The discussion clarifies that Discourse is not decentralized in the way one might assume. blind_confused initially believed Discourse was decentralized, leading to questions about how data flows across multiple servers. Jagster and Ed_S explain that Discourse forums operate on centralized servers, with each forum having its own independent server and no communication between forums unless using a plugin like the Fediverse integration. bloomexperiment adds that accounts are unique to each forum. Ed_S further clarifies that within a single Discourse forum, there is typically one or two servers, not multiple distributed nodes. maiki questions the source of the
disclaimer - tech newbie here, sorry also, would really appreciate if the answers to this had as few guesses as possible, only “know for sure” answers if that’s okay, thank you in advance
I recently learned that Discourse is decentralized. While I find decentralized networks cool, I had one question in mind about them. As a newbie, whenever I hear “decentralized”, I picture lots of servers across the world, and connections randomly going through them, without a centered server. Does “decentralized” mean that Discourse (or any forum based on it) needs to go through more servers or “points of connection” than a centralized network would need to? (am I making more connections across the world, than if I was uing something centralized?)
is it going through several servers at a time, or is it rather one server at a time, but a random one? Or does each community that has a Discourse-based forum have it’s own designated server that is always being used by them?
is all of this unique to each decentralized platform (other than Discourse)?
thanks in advance to anyone who answers, and I’m sorry if this is a headache to explain this to a newbie
This is the case. Different Discourse forums don’t communicate. (Other than the Fediverse/Mastodon integration mentioned, but I wonder if that’s a distraction from the main question, or the root of the question.)
When you create an account on each Discourse forum, it is unique to that forum. Each time if you want to join a different Discourse forum, you make a completely new, unrelated account.
Decentralized internet services distribute control and data across multiple nodes or servers, rather than relying on a single central authority. This enhances security, privacy, and resilience, as no single point of failure exists.
Why Discourse Forums Aren’t Decentralized
Discourse forums are not decentralized because they typically operate on a centralized server controlled by a single entity or organization. All data and administrative control are managed from this central point, making them reliant on that single server’s availability and security.
Indeed. In system administration terms, there is one or maybe two servers, by which I mean computers in a building somewhere doing useful work. In user terms, there is one server. That is, for one forum, there is one “place” which everyone shares. (I say this, because Discord uses the term “server” to mean something more like “place” or “territory”.)
A Discourse forum may have multiple “Categories” and in some ways you might think of these as different “places” - they might each have their own moderators, for example. But we don’t call these “servers”.
It is essential not to confuse Discourse with Discord! They are two very different kinds of software offering.
well… to be honest with you, I don’t remember where exactly it was haha. I just searched “is discourse decentralized” and noticed the word “decentralized” in one of the search result previews, without even clicking on it. Perhaps that article actually explains things in greater detail, and arrives at a different conclusion than the one I made without giving it enough time to read.
