Xenforo before finally seeing through it's flaws. Anyone up for giving this thing the full battery and giving us the results?

 

[rafalp]

The code behind this is a without a doubt FAR superior to any open source forum software out there right now. Excited to see what comes out of it.

I wouldn't be so fast, considering how there are already blogs by rails programmers up that call it "C# written in rails".

 

[Supermighty]

The thing I find most interesting about Discourse is that it's existence alone is a statement that older forum software isn't working. Jeff Atwood, one of the developers, hates old forum software in part because it's too cluttered and not useful for discussion.

I think that old forum software has languished and hasn't innovated with new features or improved usability in the same way that facebook or other Internet communities have.

I hope that Discourse starts a new Renaissance in the forum software space.

 

[rafalp]

I would be very suprised if Discourse ever gained popularity comparable to one of IPB/vB.

Sure, it may look all modern and stuff, but there is one reason why basics of internet forum design didn't change for last 15 years. Its simply beacause forums work.

All those attempts to improve, like Discourse or Branch, they are took by people who hate internet forums too much to accept this fact, and so their "improvements" end being completely different animals. You can look at it as plane being proposed as upgrade to car - unfortunately its not improvement of existing formula, its something new and so it will fail to replace existing solutions.

 

[s.molinari]

The thing I find most interesting about Discourse is that it's existence alone is a statement that older forum software isn't working. Jeff Atwood, one of the developers, hates old forum software in part because it's too cluttered and not useful for discussion.

I think that old forum software has languished and hasn't innovated with new features or improved usability in the same way that facebook or other Internet communities have.

I hope that Discourse starts a new Renaissance in the forum software space.

The question is, is discourse really better from a user perspective? Does it give a user a better reading (and learning) experience? Does it really help a user discover more information relevant to the information he or she is ingesting or even contributing to? Does it help the user learn even more, should that information be available somewhere else? Does it help the user come back to updated information in a timely manner? Does it help the user contribute in a positive manner to the subject at hand? What other uses are there that are basic, but important?

Maybe this is a starting list for such a battery (of tests?) as Dyonis calls for?

Because, "shiny and new" and "new and truly useful" are totally different. The "truly useful" comes with real use and at this point, I don't see it. For instance, using the demo as a demo and wiping out the data every day kills finding out the "really useful" aspect of the software completely. So for me, discourse is shiny and new, but not really truly useful, because I can't really use it properly to make that judgement.

Scott

 

[CMOBOSS]

Way I see it, we're never going to get anywhere anytime soon as any form of intellectual beings since we're trying to build/reinvent our own wheel(s). It's ok though, keep on as you keep on, you make the big picture of all the litle wheels look kinda cute and fuzzy.

 

[alanrobinsonleigh]

to be honest i dont like it one little bit

 

[HallofFamer]

The forum software market is somewhat saturated nowadays, there is little room for small and upstart commercial forumwares to enter and make a good profit. If you are a hobbyist and developing a freeware, thats a different story.

 

[Dyonis]

The forum software market is somewhat saturated nowadays, there is little room for small and upstart commercial forumwares to enter and make a good profit. If you are a hobbyist and developing a freeware, thats a different story.

So is Linux; that doesn't stop commercial versions of Linux from succeeding.

 

[Supermighty]

The question is, is discourse really better from a user perspective? Does it give a user a better reading (and learning) experience? Does it really help a user discover more information relevant to the information he or she is ingesting or even contributing to? Does it help the user learn even more, should that information be available somewhere else? Does it help the user come back to updated information in a timely manner? Does it help the user contribute in a positive manner to the subject at hand? What other uses are there that are basic, but important?

I haven't spent that much time with Discourse but I would say that is their goal. So if Discourse isn't a better user experience now it will be shortly. As that's they goal they set for themselves. One of the devs also started StackOverflow and they do a good job with UX so I expect the same from Discourse.

The forum software market is somewhat saturated nowadays, there is little room for small and upstart commercial forumwares to enter and make a good profit. If you are a hobbyist and developing a freeware, thats a different story.

There has been very little innovation in the forum software market which makes it ripe for disruption. The big forum vendors have spent the past few years suing each other. Discourse is perfectly posed to strike with new features, streamlined UX and capture new forums.


On the whole I would say that the traditional forum as website has been dying. Sure there are large sites that are thriving but not a lot of new or small sites. Forums are losing out to Facebook and twitter. Read about computerology's battle to drag his community site into a Web 3.0 world. By adding features and embracing Facebook and twitter he was able to stem the tide of users fleeing his site.

Someone else in this thread stated that Discourse was just re-hashing social network interface idioms. But if users expect the social network experience then forums will have to deliver that to stay relevant.

I don't want to see forums go away. I want to see them evolve and prosper. How they change and grow is still unknown. But I think it is an inevitability.

 

[Alex.]

Disqus on steroids. That's my opinion anyway.