stephtara has successfully set up a self-hosted Discourse instance and seeks guidance on restoring content from a previous trial and selecting a suitable theme. They plan to migrate a large Facebook group (~8k members) and are overwhelmed by setup options. jahan_gagan clarifies that Discourse backups must be in .tar.gz format — SQL dumps and .mnu/.des files won’t restore via admin tools — and recommends exploring themes via Discourse’s theme explorer and full theme management guide. NateDhaliwal suggests the “Fakebook” theme for Facebook migrants, noting Discourse also includes built-in mobile support. tobiaseigen congratulates stephtara on the migration effort and encourages sharing their journey in the #community category, advising to use the Glass Slippers search tool and post questions separately for better support. stephtara thanks the community and confirms they’ll recheck their backup files, noting they no longer have access to the trial instance.
Hi there! I’ve finally got my self-hosted Discourse instance up and running. But… I have a lot of configuring to do, and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed!
Context: I have a nearly 8k member facebook group I’m planning to migrate to Discourse over the coming months; I gave Discourse a spin with a free trial a few months back (managed hosting) and that gave me the opportunity to see what it was capable of, and start thinking about how I will organise the community once on Discourse.
I don’t really know where to start, but here are two things:
I did a backup of the trial content and I’d like to restore it to my new instance, because I’d done some thinking about category structure that I’d like to peek at again, but my backups don’t seem to be in the right format. I have an sql dump and a folder with two cfg_backup files, one is .mnu and one .des – what am I missing?
how do I get started picking a theme? Any recommendations? I find it difficult to make a decision just based on a preview in “Theme Creator” – is there a listing somewhere which gives a better overview of features and characteristics of different themes? (to keep in mind: target audience is “used to facebook” and very much “mobile first”)
Any other advice for somebody who is attempting not to drown would be most welcome
Discourse backups are normally .tar.gz files that include the database, uploads, and metadata. An SQL dump plus .mnu/.des files don’t match the official Discourse backup format, so they can’t be restored through the standard admin restore workflow. If you still have access to the old trial instance, check for the proper .tar.gz backup.
For choosing a theme: the easiest way to get a feel for what’s available is to browse the curated themes on Meta. Most entries include screenshots, demos, and feature notes, which makes comparison a lot clearer than viewing them in Theme Creator alone.
Oh wonderful, thanks so much for this, looks like what I need!
I’m going to double-check again what I have in terms of backup (I don’t have access to the trial instance anymore). Not a huge huge issue if it’s lost, but it would have saved me redoing previously done work
@stephtara glad you are proceeding with the move of your community from facebook! That sounds like an interesting (and very worthwhile!) challenge. If you want you can also post about your journey in a new Community Building topic.
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