116 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
<a href="http://www.discourse.org/"></a>
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Discourse is the 100% open source, next-generation discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.
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Whenever you need ...
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- a mailing list
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- a forum to discuss something
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- a chat room where you can type paragraphs
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... consider Discourse.
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## Getting Started
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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**](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/VAGRANT.md), which includes instructions to get up and running in a development environment using a virtual machine. This beginner's guide is also adequate for developers ready to sink their teeth quickly; it's the easiest way to hack on Discourse!
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2. Once you have Discourse up and running, be sure to load [the appropriate seed data](pg_dumps) on your forum, either the **developer** seed data, which is the same data you'll see on [try.discourse.org](http://try.discourse.org), or the **production** seed data which includes the [Discourse Admin Quick Start Guide](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/wiki/The-Discourse-Admin-Quick-Start-Guide) and meta guidance.
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3. 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).
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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). And if you're having trouble, please see our [**TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE**](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md) first!
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## Vision
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We think of Discourse as a **Civilized Discourse Construction Kit**, an open-source discussion platform that acts as a free, flexible, fundamental building block for online communities of any size, tiny to huge.
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Discourse is:
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- A **flattened, endlessly scrolling discussion**, which avoids the awkwardness of traditionally threaded and paginated discussion, while still allowing replies to be expanded in place for context.
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- A **user trust system** that grants users rights to assist in moderating the forum as they participate in good faith over time. The goal is for the forum to be nearly self-moderating in the absence of any formal moderators, although excellent moderators do accelerate the process greatly.
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- An **advanced JavaScript app** which runs in modern browsers and works identically on desktop and tablet, without the need for a native app.
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- A **contemporary, robust technology stack**, free of legacy PHP and MySQL constraints.
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Our goal is to **foster an active community of contributors**, all of whom commit to free, simple, pleasant to use online discussion software that can thrive in an Internet age dominated by micro-blogging and diminishing attention spans. Internet discussion belongs to everyone, not just huge corporate websites.
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Discourse is built for the *next* 10 years of the Internet, so our requirements are high:
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1. Modern browsers on the desktop:
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- Internet Explorer 9.0 (may not be fully functional), 10.0+
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- Firefox 16+
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- Google Chrome 23+
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- Safari 5+
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2. The latest generation of tablets, 7" or larger:
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- iPad 2+
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- Android 4.1+
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- Windows 8
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3. Modern small screen mobile/smartphones *as soon as possible*:
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- Windows Phone 8
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- iOS 6+
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- Android 4.0+
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## Built With
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Discourse is built from the following open source components:
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- [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.
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- [Ember.js](https://github.com/emberjs/ember.js) - Our front end is an Ember.js app that communicates with the Rails API.
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- [PostgreSQL](http://www.postgresql.org/) - Our main data store is in Postgres.
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- [Redis](http://redis.io/) - We use Redis for our job queue, rate limiting, as a cache and for transient data.
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Plus *lots* of Ruby Gems, a complete list of which is at [**SOFTWARE.MD**](docs/SOFTWARE.md).
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## Contributing
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[](https://travis-ci.org/discourse/discourse)
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[](https://codeclimate.com/github/discourse/discourse)
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Discourse is **100% free** and **open-source**. We encourage and support an active, healthy community that
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accepts contributions from the public. We'd like you to be a part of that community.
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Before contributing to Discourse, please:
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1. Review the [**VISION**](#vision) statement, to confirm that you understand the focus of the project,
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2. Read and sign the [**Electronic Discourse Forums Contribution License Agreement**](http://discourse.org/cla), to confirm you've read and acknowledged the legal aspects of your contributions, and
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3. Dig into [**CONTRIBUTING.MD**](CONTRIBUTING.md), which houses all of the necessary info to:
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- submit bugs,
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- request new features, and
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- step you through the entire process of preparing your code for a Pull Request.
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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)
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We look forward to seeing your cool stuff!
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## Having Problems getting set up?
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Before contacting us for help, please review our [Troubleshooting Guide](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md).
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## The Discourse Team
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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).
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## Copyright / License
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Copyright 2013 Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
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Licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2.0 (or later);
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you may not use this work except in compliance with the License.
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You may obtain a copy of the License in the LICENSE file, or at:
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
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Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
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WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
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See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
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limitations under the License.
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Discourse logo and “Discourse Forum” ®, Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
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## Dedication
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Discourse is built with [love, Internet style.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1TZaElTAs)
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