A user, brettdev, is experiencing a 403 error after a fresh install of Discourse on a Digital Ocean droplet. IAmGav suggests reinstalling using the official method as the marketplace install can be problematic.
Others have pointed out potential issues with DNS (pfaffman) and the one-click install method (pfaffman). Valcoholics mentions experiencing the same issue in 2023, but Stephen requests clarification on the issue and notes that support for the Digital Ocean one-click installer is not provided here.
I’m new to Discourse, I have set up a Digital Ocean droplet and used their Discourse marketplace app.
The install went fine, I pointed my domain to the IP address (a record)
However, when I type in the subdomain I get a 403 error and when I type in the Digital Ocean IP address I get nothing (IP address not found)
Does anyone know where I might be going wrong? Thanks!
In my personal opinion, you went wrong by installing discourse via the marketplace. I dislike that thing 
Can you rebuild the droplet and follow the official install.
It would be easier, than to troubleshoot and fix the broken marketplace one.
It sounds like you have a dns problem or otherwise don’t know the ip address of your droplet.
Currently experiencing this in 2023 as still an issue.
If you do a standard install, it will do some tests to make sure that your DNS is correct. Did you do a one-click or a standard install?
If you did a one-click install, then that test doesn’t get done.
What is your hostname? What is the IP address of your droplet? Do they match?
What is? Could you elaborate?
We don’t offer any support for the digital ocean one click installer here, for that you would need to reach out to them.