discourse/README.md

<a href="http://www.discourse.org/">![Logo](images/discourse.png)</a>

Discourse is the 100% open source, next-generation discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.

Whenever you need ...

- a mailing list
- a forum to discuss something
- a chat room where you can type paragraphs

... consider Discourse.

To learn more about the philosophy and goals of the project, [visit **discourse.org**](http://www.discourse.org).

## Screenshots

[![](https://raw2.github.com/discourse/discourse-docimages/master/readme/boing-boing-latest-small2.png)](http://bbs.boingboing.net)
[![](https://raw2.github.com/discourse/discourse-docimages/master/readme/how-to-geek-profile-small2.png)](http://discuss.howtogeek.com)
[![](https://raw2.github.com/discourse/discourse-docimages/master/readme/new-relic-categories-small2.png)](http://discuss.newrelic.com)
[![](https://raw2.github.com/discourse/discourse-docimages/master/readme/turtle-rock-topic-small2.jpg)](https://talk.turtlerockstudios.com/)
[![](https://raw.github.com/discourse/discourse-docimages/master/readme/nexus-7-mobile-discourse-small3.png)](http://discuss.atom.io)
[![](https://raw.github.com/discourse/discourse-docimages/master/readme/iphone-5s-mobile-discourse-small4.png)](http://discourse.soylent.me)


## Getting Started

1. If you're **brand new to Ruby and Rails**, please see [**Discourse as Your First Rails App**](http://blog.discourse.org/2013/04/discourse-as-your-first-rails-app/) or our [**Discourse Vagrant Developer Guide**](docs/VAGRANT.md), which includes instructions to get up and running in a development environment using a virtual machine. 

2. If you're familiar with how Rails works and are comfortable setting up your own environment, use our [**Discourse Advanced Developer Guide**](docs/DEVELOPER-ADVANCED.md).

Before you get started, ensure you have the following minimum versions: [Ruby 1.9.3+](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/), [PostgreSQL 9.1+](http://www.postgresql.org/download/), [Redis 2.6+](http://redis.io/download). If you're having trouble, please see our [**TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE**](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md) first!

## Setting up a Discourse Forum

If you want to set up a Discourse forum for production use, see our [**Discourse Install Guide**](docs/INSTALL.md). 

## Requirements

Discourse is built for the *next* 10 years of the Internet, so our requirements are high:

Desktop browsers:
  - Internet Explorer 9.0 (may not be fully functional), 10.0+
  - Firefox 16+
  - Google Chrome 23+
  - Safari 5+

Tablets:
  - iPad 2+
  - Android 4.1+
  - Windows 8

Smartphones:
  - iOS 6+
  - Android 4.1+
  - Windows Phone 8

## Built With

Discourse is built from the following open source components:

- [Ruby on Rails](https://github.com/rails/rails) - Our back end API is a Rails app. It responds to requests RESTfully and responds in JSON.
- [Ember.js](https://github.com/emberjs/ember.js) - Our front end is an Ember.js app that communicates with the Rails API.
- [PostgreSQL](http://www.postgresql.org/) - Our main data store is in Postgres.
- [Redis](http://redis.io/) - We use Redis for our job queue, rate limiting, as a cache and for transient data.

Plus *lots* of Ruby Gems, a complete list of which is at [/master/Gemfile](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/Gemfile).

## Contributing

[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/discourse/discourse.png)](https://travis-ci.org/discourse/discourse)
[![Code Climate](https://codeclimate.com/github/discourse/discourse.png)](https://codeclimate.com/github/discourse/discourse)

Discourse is **100% free** and **open-source**. We encourage and support an active, healthy community that
accepts contributions from the public. We'd like you to be a part of that community.

Before contributing to Discourse, please:

1. Please read the complete mission statements on [discourse.org](http://www.discourse.org).
2. Read and sign the [**Electronic Discourse Forums Contribution License Agreement**](http://discourse.org/cla)
3. Dig into [**CONTRIBUTING.MD**](CONTRIBUTING.md), which covers:
   - submitting bugs
   - requesting new features
   - preparing your code for a Pull Request
4. Not sure what to work on? [**We've got some ideas!**](http://meta.discourse.org/t/so-you-want-to-help-out-with-discourse/3823)

We look forward to seeing your pull requests!

## The Discourse Team

The original Discourse code contributors can be found in [**AUTHORS.MD**](docs/AUTHORS.md). For a complete list of the many individuals that contributed to the design and implementation of Discourse, please refer to [the official Discourse blog](http://blog.discourse.org/2013/02/the-discourse-team/) and [GitHub's list of contributors](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/contributors).


## Copyright / License

Copyright 2014 Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.

Licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2.0 (or later);
you may not use this work except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License in the LICENSE file, or at:

   http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Discourse logo and “Discourse Forum” ®, Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.

## Dedication

Discourse is built with [love, Internet style.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1TZaElTAs)