The debate over AI-generated forum content continued. Nickdb shared how his team built an AI agent to detect AI-written posts based on tone and structure, while Merefield argued such posts feel like “walking through treacle.” Takiro reported that their art-focused community’s AI ban has been well-received, relying on community reporting rather than witch hunts. read more
Takiro reported a Failed to optimize image error after upgrading Discourse, traced to the deprecated discourse-topic-previews-sidecar plugin. David confirmed the cause and recommended removing the plugin. After removal, avatars worked again. read more
A user reported that the global chat search on mobile cannot be scrolled on touch devices. Awesomerobot added a fix that will ship in the next update. read more
Laguna asked how to show upcoming events in all categories (not just the event category) when using the Right Sidebar Blocks component. Moin provided a solution using a value transformer with a small theme component. read more
#Theme component
Sk-Or-V1-Contents encountered a missing preview button when testing the Mobile Composer Preview component in Theme Creator. Moin guided them to the built-in preview button at the bottom of the composer, which is more reliable and doesn’t suffer from reload issues. read more
Danielle announced the replay of the Community Office Hours session on embedding Discourse as a full-page comment system. Key takeaways include support for Ghost, WordPress, static sites, and the ability to create companion topics automatically. read more
#Announcements
Feedback on the unified new view for the topic list continued. Seanblue reported that unread counts often become out of sync, especially after reading a watched topic. Martin investigated the issue and identified that the browse-more component doesn’t update from the topic tracking state. Chapoi noted that the related topics line is intentionally hidden in Horizon for a cleaner look. read more
The Solved improvements feature (allowing members to indicate they’re experiencing a reported issue) received mixed feedback. Lillian and Lilly argued that a simple “me too” button could prevent users from explaining unique variations of an issue. Lindsey clarified the feature is optional and category-specific. read more
#Plugin
Falco merged a PR fixing several issues in the Resenha voice rooms plugin. Nathank reported that the lock micro-icon in private rooms is too small and the participant list is hard to find when the room is inactive. read more
Akanora reported that the Translate to Turkish feature has been generating archaic Ottoman-style language instead of modern Turkish. Falco identified that the AI helper prompt was too “greedy” with transformations and pushed a fix to keep translations faithful to tone and formality. read more
Editor0732 discovered a security gap: grace‑period edits bypass the skip_review_media_groups media review check. A user can post plain text, then add images within the grace period without any edit indicator, and the post never enters the review queue. read more
Sober shared a log showing S3 backup uploads failing with a timeout error after upgrading to v2026.8.0-latest. The multipart upload to AWS S3 aborted due to an idle connection timeout. read more
#Feature
Zogstrip merged a PR to allow using input for the value of manually mapped Boolean-type fields in the Call Workflow step. read more
A long‑awaited feature for multi-language preferences is now in testing. Nat shared screenshots of the new user interface where users can select their language order to see localized content. read more
Per1234 requested that the review queue’s “User Needs Approval” flags include a Suspend option in addition to Delete. Moin linked to a similar earlier request. read more
Zogstrip fixed an issue where formatted “Reason” text in flags (used by Workflows and Automation) was displayed as a single line. The Security fix had broken HTML/Markdown rendering; the PR restores it. read more
The Team group was active across many topics yesterday. Here is a summary of their contributions:
David helped Takiro diagnose the avatar optimization error, pinpointing the deprecated discourse-topic-previews-sidecar plugin as the culprit. He also noted that he would send a PR to the plugin maintainer before it was found archived. read more
Zogstrip merged PRs for two feature requests: allowing user‑supplied input for Boolean Call Workflow fields PR link, and restoring formatting support in flag reason text PR link. He also fixed the duplicate poll title in email notifications PR link. read moreread moreread more
Awesomerobot fixed the mobile chat search scroll bug with a PR PR link and advised on ActivityPub domain change limitations, recommending manual database updates. read moreread more
Falco merged a PR addressing various issues in the Resenha voice rooms plugin PR link and debugged the Turkish translation problem, attributing it to an over‑eager AI prompt and pushing a fix PR link. read moreread more
Sam acknowledged a Gemini schema compatibility issue in the Workflows plugin and announced a move to the Interactions API for a more stable bridge. read more
Angus pushed fixes for the Custom Wizard plugin and advised a user to update their site. read more
Lindsey provided clarification on the “me too” Solved feature, reiterating it is optional and category‑specific. read more
Danielle authored the Office Hours replay announcement, detailing the new full‑page embed experience. read more
Chapoi confirmed that hiding the unread/new topic line below related topics in Horizon is intentional decluttering. read more
Martin investigated reported bugs with the unified view’s unread counts and promised a fix for the suggested topics priority. read more
Nat announced the multi-language preferences PR and encouraged testing on meta. read more
Lillian shared feedback that the “me too” button could obscure unique user issues in support forums. read more
It seems the em dash is now a dead giveaway of AI assistance – though some of us refuse to drop our standards for the bots.
It was a bustling day on Meta, with 82 new posts across 31 topics, sparking 112 likes. The community dived deep into dark theming, plugin releases, maintenance strategies, and the evolving role of AI in forums.
Remove the pure white on text – Alltiagocom raised a compelling case for softer white text in dark mode, citing eye strain. Awesomerobot suggested the default may already be #ddd, while Moin pointed out Horizon themes use #fff. The discussion highlights a growing need for accessible color palettes. read more
#Plugin
Resenha – Discord-style voice rooms – Falco rolled out major updates: private STUN/TURN via coturn, session recording with LiveKit, participant flags, and right-click menu controls. Nathank praised the quick fixes. read more
Event Duplicator plugin – Lou released a new plugin that duplicates calendar events/topics into future time periods, with configurable date-shift strategies and duplicate tracking. Nathank suggested extending it for monthly events. read more
Angus’ Events Plugin – Nathank advised BTripz on moving topics out of a problematic category after a plugin failure, referencing an active PR. read more
Discourse Workflows – Dennisjbr discovered a Gemini API compatibility issue with additionalProperties in tool schemas; Sam confirmed a move to the Interactions API next week. read more
#Feature
Workflow Boolean fields – Zogstrip and Renato both submitted PRs to allow input values for manually mapped Boolean fields; Per1234 thanked them for the swift fix. read more
Discounts based on trust levels – Satonotdead explored automatic lifetime discounts for specific groups; Pfaffman suggested custom products hidden via CSS as a workaround. read more
Suspend from review queue – Zogstrip implemented a long-awaited “Suspend” action in review resolutions, with PR #42205. read more
Formatting flag reason text – Zogstrip fixed support for markdown formatting inside flag reasons, much to Per1234's relief. read more
#Self-hosting
Maintenance page workaround – Alltiagocom shared a Claude-generated Cloudflare Worker approach for instant maintenance pages. Merefield and Lilly countered with the dual-container install for near-zero downtime, complete with step-by-step worker code. read more
One server for two Discourse communities – Pfaffman provided exact volume mount instructions for multisite.yml; Ethsim2 refined the configuration details. read more
#Community Building
Drastic drop in support forum activity – Alltiagocom and Nickdb debated AI’s role; Tris20 expressed weariness with LLM output and a longing for “messy human text.” read more
Forums that forbid AI content – Nickdb shared cost-saving tweaks for AI moderation; Jordan451 humorously noted the irony of humans proving they’re not machines. read more
Opening forum goes to old topics – Zogstrip traced the cause to bfcache-friendly headers and issued PR #42207, giving NateDhaliwal a long-awaited fix. read more
S3 upload failure on v2026.8.0 – Pfaffman identified a network timeout as the likely culprit behind the error. read more
#Announcements
Discourse ID now available – Karthik_K1 noticed the login button still says “Discourse” instead of the site name; Moin suggested a cache delay. read more
July 31st intermediate releases – David announced critical security fixes for v2026.8.0-latest, v2026.7.1, v2026.6.2, and v2026.1.7. read more
Redesigned admin dashboard – Sren-1 struggled to locate the version info; Moin pointed to /admin/update and /admin/manage-updates. read more
Nested replies appear at the top – Markvanlan confirmed this is expected behavior; posts move to their correct position on refresh. read more
Pasting HTML into composer – One1 reported extra lang spans; Moin noted Renato is working on a fix in PR #42163. read more
Mobile Firefox scrolling on screen lock – Riking captured a video of the scroll jumping to bottom when locking the phone; a new bug report awaiting investigation. read more
#Theme component
Sidebar Menu Reorder – Satonotdead hit a snag with duplicate section names; Lilly (not team) clarified the CSS-based limitations, while Moin explained why the component can’t differentiate identical slugs. read more
The Discourse team was hard at work shipping fixes and engaging with the community:
Zogstrip led the charge with four PRs: solving the workflow Boolean field input (#42161), fixing the bfcache navigation bug (#42207), and adding suspend actions to the review queue (#42205). He also tackled flag reason formatting, offering clear explanations in each topic.
Moin provided invaluable support across eight posts – from clarifying Discourse ID naming delays to guiding Sren-1 on locating version info in the new dashboard, and even mediating a sidebar reorder dispute with patience and technical depth.
David posted the critical release notes for the July 31st security updates, ensuring all self-hosters could patch promptly.
Awesomerobot weighed in on the dark theme discussion, confirming the default palette and suggesting a possible theme-specific variation.
Sam confirmed plans to migrate Discourse Workflows to the Gemini Interactions API, addressing the additionalProperties issue raised by Dennisjbr.
Riking filed the mobile Firefox scrolling bug with a screen recording and also contributed to debugging the WAF-related 403 errors on draft saving.
Markvanlan clarified nested reply behavior, reassuring users that the top placement is intentional.
Chapoi's earlier dashboard insights were cited, but no new posts from them appeared in this window.
The team’s responsiveness and transparency (especially with PR links and next-step updates) continue to make Meta a model for collaborative support.
From fixing bfcache mysteries to duplicating grand-prix events, the community proved that even on a “quiet” day, there’s always a spark – and a PR to address it.
Any cheaper alternatives to Hetzner? – Alltiagocom kicked off a hunt for budget VPS options after Hetzner raised prices. Canapin clarified the difference between CX and CPX servers, while Lilly shared a bash script that monitors Hetzner stock and posts alerts to Discourse. Other members suggested Netcup and advinservers.com. read more
Maintenance page workaround – can this be done? – Lilly provided a detailed guide on using a Cloudflare Worker to display a custom maintenance page during container swaps. Merefield debated its usefulness and stressed the importance of adequate server specs, while Alltiagocom weighed the costs and benefits. read more
“Start Updating” button lacks a button styling – Canapin noted the button doesn’t look interactive. Moin confirmed it’s a regression from the “modernize Foundation” change and showed a screenshot of the previous style. read more
About nesting subcategories on dropdown – Satonotdead proposed displaying subcategories nested in the main dropdown to reduce noise for new users. Mcwumbly agreed it’s worth exploring and suggested possible checkbox interactions. read more
Remove the pure white on text – Alltiagocom shared frustration with the brightness of text in dark themes. Moin suggested trying the “dark” palette, and Awesomerobot chimed in with color palette options. read more
Can someone clarify the ‘posts read’ TL3 promotion logic? – NateDhaliwal asked about the formula in TrustLevel3Requirements. Mcwumbly explained that tl3_requires_posts_read is a percentage, capped by tl3_requires_posts_read_cap. read more
New core features system specs in plugins and themes – Gormus shared a code snippet showing how to set SiteSetting.theme_authorized_extensions within RSpec to enable core feature testing. read more
Has something changed with pasting html into the composer? – One1 reported unwanted lang spans appearing when pasting HTML. Moin pointed to a pull request that fixes the issue. read more
Broken Wizards – Lebron came back from a long absence and described that the Custom Wizard plugin works for admins but not regular users after an upgrade. NateDhaliwal suggested posting in the plugin’s topic for better visibility. read more
Mobile Firefox scrolling to bottom of topic on screen lock – Riking identified the culprit: the better-osm-org user script, not a core bug, after testing in safe mode and on Meta. read more
Automatic deletion of old and closed topics? – Tealk shared a topic‑pruning script that deletes posts via the API, with Moin asking about the criteria used. read more
Idea‑voting, two different styles? – Ecki noticed inconsistent voting interfaces in the same category. Moin explained the difference between the topic voting plugin (when category type is “Idea”) and the post voting plugin. read more
Tag‑icons plugin icon display issue – Iouvps reported missing icons after an upgrade. Moin discovered that the plugin now requires tag slugs instead of names, and provided a step‑by‑step walkthrough that solved the problem. read more
#Feature
Combining Category types – Ecki tried to combine solved, topic voting, and events in one category and found conflicts. Moin asked how the plugins were used before the category‑type system was introduced, sparking a discussion on design trade‑offs. read more
#Plugin
Event Duplicator: duplicate calendar events/topics into a new time period – Lou announced v1.1.0, adding a “Shift (months)” field to the review page, responding to Nathank’s request for monthly duplication. read more
#Announcements
Solved improvements: Allowing members to indicate they’re experiencing a reported issue – EricGT asked about a “Me too” report, and Mcwumbly provided a ready‑to‑use SQL query to generate one via Data Explorer. read more
Moin provided clear answers across multiple topics: explaining the tl3_requires_posts_read percentage (in the TL3 logic topic), diagnosing the tag‑icons slug issue, and linking to the composer fix PR. He also discussed the “Start Updating” button styling and offered advice on category types.
Canapin flagged the “Start Updating” button styling and pointed out that Hetzner’s CX servers are often sold out, noting the price increase.
Merefield shared opinions on the maintenance page (calling it extra infrastructure) and gave practical advice on server sizing for the dual‑container setup, recommending at least 4GB RAM and 3 vCPUs.
Mcwumbly explained the TL3 promotion logic and provided a custom SQL query for the “Me too” report in the solved improvements topic. He also supported the idea of nesting subcategories in dropdowns.
NateDhaliwal asked the clarifying question about TL3 and later confirmed he understood the answer. He also advised Lebron to post the wizard issue in the plugin topic.
Sam mentioned a new PR for the Workflows plugin that adds interaction API support, inviting testing.
Fun Sign-off
Between hunting for budget servers, building Cloudflare maintenance pages, and tweaking TL3 requirements, the community certainly had a day full of dynamic solutions—let’s hope your forums stay as sleek as that “Start Updating” button will look once it gets its border back!
Chrisrannounced the PostgreSQL 18 update for self-hosters, detailing the new locale provider, disk space requirements, and step-by-step upgrade instructions, including the option to postpone via template switching. read more
PostgreSQL 18 update for self‑hosters — Chrisr announced the long‑awaited upgrade to PostgreSQL 18, moving from PG15 to the new built‑in locale provider. The upgrade requires roughly 2× the database size in free disk space; several users reported single‑CPU issues and upgrade‑loop problems, with fixes arriving quickly. Discussion covers disk space requirements, migration options, and performance expectations. Read the full announcement
High‑context topic cards now enabled by default in the Horizon theme — This change sparked feedback from educators who prefer the compact view; a theme component was suggested as an alternative. See the discussion
Introducing the unified new view for the topic list — Users are unhappy about losing the separate “unread” count on the main page. Martin confirmed that the data is still available and a theme component could restore it; internal discussion may lead to a preference option. Join the conversation
Latest update this morning broke my Discourse — Sandra.Mccollum experienced a failed upgrade via the GUI; after manual intervention (installing PG18 and a newer vips) the site recovered. The thread highlights the importance of running ./launcher rebuild twice for major version bumps and using CLI instead of GUI for updates. Read the troubleshooting
Cannot view post preview in mobile composer? — The missing preview button is by design, replaced by the rich text editor, but the editor doesn’t support all Markdown features (e.g., [color=red]). Chapoi is considering re‑instating the preview button if necessary. Share your feedback
Database cleanup before PostgreSQL 18 upgrade — Scavin asked about retention periods for large log/statistics tables (topic_views, post_timings, etc.). Community advice: keep the primary tables, but you can control AI audit log retention via settings; disk space is likely sufficient with the updated 2× guidance. Get the details
Unable to switch accounts — When using Discourse as the authenticator, users must log out of the identity provider first. Pfaffman suggested impersonating via the admin panel or clearing browsing data. See the solution
I’m using a Unix socket between Caddy and Discourse — Intermittent “unix:” errors in the inet field were traced to proxy configuration; Falco confirmed the proxy chain is misconfigured. Users are testing socket reuse after rebuilds. Discuss the fix
Learning music (off‑topic but interesting) — A delightful off‑topic thread about music theory, alternative notations, and personal experiences. HAWK split it out of another topic, and Merefield shared his jazz piano approach. Enjoy the music talk
Scalable engagement models — HAWK asked about one‑to‑many formats (webinars, office hours). Mcwumbly shared how Discourse staff announce features via direct engagement with the people who built them. Add your model
#Feature
Add {username} as a template param in AI persona system prompts — Falco merged the PR, completing the feature. This allows AI personas to reference the current user by name. Check the merge
#Self-Hosting
Switching between Discourse release channels / versions — David updated the guide to modern terminology and clarified that git pull is usually unnecessary since the launcher auto‑updates. Read the updated guide
Ayudeme no he podido instalar — A Spanish‑language installation issue; Tgxworld noted a bug in the recent update that has been addressed, so a rebuild should fix it. Get help
#Plugin
Resenha – Add Discord‑style Voice Rooms — Satonotdead reported a foreign‑key violation when deleting voice rooms; Falco merged a fix quickly. The follow‑up also highlighted a path‑update quirk. See the fix
Inject html only on one page — Awesomerobot provided a GJS snippet using the router service to conditionally render content only on the homepage or specific routes. Learn the technique
Grace period edits bypass skip_review_media_groups — Zogstrip confirmed the bug and a PR has been merged. However, Editor0732 raised a deeper concern about the timing of media review for edits vs. new posts. Track the fix
#Site Feedback
Daily Summary Feedback — Sam is reworking the summary to add a validation round; the thread is a hub for meta‑level improvements. Give your input
The Discourse team has been exceptionally active, especially in response to the PostgreSQL 18 rollout and various bug fixes.
Chrisr led the PostgreSQL 18 upgrade announcement and answered numerous questions about disk space, upgrade procedures, and single‑CPU pitfalls. He also corrected the free‑space check and updated the core‑count detection. (PostgreSQL 18 topic · single‑CPU fix
Falco merged the “Add {username}” AI persona PR, fixed the Resenha voice‑room deletion bug, provided advice on the Unix socket issue, and shared his successful Pi 5 upgrade experience. (AI persona merge · Resenha fix · Pi 5 success
David modernized the release‑channel guide and confirmed that git pull is rarely needed. (Guide update
Chapoi addressed mobile composer preview concerns and explained that the rich text editor is the intended replacement, while noting he may re‑add the preview button if necessary. (Mobile composer discussion
Tgxworld helped a user with an installation error, noting the bug has been fixed in the latest update. (Installation help
Awesomerobot provided a detailed code snippet for conditionally injecting HTML on specific pages and also fixed the “Invite Restricted can’t remove” bug. (HTML injection snippet · Invite fix
Sam responded to daily summary feedback and is planning a rework of the summary validation. (Summary feedback
Zogstrip confirmed and fixed the grace‑period media review bypass. (Bug fix PR
Martin discussed the unified new view and provided insight into how the separate unread counts can be restored. (Unified view conversation
Mcwumbly shared team practices on announcing features in the scalable engagement models thread. (Engagement models
Yesterday’s biggest adventure was definitely the PostgreSQL 18 upgrade — let’s hope all the single‑CPU users remembered to check their nproc before diving in!
A frustrated Picho_Pelis reignited a common pain point, describing a persistent SSL certificate issue across multiple VPS installs. The community rallied, with Merefield, Pfaffman and Satonotdead providing debugging steps, including checking Let’s Encrypt rate limits, validating the app.yml configuration, and testing connectivity directly to Let’s Encrypt’s servers read more.
Exodrifter reported a backup upload failure after updating to a recent version, with logs pointing to an uninitialized constant Aws::S3::TransferManager error, sparking a discussion on potential regressions read more.
Roke_Julian_Lockhart opened a deep discussion on the account recovery process when a user forgets which email alias they used, highlighting that the hide_email_address_taken setting can disable username-based password resets. The conversation led to a new feature request to always allow this method read more.
A user managed to resolve their random 500 error issue on assets, which turned out to be caused by an out-of-date upstream Nginx instance, not the Discourse installation itself read more.
#Announcements
Chrisr provided crucial clarifications on the PostgreSQL 18 update for self-hosters, detailing the reasoning behind the migration, potential pitfalls like data checksum mismatches, and the timeline for deprecating PG15. Users like Richie shared tips for monitoring the upgrade process, while Jericson reported a specific issue with full-multisite migrations read more.
Sam announced new support for the Gemini Interactions API in Discourse AI, recommending it for all new Gemini inference. He highlighted three new features—tool call streaming, code execution, and Google Maps integration—while warning about a caveat regarding the new API’s handling of “no thinking” settings read more.
#Community Building
A thought-provoking discussion about the decline in support forum activity drew a lot of engagement. HAWK shared an AI agent’s perspective on the volatility of search traffic, while Nathank and Tris20 opined on the growing importance of forums as “publicly curated databases.” The debate centered on how AI fatigue might push users back to trusted communities read more.
Danielle posted a welcoming prompt asking members to share the story behind their communities. The thread was well-received, with Jagster, HAWK, Canapin, and Newkid all sharing their unique motivations and journeys read more.
Philip_Rhoades expressed interest in kick-starting a “Learning Music” Discourse site based on a fantastic off-topic discussion, and HAWK hinted it could be a contender for the Free plan read more.
A collaborative thread on Improving the “update Discourse” page generated several excellent ideas. Mcwumbly kickstarted the discussion, Asa proposed a state-based status banner to reduce alarm fatigue and suggested bringing back prominent version numbers, while Ed_S emphasized the need to highlight the importance of backups and the potential for upgrade failures read more.
Stephtara highlighted a series of mobile UI issues, including a “borderline non-functional” interface for adding users to groups. Chapoi confirmed that a fix is in progress and pointed to a pull request aimed at making the component sturdier read more.
The redesign of the admin dashboard continued to be a hot-button topic. Kjell lamented the loss of essential information like version and disk space details, a sentiment echoed by Lilly who prefers keeping the old dashboard available as well read more.
A question about adding users to groups from the profile page was quickly answered by Nathank, who pointed out the admin wrench option for managing groups, a solution that resolved Stephtara's confusion read more.
#Announcements (Plugin)
Makofresh announced a beta plugin to show TL3 progress to TL2 users, providing a powerful incentive mechanism for community members working towards higher trust levels read more.
#Community Building
Mae posed a question to the enterprise community, asking how much a role AI search is playing in their strategy, complete with a poll and links to relevant blog posts read more.
#Developer Guides
A new developer guide was published outlining the APIs for designing responsive widths, covering both viewport and container queries, complete with SCSS mixins and Ember service examples read more.
Don shared a detailed technical breakdown of a Facebook-style topic modal approach, explaining why it eschews iframes in favor of native Glimmer components, and how it handles routing, pagination, and service patching read more.
T_Müller posted a contract role looking for a Ruby + Discourse specialist for a large US company integration, drawing immediate interest from Merefield and Deepvyasread more.
#Plugin
The Resenha plugin gained a quality-of-life update, with Falco making the slug explicitly editable, similar to how categories are handled read more.
#Feature
A creative feature request emerged for multiple profiles for a single user, inspired by the PluralKit system on Discord, which would allow users to post under various proxy accounts for roleplay or other creative uses read more.
Merefield was a central figure in the VPS SSL installation struggle, providing concrete debugging commands and patiently explaining potential causes, such as Let’s Encrypt rate limiting and certificate validation.
Pfaffman offered clear, pragmatic advice on the SSL issue, suggesting the use of a www subdomain to avoid rate limits, and later in the thread on account recovery, he thoughtfully clarified the security trade-offs involved. He also shared his deep-dive experience with PostgreSQL 18 migrations.
Danielle fostered a sense of community with her warm invitation for members to share their community-building stories.
Markvanlan clarified how the new nested replies feature can be applied at different levels, from site-wide defaults to individual categories.
It’s been a wonderful day of problem-solving and community building here on Meta—let’s hope tomorrow’s adventures are a bit less about chasing SSL certificates and a bit more about building great communities!
Here’s a selection of the most interesting discussions from the past day, grouped by category.
Self-hosting
Installation problems? Check your DNS first.Picho_Pelis spent a frustrating day trying to install Discourse on multiple VPSes. After much back-and-forth, including Cloudflare issues and nginx SSL certificate errors, it turned out the domain debatehosting.co wasn’t even registered! Supermathie pointed out the domain doesn’t exist, ending the mystery. read more
A reminder that a simple whois could save hours of debugging. Lilly also urged the OP to mark a solution for future readers. read more
Password reset dilemma when you’ve lost your email address.Roke_Julian_Lockhart shared a cautionary tale about OpenAI silently changing SSO to an email alias. This sparked a discussion about the hide_email_address_taken setting and led to a feature request to always allow username-based password resets. Pfaffman and Moin weighed in on the security trade-offs. read more • view feature request
Support
Discourse-ID showing its own logo instead of your forum’s?Karthik_K1 reported this issue, and after some back‐and‐forth, Chapoi provided a workaround that involves clearing the client credentials and toggling Discourse ID. Rishabh (from the Discourse ID team) confirmed a dedicated button exists on the admin page. read more • see button
Can you add Indian languages to the AI translation selector?Karthik_K1 asked about adding Hindi, Telugu, etc. Nat clarified that the selector changes the whole Discourse UI, not just post content, so only fully supported locales are listed. A plugin would be needed for unsupported ones. read more
Group mentions don’t notify members?Stephtara wondered why her group mention didn’t trigger notifications. Lilly and Moin pointed out that access to the topic is required; if the group members can’t see the category, they won’t be notified. A quick test with a direct mention helped isolate the issue. read more
Discourse AI JSON parsing error with a small LLM.Lilydjwg encountered “structured output response was not valid JSON” when using a 4B model. Sam acknowledged the issue and linked a fix. read more • PR
Patreon dashboard warning persists even after fixing the problem.Gunnar confirmed that Awesomerobot’s change made the notice disappear automatically after a rebuild. Ted explained the “Refresh” button is just a page reload. read more
Feature
Admins and moderators dreaming of a “sudo” mode.Sam proposed inverting the current model: admins are normal users unless they explicitly activate admin powers. Mcwumbly and Lilly discussed the pros and cons, including a persistent toggle and separate admin areas. The conversation continues with multiple viewpoints. read more
New feature request: username-based password reset.Roke_Julian_Lockhart filed this after the OpenAI incident, and Southpaw explained how the hide_email_address_taken setting currently forces email-only reset fields. The request has gained support. read more
Multiple profiles per user.FishEmoji proposed a PluralKit-like system for Discourse, which would let users post under different identities (e.g., for roleplay or moderation). Feedback suggests it’s complex but potentially valuable. read more
Clean Share URL theme component lets users opt out of username attribution.Scavin released a component that adds a preference to strip ?u=username from share links, while still respecting user fields for confirmation. read more
Copying workflow steps should preserve names.Per1234 filed a feature request on the new Workflows plugin, noting that pasted steps revert to default names, causing confusion and potential errors when referencing outputs. read more
Site feedback
Meta itself hit a deployment snag!Lilly noticed an error banner about MERGE_BRANCH deployment failed. Tgxworld fixed it, and David explained the internal branch deployment system had a bug that made the error visible to everyone. read more
Development
Facebook-style topic modal – a native Glimmer approach.Don shared a detailed implementation that reuses Discourse’s own post stream, avoids iframes, and handles routing and infinite scroll. Damian_Boon expressed interest in testing it. read more
TL3 progress plugin gets new feature.NateDhaliwal added the lowest stat display for users above TL3. read more
Community Building
Learning music – an off-topic gem.Philip_Rhoades shared his musical journey and suggested a dedicated site. HAWK embraced the idea, and others chimed in with brain‑signal reconstruction and mantra chanting research. read more
UX
Closing the tag selector on mobile is a mystery.Jordan.Vidrine acknowledged the pain point and showed a preview of the new “bottom sheet” pattern that should solve it, linking to ongoing work by Saquetim. read more
Bulk archiving messages doesn’t update until refresh.Tannerabread reproduced the bug and submitted a PR (link to PR). The issue arises when scrolling loads more messages. read more
Bug
Reactions count suddenly increased?Moin found this was fixed in PR #36138. read more
Reviewable insights showing wrong join date/post count.Tannerabread fixed a serializer ordering issue in PR #42145. read more
Announcements
PostgreSQL 18 upgrade for self‑hosters.Lilly shared a detailed step‑by‑step guide for dual‑container setups, including Cloudflare maintenance and vacuuming. Pfaffman and others discussed nuances of moving data containers. read more
Granular group permissions for anonymous/logged‑in users.Satonotdead asked about CSS classes, and Martin explained they aren’t added by default. Lilly quickly opened a PR for the body classes component. read more
Unified new view – no user preference planned.Martin confirmed that a theme component is the way to go if you want to split new/unread counts again, and he’s open to adding plugin APIs. read more
Plugin
Suggested Edits plugin – UX feedback.Jesse_Mba_Commons provided five concrete improvement suggestions, including a diff for suggesters, whitespace normalization, and a better “Add reason” field. read more
Custom Wizard plugin documentation link broken.Tobiaseigen found that the admin UI points to a 404; Lebron also asked where to report bugs. read more
Zendesk plugin – upcoming API token deactivation.Vishal_Ahir asked about OAuth migration ahead of April 2027. read more
Theme component
Dismiss Admin Noise component updated.Lilly merged a fix for badge notifications, asking users to update. read more
Blog
Discourse Discover: Building in the Physical World. The monthly roundup highlights hardware communities using Discourse. read more
Enterprise
Scalable engagement models.HAWK discussed with Putty the tactics for converting lurkers into contributors. read more
Migration
phpBB import container build failure.Preston thanked someone for help; the topic continues. read more
Integrations
Gemini API keys for Discourse AI.Lilly documented a workaround for Google Cloud service account setup and promised to update the OP. read more
In the last 24 hours, the community has been buzzing with activity. A total of 113 posts were created across 46 topics, and the community showed their appreciation with 245 likes given across the returned posts.
The big news is the Composer Redesign, which Chapoi announced as an experimental upcoming change. The new design incorporates the title into the content area, moves the toolbar to the footer, and introduces an expanding editor for mobile. Don praised the redesign as “a much more modern and elegant way to compose,” while Canapin, Satonotdead, and David_Ghost were positive about the bottom toolbar, particularly for one-handed mobile use. However, Shauny questioned the reason for moving the buttons, citing potential accidental posts. During testing, feedback pointed out several issues, including missing category icons (fixed by Chapoi), a cut-off tag button at post 23, and keyboard interaction quirks discussed in post 9.
Mcwumbly posed a thought-provoking question for the community in For the next decade of the internet (2026 edition), reflecting on Discourse’s mission since 2013. Awesomerobot gave a widely liked reply, predicting the enduring power of “typing words into boxes,” while Ed_S highlighted the need for safe spaces and the challenges of increasing polarization. Satonotdead painted two possible futures, one of public resilience and one of hardened, cypherpunk resistance. read more
Supermathie and Lilly were helping self-hosters with the PostgreSQL 18 update. Lilly documented a detailed walkthrough for a dual-container setup behind Cloudflare, while Tobias_1 shared a fix for a permissions error encountered during the upgrade. Pfaffman offered advice on migrating to a fresh instance. read more
The discussion on the docked composer for AI bot conversations continued, with Moin asking if the preference could be enabled on ask.discourse.com. Keegan pointed him to the “Fonts & Appearance” settings to enable the chat-style composer. Martin suggested the setting might be better placed in “Preferences” or “Interface settings” for clarity.
Martin shared an update on granular group-based permissions. He merged PRs for several official components to use the new resolve_group_membership and disallowed_groups functions. Lilly also contributed a PR to the CSS classes component to support the new group conventions, though she noted the native .anon class exists. read more
#Feature
Mostapha made a feature request to have documentation subcategories land on an index file by default instead of a list of topics. He quickly realized this was already requested in the What should the homepage be for doc categories? topic, where he added his comments and suggested adding “next” and “previous” page buttons to help readers navigate.
The Always allow username-based password reset feature request gained traction. Pfaffman was surprised to learn that the hide_email_address_taken site setting now also blocks username-based resets, calling it a “terrible idea” for users who forgot the email they signed up with. Awesomerobot provided context from the original GitHub PR that made the change. This directly relates to the broader discussion about the issue.
Per1234 requested that workflow step names be preserved when copied and pasted in the new Workflows plugin. Currently, names are reset to defaults, which breaks references and introduces errors. He suggested using the plugin’s existing unique-name logic (with numeric suffixes) to handle potential collisions.
A lively discussion emerged on the topic of Multiple profiles for one user. A_Lilian argued passionately that this feature is about accessibility and autonomy, citing the PluralKit example and sharing their experience as an admin for plural users. Satonotdead linked a related topic on replacing avatar/username for potential implementation ideas.
Satonotdead kicked off a discussion on Automating gamification points, wondering how to use agents or workflows to grant points for completing “quests” or events, in the hopes of automating a motivational system for their community.
HAWK initiated a discussion on public vs. private discussion, asking where communities draw the line. He shared that while Meta prefers public discussions, there are ongoing internal conversations about how to engage the team more openly on Meta itself.
Canapin reported a missing logo on the Discourse ID login page, which Jordan.Vidrine quickly investigated, identifying it as an issue where the platform sometimes fails to re-send those URLs. He noted a fix is in the works to show the name instead of a broken image.
Small-Lovely-Cat filed a bug report about category moderators potentially receiving an incorrect number of pending review notifications, where the count includes reviews from all categories.
Vishal_Ahir asked about the Zendesk API token deactivation scheduled for 2027. Lilly provided comprehensive documentation links on Zendesk’s migration to OAuth tokens and noted the Discourse plugin will likely need updates.
In the unified new view for the topic list announcement, Martin confirmed there are no plans to add a user preference to split the new/unread counts, but suggested a theme component could be created. Frederic_Bertrand and Shauny shared their concerns and noted user complaints about the change. read more
The Team group has been hard at work guiding and participating in discussions.
Chapoi was the central figure in the Composer Redesign testing topic, answering questions, acknowledging feedback, and rapidly fixing issues like the missing category icons as seen in post 12. He also helped Laguna with a custom HTML issue on the Right Sidebar Blocks component at post 203.
Martin was active on multiple fronts. He announced the merge of PRs for official components to support new group permissions. He provided an update on the unified new view, clarifying plans regarding user preferences. He also engaged in the docked composer AI topic, suggesting “Preferences” as a better label for the new setting.
What a day! From a composer going bottom-heavy to a 9-year-old quote bug finally getting fixed, it seems even the Meta community needs a little PostgreSQL 18 to keep up with the pace of change.
In the last 24 hours, the Discourse community has been buzzing with 115 new posts across 51 topics, generating 164 likes. Here are the top contributors of the day:
Don unveiled a standalone theme component for a “Facebook-style” topic modal. The community was quick to praise the slick interface and its “half-way between a normal forum and a chat” feel, but Awesomerobot raised a concern about excessive network requests and rate limits. Don acknowledged the issue, explaining that viewport prefetching works beautifully on his own card-based layout but struggles with standard table lists. He’s since added new settings to provide better control and prevent rate limiting. Fast, elegant, and community-responsive — exactly how Open Source should work. read more
The thread on automating gamification points took a productive turn. Awesomerobot suggested adding an “award cheers” action to the Workflows plugin, which prompted Falco to open a pull request within minutes. Andrew_Rowe also pointed to the Custom Wizard plugin as an alternative approach. The response time from the team here was exceptional, turning a feature request into code almost instantly. read more
M_Terenui took the time to praise the Discourse team while asking about storage stats after updating to v2026.8.0-latest.1. Moin pointed to the redesigned admin dashboard discussion and Awesomerobot shared a workaround using the still-available storage_stats.json admin report endpoint. The team’s responsiveness shows they really do read every piece of feedback. read more
Marzena_Cudecka asked about limiting automatic translations to a single language. Nat clarified that while interface languages are user-controlled, content languages are an admin setting. Moin linked a long-standing feature request to restrict interface languages, and Nat said the team would “have a think about it” — a promising sign for the feature. There’s also a curious bug where the interface switcher suddenly shows ES. read more
A user looking for a built-in chatbot beyond Discobot received a comprehensive answer. RGJ pointed to the AI Bot and Merefield 's Chatbot plugin, while Awesomerobot highlighted that Discourse AI (included by default) already handles question answering, auto-categorization, and auto-tagging. The evolution of Discourse’s AI capabilities is truly impressive. read more
Singi2016cn reported a missing doc_categories_indexes table after upgrading to v2026.7.1. Lilly suggested it might be related to the PostgreSQL 18 upgrade. The thread is still open, but the quick diagnostic pointer is helpful for anyone self-hosting. read more
Simonk discovered a bug where new-topic links with a category parameter navigate to that category page before opening the composer. After investigating the code, they found the if (category) block runs before the “already on Discourse” check — likely the wrong order. The community is now discussing the correct fix. read more
Moin noted that the “vote returned” notification feels odd for sites with unlimited voting. Awesomerobot agreed and promptly opened a PR to address the wording. A textbook example of a small UX bug being fixed in record time. read more
The thread titled “Reply box UI is terrible” — started by Nabeelr — generated a fair amount of heat. While the original post was direct (some might say hostile), the community responded constructively. Fuse delivered a memorable line: “Something about catching more flies with honey.”Darkpixlz and NateDhaliwal pointed the user to the composer redesign. The underlying sentiment about the composer is worth listening to, even if the delivery was abrasive. read more
#Announcements
The composer redesign beta continues to gather detailed feedback. Heliosurge reported a settings bug that turned out to be a caching issue, NateDhaliwal found the tag button gets cut off with long category names, and Canapin spotted a subtle border-radius inconsistency. Sk-Or-V1-Contents also flagged the missing mobile preview feature. The team is actively testing and iterating — this is what good QA looks like. read more
#Sysadmins
Mcdanlj 's opinionated Discourse deployment configuration topic evolved into a deep dive on using Garage (an S3 alternative) instead of MinIO. Raykholo provided exhaustive notes, including the crucial detail that Discourse insists on virtual-host-style bucket addressing (e.g., uploads.garage) and that Garage silently ignores ACL tags, requiring s3_use_acls to be set to false. Mcdanlj also corrected his earlier advice on disabling transparent huge pages. Gold for anyone self-hosting. read more
#Feature
The debate over the new “New” navigation structure continued. Lindsey moved feedback to a new feature topic, Awesomerobot explained the design rationale (unifying “new” into a single concept), and Moin suggested the custom top navigation links component as a workaround for those wanting separate “new topics” and “new replies” counts. Community ingenuity strikes again. read more
Canapin proposed search filter autocompletion — a straightforward but highly impactful quality-of-life improvement. Typing in: would show a dropdown of options (created, posted, likes, etc.). It’s hard to believe this doesn’t exist yet; hopefully it gains traction. read more
Small-Lovely-Cat reported that category moderators may see an incorrect number of pending reviews in notifications — the number includes reviews from all categories, not just their own. The team will need to replicate this; in the meantime, the report is detailed with a potential link to poll notifications. read more
RGJ found that when creating a category with “all members” while login required is enabled, the system assigns everyone, which becomes a security hole once the forum is opened to the public. The fix suggestion: three buttons — “public”, “members only”, and “private” — instead of two. Related to the new granular permissions feature. read more
#Theme component
Heliosurge reported breakage in the Alternative User PMs Button component after a Discourse update. Arkshine responded with a fix within a few hours, and the user was delighted: “Outstandingly fast!” The component ecosystem continues to prove its resilience. read more
The Quote Callouts component hit a snag too — Heliosurge reported a JS error, @祁同伟 forked and submitted a PR, and Arkshine pushed a proper fix. The community’s collaborative spirit (and the speed of response) shows how healthy the ecosystem is. read more
#Plugin
In the Custom Wizard Plugin thread, Angus identified a niche custom field preloading bug in core Discourse and raised a PR. Lebron responded with a LeBron James appreciation gif — a light-hearted moment in an otherwise technical thread. read more
And after a day of fixes, PRs, and dazzling new components, the only thing faster than Awesomerobot's likes-per-post ratio is Arkshine's turn-around time on bug reports — the Discourse community truly never sleeps, it just caches.
In the last 24 hours, there were 46 new posts across 23 distinct topics, with 69 likes given to community contributions. The conversation was lively, with a mix of feature discussions, bug reports, and plugin updates.
Contributor Appreciation – August & February 2026 – Moin revived the tradition of thanking community contributors, acknowledging both code contributors and translators over the past six months. The post includes extensive lists of names and a follow-up for the previous ESR release. Recognised for his efforts with 16 likes, Moin highlighted the collaborative spirit that keeps Discourse thriving.
#Theme component
Topic List Previews (TLP) – Eviepayne reported an avatar optimisation error (no implicit conversion of Hash into String) early on, along with a stack trace pointing to the TLP sidecar. Merefield identified a core compatibility issue and swiftly released a fix via PR #183. The resolution was confirmed by Eviepayne in the follow-up post.
Clickable Social Icon Links on Profile – Weallwegot apologised for the delay and merged an old PR updating Twitter to X. Roi then created a new PR but encountered conflicts, requesting assistance to resolve them in this discussion.
Created Topic Sort – Satonotdead asked if the theme component could support alphabetical ordering. Alteras explained that the sort options are limited to those provided by TopicQuery and suggested using /filter with order:title or the Discourse Doc Categories plugin as alternatives. The exchange is captured in post #26.
#Feature
Add support for ‘personal notes’ on posts – DRRO explored workarounds for adding private notes to posts. Awesomerobot suggested bookmarks, while Lilly recommended sending a PM to yourself with a link to the post. DRRO pushed back, noting limitations like character count and non-clickable links in bookmark names, and proposed converting drafts to linked PMs (see the full thread and subsequent replies).
Could long footnotes be scrollable? – One1 proposed making footnote popups scrollable, providing a detailed example with four paragraphs and highlighting a related quoting bug. Lilly encouraged posting the bug separately for proper tracking. The proposal is open for discussion in the topic.
More direct access to topics with new replies – Seanblue voiced strong opposition to the unread/new merge, explaining that users in two communities preferred the old separate lists. NateDhaliwal suggested a sidebar link to /unread as a possible workaround. The conversation continues in post #19.
Admin-Hinweise nach letztem Update – Viddekla reported admin notices about plugin code updates after the latest Discourse release. Moin advised contacting the plugin author for the Locations plugin and checking the browser console for the second warning. The solution is outlined in this reply.
How to skip override-overrided localizations – Satonotdead asked how to prevent core translations from overwriting custom overrides, having to repeatedly edit strings after updates. The query remains open for suggestions in the topic.
Overriding restricted tags on admins/staff – Satonotdead asked if admins can bypass tag restrictions. Kris (implied) confirmed it’s not possible, leading Satonotdead to consider moving it to a feature request. See the discussion in post #3.
Bounce score does not reset when email address is changed – RGJ filed a bug where users who correct a typo in their email still retain a nonzero bounce score, with the UI indicating “that email.” He proposed either associating bounce scores with the email or resetting the score upon change. Read more in the report.
Validation failed: Primary email has already been taken – Dennisjbr shared an issue with Gmail dot variants and secondary email management. The thread includes a thanks for previous assistance and a note about email send failures generating many messages. See the conversation.
#Plugin
Locations Plugin – Multiple users reported the admin notice about deprecated modifyClass usage. Merefield confirmed it was fixed via PRs from Cvx and others, listing the recent improvements in post #1245. The plugin now uses modern extension APIs and includes additional geocoding safeguards.
Discourse Dynamic Groups – Nathank reported deprecation notices, and RGJ resolved them, thanking the reporter. The update is noted in this reply.
#Announcements
Help Us Test the Composer Redesign – Community members shared feedback on mobile previews and animation quirks. Sk-Or-V1-Contents lamented the lack of a preview button on mobile, linking to a related feature request, while Noble_Fish observed a border issue on Horizon in new topics. See post #29 and post #30.
PostgreSQL 18 update for self‑hosters – NateDhaliwal encountered a connection error in his DevContainer environment after the update, sharing a lengthy stack trace. The thread discusses troubleshooting steps in the topic.
Facebook‑style Topic Modal – Is it better? – Damian_Boon praised Don’s modal component and asked for open‑sourcing. Don then announced new settings (trigger_style and plugin_outlet) to make it more flexible and said he’d open‑source after production testing. The update is in post #32.
#Self-hosting
Fresh install/migrated! – ALinux shared performance timing from a fresh migration from phpBB, questioning if load times were normal. Darkpixlz tested the site and found it responsive, attributing delays to geographic distance and suggesting CPU checks. See the details.
It was a bustling day on Discourse Meta with 49 new posts and 27 new topics sparking discussions across features, bugs, self-hosting, and more. Here’s your at-a-glance summary:
Personal notes on posts — Awesomerobot suggested bookmarks as a natural fit for personal notes, while Lilly shared a workaround using PMs to yourself. Merefield has started building a plugin and appreciates an approval on the Core PR. The discussion explores bookmarking limitations and mobile UX. Read more
More direct access to topics with new replies — NateDhaliwal proposed a sidebar link to /unread to better surface topics with new replies without showing brand-new topics. Read more
Discourse Calendar & Events: Webhook triggers & Automations Plugin — Gassim requested additional webhook triggers for event attendance (going, not going, interested) and automation ideas like auto-welcoming chat messages and unpinning ended events. A rich wishlist for the calendar plugin. Read more
#Announcements
Help Us Test the Composer Redesign — Chapoi confirmed that Horizon theme issues are known and in progress, while Per1234 provided detailed feedback about the borderless design being less intuitive and the missing right margin in markdown editor mode. Read more
PostgreSQL 18 update for self-hosters — A dedicated thread for the big upgrade. Kcahtoor encountered a multi‑site migration failure and is documenting workarounds. The community is sharing tips and warnings, especially about disk space. Read more
FIX: Avoid traversing Redis keys when clearing 404 topic cache — Small-Lovely-Cat submitted a performance fix that limits the cache cleanup to the relevant locale key instead of scanning the entire Redis database. Sam confirmed that Zogstrip merged the PR. Read more
Monthly triggered recurring automation is not running as expected — Moin pointed to a merged fix for the automation trigger bug, and Gassim is testing it next month to confirm automatic execution. Read more
Category permissions and the new permission groups — Sam tagged Martin, who acknowledged the report and will investigate the unintended side effects of the new permission groups on existing categories. Read more
Bounce score does not reset when email address is changed — Sam suggested a simple workaround: reset the bounce score on email change, and noted the ideal fix is to stop associating bounce scores with users entirely. Read more
Jittery keyboard in “languages I understand” input box on mobile — Sk-Or-V1-Contents reported a reproducible keyboard jitter from the content language preferences, with a video and safe‑mode steps. The bug is tagged for translation. Read more
Problem pasting HTML into Markdown composer on mobile — Sam acknowledged the bug and said Renato is taking a look. The issue only appears until pasting once into the rich text editor. Read more
#Self-hosting
I upgraded to latest and lost everything — Kcahtoor shares a scary multi‑site upgrade failure where the second site lost all data. Andrew_Rowe points to the PostgreSQL upgrade thread for disk space warnings. Read more
#Extras
nodeBook: CNL knowledge graphs in posts — G_N introduced a theme component that renders controlled natural language as interactive knowledge graphs, including concept maps, Petri‑net simulation, and even click‑to‑fire token simulators. A creative addition for scientific or process‑oriented forums. Read more
Scrollbar? in the post menu when removing a reaction — Moin noticed a brief scrollbar jump when removing a reaction, causing the reply button to shift. The team is taking a closer look. Read more
“All members” when creating a category assigns everyone — Martin clarified that this is an unintended side effect of the permission groups change and agreed with RGJ’s suggestion to update the UI to three clear buttons (public, members only, private). Read more
Sport communities and calendar? — Fuse started a discussion about using the calendar features for sports communities, asking how others handle season schedules and game‑day chat. Read more
Sam was all over the place: confirming the Redis cache fix merge and thanking Zogstrip (details), asking Martin to look at the category permission bug (link), suggesting a bounce score workaround (link), and alerting Renato to the HTML pasting issue (link).
Awesomerobot joined the personal notes discussion, proposing bookmarks as a natural fit and questioning the single‑line limit (link). They also approved Merefield’s plugin PR on a Sunday — a true hero (acknowledgment).
Chapoi responded in the composer redesign thread, confirming that Horizon styling issues are known and still being worked on, while thanking Noble_Fish for testing (reply).
Martin acknowledged two related permission bugs. He promised to investigate the category permissions regression (link) and outlined a sensible migration strategy for removing the everyone permission in the “All members” discussion (link).
Zogstrip (mentioned by Sam) merged the Redis cache fix, saving us all from performance headaches (merge confirmation).
Renato is currently investigating the HTML pasting issue on mobile, as noted by Sam (status update).
That’s a wrap for today on meta.discourse.org — between Redis fixes, composer redesigns, and a brand‑new knowledge graph tool, it’s clear the Discourse community never sleeps. May your topics stay sorted, your keyboard stay still, and your footnotes never run too long!
In the last 24 hours, the forum saw 98 new posts across 46 new topics, with a total of 148 likes earned. Here are the top contributors by likes received:
These users drove much of the conversation, with notable discussion around theme components, AI features, and self‑hosting.
Interesting Topics
Theme component
Don unveiled the Topic Preview Modal, a new component that lets users open topics in a native modal without leaving the topic list. The thread quickly gained momentum as Damian_Boon shared a compatibility fix for the Reddit‑ish theme, RGJ requested a wider configurable modal width, and NateDhaliwal questioned the choice of core components. Don responded with a technical explanation and added a setting for the width.
Merefield published Bookmark Notes, a plugin that turns bookmarks into private personal notes. The community showed immediate interest—DRRO asked about testing and linking, while Jagster praised the idea for keeping track of “fix later” posts. The thread also highlighted Merefield’s Pro extension, available to GitHub sponsors.
The PostgreSQL 18 update for self‑hosters continued with Chrisr fixing multisite upgrade issues and providing manual recovery steps. Kcahtoor shared a script to dump all databases, and Moin pointed to a related “lost everything” topic.
One1 reported that long footnotes can be glitchy and asked for scrollable footnotes in Could long footnotes be scrollable?. Canapin shared a screen recording on mobile, and Jagster stressed the importance for AI‑generated explanations.
It was a day of groundbreaking theme components, bookmarkable notes, and AI‑powered visions—proving once again that on Meta, the only thing faster than a new feature is the community eager to build on it!
OS_Corsair sought advice on growing a new forum, “How do I grow my community?”. Members questioned the name and purpose, while Moin suggested starting with content and defining the community’s value, and NateDhaliwal provided a list of guiding questions. The thread eventually touched on open source governance and moderation.
AkarinLiu struggled with adding a FontAwesome seedling icon to badges, finding that it wasn’t in the default subset. Zogstrip explained the need to add it via the SVG icon subset site setting, and Moin helped debug the prefix confusion. The issue was resolved after realizing the regular version is a Pro icon – see the discussion.
Wasd_The_Fourth asked about disabling automatic silences triggered by flags. Awesomerobot pointed to site settings like num_users_to_silence_new_user, while Moin noted that TL3 users shouldn’t be affected. The conversation highlighted nuances in moderation auto-actions – read more.
Soumya_Ranjan_Mishra inquired about a built-in chatbot for Discourse. Satonotdead directed them to the AI features and configuration guides, while Merefield offered paid support via sponsorship. The topic covers options for self-hosters and business users – view topic.
#Theme component
Don's Topic Preview Modal component received several updates: Jagster's math rendering issue was fixed, and Damian_Boon added a swipe-right-to-close gesture on mobile. The discussion also explored why core components aren’t reused, providing deep technical insight – follow the thread.
#Feature
One1 requested Previous/Next links for topics in doc categories, which would use the category index order for navigation. Moin linked to an earlier idea, and Satonotdead confirmed the demand for LMS use cases – see the proposal.
Long footnotes in posts were a usability pain point; One1 suggested making them scrollable. Zogstrip quickly implemented a fix and closed a duplicate topic – read the improvement.
#Announcements
The Composer Redesign test continues: Chapoi summarized implemented fixes (e.g., visual grip, tag button cutoff, rounded borders) and acknowledged ongoing work on feedback like keyboard handling and tag count visibility. Canapin provided a video of choppy drag animation and overall praised the redesign – join the discussion.
Self-hosters discussed the PostgreSQL 18 update. Peternlewis noted a memory overcommit warning and size differences, Agemo ran into disk space issues and reverted, while Merefield humorously suggested moving to a new server. Successful updates were reported by Andrew_Rowe – track the upgrade.
#Plugin
Bookmark Notes by Merefield got a shout-out from Lilly for its Pro extensions. Merefield then announced several updates (unfurl notes by default, click-through to edit, etc.). Eviepayne asked about ESR compatibility, and Moin noted it requires a new plugin outlet – see the plugin topic.
Fuse asked whether sports communities benefit from a calendar. Lilly shared her football schedule implementation, noting it’s a useful reference but didn’t necessarily boost engagement – read her experience.
Satonotdead was puzzled by a “First-post checklist” menu and asked which plugin added it. Awesomerobot identified it as discourse-mod, with documentation linked – solve the mystery.
The new admin dashboard was the subject of an asynchronous AMA by Lindsey. HAWK asked about automating reports, Lindsey explained pinning and Workflows integration, and One1 requested non-admin access for community managers – participate in the AMA.
Martin discussed category permissions and proposed ACLs with validations to prevent impossible combinations. RGJ raised concerns about complexity and edge cases, leading to a thoughtful exchange about future UI changes – follow the discussion.
The blog post announcing the All-New Admin Dashboard gathered comments. Ed_S suggested adding a System section for disk space, backups, and uploads, tying back to an earlier feature request – read the blog topic.
Lindsey kicked off the admin dashboard AMA and answered questions about custom reports, automation via Workflows, and future enhancements – post 1, post 3.
Chapoi provided a comprehensive update on the Composer Redesign, incorporating feedback from multiple users and outlining next steps – see the changes.
Falco fixed the proofread helper stripping line breaks, offered guidance on restricting AI agents, and discussed admin account security – proofread fix, AI restriction, security tips.
Martin shared a vision for ACL-based permissions and addressed concerns about edge cases in category permissions – explanation, follow-up.
Tshenry merged an update to the Restrict Uploads component, thanking Moin for the significant improvements – merge announcement.
Tannerabread contributed a fix for private email links, ensuring topics are still linked in outgoing emails – see the PR.
LWinterberg proposed a UX improvement for the moderation queue, suggesting concrete approve/delete buttons instead of ambiguous yes/no prompts – read the suggestion.
That’s a wrap for today. It seems a simple question about growing a community can grow a whole lot of discussion itself — and a footnote can spark a fix faster than you can say “scrollable”!
How do I grow my community? – OS_Corsair asked for advice on growing a forum and received thorough guidance from HAWK, Moin, and Darkpixlz. The discussion highlighted the need for a clear value proposition, proper research, and structured planning, with Darkpixlz gently closing the thread after it went off-track. Read more
Where do I create the banner topic? – A newcomer needed help with banner topics. NateDhaliwal and Twofoursixeight pointed to the correct article and pin/unpin options, while Awesomerobot advised reading and experimenting instead of relying on screenshots. Read more
AI bot keeps auto-adding me to a private chat channel even though disabled? – Rinion reported an annoying bug where the Discourse Helper Bot kept appearing in chat despite AI being disabled. Gabriel acknowledged the issue and released a fix that prevents the bot from appearing when AI is off or the channel is muted. Read more
Restore fails due to s3 migration failure – Marcozambi ran into a restore failure caused by missing uploads. Awesomerobot explained how to clear flags and run rake posts:missing_uploads on the old server before taking a fresh backup. Read more
How do I remove silences from flags? – Wasd_The_Fourth wanted lighter punishments for repeated off-topic flags. Moin linked to the moderation flags guide and clarified that silences are triggered automatically. Read more
How to skip override-overrided localizations – Satonotdead struggles with translation overrides being reset. Awesomerobot asked for clarification, and the user is willing to debug further. Read more
Questions about the Zoom Livestream integration – Gassim asked about using Zoom meetings instead of webinars. Awesomerobot confirmed meetings work, explained the “Ready for local test” status, and shared the correct scopes. Read more
How do I access topics in muted categories? – NateDhaliwal asked if there is a way to view topics a user has muted. Awesomerobot was unsure, and the topic remains open. Read more
Ask me anything about the new admin dashboard – A lively discussion about the new dashboard, with One1 questioning why community managers can’t see it, HAWK sharing his surprise, and Nickdb requesting more drill-down into pageviews. Lindsey confirmed an upcoming traffic explorer. Read more
How does Community fit into your Voice of the Customer Program? – Chau (from the Customer Success team) opened a conversation about how communities contribute to VoC programs, inviting examples and asking about feedback loops. Read more
#Announcements
Pinned chat messages now stay in view with a sticky bar – Renato announced a new feature that keeps pinned messages visible in a sticky bar while scrolling, with tap-through navigation and dismissal options. Read more
A preview of the new Workflows feature – Satonotdead asked when to use Workflows vs Automations. Lindsey recommended Workflows for flexibility and visibility, and J.Jaffeux encouraged users to report any limitations. Read more
Introducing a new “Post Type” Composer actions dropdown – Jordan.Vidrine announced that this feature is moving to permanent and will be merged into core next week. Read more
Granular group-based permissions for anonymous and logged in users – Moin discussed the migration of theme component settings with Martin, who clarified how to handle disallowed groups and wrote about theme migrations. Read more
Sticky unread reply notification – Moin provided a detailed reproduction, and Tannerabread identified the fix as already merged for a related PM removal bug. He confirmed it resolved the issue. Read more
Admin Seitenleiste nicht mehr vorhanden – Mr.Xurrent reported a missing admin sidebar (in German). Moin helped him trace the problem to a plugin interaction, and the browser console revealed two JavaScript errors. Moin pointed to a recent code change as the likely culprit. Read more
Discourse is sending me email app notifications instead of normal notifications – Kairo162 was confused about getting emails instead of push notifications. NateDhaliwal explained the difference and how to adjust email preferences. Read more
Category permissions and the new permission groups – Martin discussed edge cases for the anonymous_users group and how to handle it in plugins with disallowed groups. Read more
#Feature
Allow clearing cache – Darkpixlz requested a way to clear the AI cache manually. Awesomerobot explained the cost and suggested rate limiting, while Darkpixlz shared his use case for monitoring progress. Read more
Feature / Plugin Idea: Auto cross-post from Fandom Wiki to a Discourse Category – Ice.D proposed a plugin to automatically pull posts from a Fandom wiki into a specific category, with account mapping and tags. The idea is open for community feedback. Read more
Now in Beta: Plugin to see TL3 Progress for TL2 users – NateDhaliwal updated the plugin to show locked status and muted topics, and is awaiting an answer on how to link to muted topics. Read more
#Data & reporting
DSA Content Moderation Reporting – Statements of Reasons Requirements – Jay-C asked about compliance with the EU’s DSA reporting template. HAWK asked about specific gaps while respecting the user’s privacy. Read more
#Self-hosting
Fresh install/migrated! – ALinux shared his upgrade from a 2012-era server to a dual Xeon setup. Darkpixlz noted that web/database workloads benefit more from thread count than clock speed, and the SSD and DDR4 upgrades should help Redis and Postgres. Read more
Despite the occasional eclipse, 102 posts and 39 topics kept the Discourse community spinning—proving that even the best‑written guide needs a few clicks to get the ball rolling.
WorldIsMine raised a critical UX flaw: the delete user button in the moderation queue is far too easy to trigger accidentally, wiping legitimate accounts while approving hundreds of items daily. Moin linked to a previous report, and Awesomerobot confirmed a fix is in progress to add a confirmation step. Read more.
The long‑running chat design proposal received a new comment from Kddkd, who suggests reworking the bottom navigation bar and adopting a X‑like feed layout for the chat index, arguing the current design wastes space. The thread continues to gather community feedback on evolving chat UX.
Ice.D proposed an automation idea for auto‑cross‑posting from Fandom wikis to a Discourse category, complete with administrator controls for URL, category, and account mapping. The suggestion is open for community input.
A puzzling issue with Rinion's AI bot persistently adding them to a private chat channel even after disabling the feature led to a deep debugging session. Gabriel from the team deployed a fix and manually removed the channel after capturing videos, while Moin explained the deployment cadence for hosted forums and how to check version details. See the full exchange.
Cogdog reported invitation links are nearly impossible to find in the pending invites view, requiring a convoluted Edit → Update flow. Rishabh acknowledged the issue and confirmed the team is working on making copy links directly accessible on each row.
Moin provided helpful clarification on accessing topics in muted categories, explaining the interplay between category, tag, and topic tracking statuses and how to guide users to the right view.
#Announcements
The PostgreSQL 18 update continues to stir discussion. Moin shared a step‑by‑step workaround for self‑hosters facing migration pitfalls, while NateDhaliwal warned that a ChatGPT‑generated fix wiped his database—though it was a dev site. Ethanvance appreciated the heads‑up about the 2× disk space requirement.
The Solved improvements topic saw Sterretje asking whether the “I have this problem too” button disappears once a solution is marked. Moin confirmed it does, with examples from the Support category.
Bulk user deletion is now available. Agemo lauded the feature and requested additional bulk actions like de‑activation and group assignment, also suggesting a date‑of‑join filter for better management of inactive accounts.
Blalor reported that the Safari PWA zooming bug still occurs after the 2026.7 update. Chapoi responded that a fix was merged last week in PR #42303, and asked whether the user’s site had been updated with that commit.
@ばこん shared a video of a large number of poll requests being canceled both in topics and on the homepage, alongside a strange oscillating unread notification icon. The cause remains under investigation.
Rosiesherry and HAWK engaged in a thoughtful public vs private discussion. Rosiesherry advocated for tick boxes to make posts private or non‑searchable by AI, while HAWK pointed to broader efforts around granular control of crawlers, attribution, and AI access, referencing the EU AI Act’s transparency obligations.
In Scalable engagement models, Rosiesherry shared an inspiring practice of hosting 1‑to‑1 video conversations with community members to surface insights. HAWK asked for examples, and Rosiesherry linked to a collection of interview titles on Ministery of Testing.
Tobiaseigen reported that images in federated posts from his Discourse site are appearing multiple times on Mastodon, suspecting a grid view issue. The ActivityPub plugin thread is open for debugging help.
The Custom Wizard plugin received attention as Angus merged a fix for non‑admin user topic creation, but Eviepayne and Lebron still see tag selection issues. Satonotdead suggested engaging community contributors to help maintain the plugin given its importance.
#Theme component
Don unveiled Guest Gate 2.0 with a redesigned trigger system (page views, time, scroll, lightbox), new repeat behaviours, delayed display, and extensive modal customisation. The update includes a settings migration and modernised implementation, promising a smoother experience for existing users.
Merefield modernised the Quick Quote theme component, acknowledging that core’s nested view may reduce the need for it, but the update is available for those who still want it.
#Site feedback
The Meta theme redesign continues to attract feedback. Twofoursixeight pointed out that starred chat messages don’t show a visual difference in the new theme, unlike other themes, highlighting a need for consistent iconography.
Awesomerobot confirmed a fix for the dangerous delete user button, linking to a pull request that adds a confirmation step.
Gabriel investigated the AI bot private channel issue, manually removing the rogue channel and triggering a deployment to ensure the fix was live.
Sam responded to the AI agent skills discussion, acknowledging the complexity and hinting at a possible new top‑level concept in Discourse AI for “skills”.
J.Jaffeux pointed out that the AI Post Analyzer functionality is now natively available in workflows, streamlining setup for users.
Chapoi addressed the Safari PWA zooming bug, confirming a merge that should resolve it and advising users to update.
That’s a wrap—yesterday was a whirlwind of fixing dangerous buttons, taming AI bots, and dreaming up ways to make communities more private and engaging. May your moderation clicks be ever confirm‑able!
Big news from @sam: Discourse AI now supports subagents! This feature allows you to delegate work to other agents, mix and match language models, protect against context bloat, and increase concurrency. Examples include Web Researcher and Fact Validation subagents. read more
@chapoi announced that AI title suggestions have moved to the composer helper, joining the other AI helpers in the AI composer menu. This is part of ongoing refinements to the composer experience, and further improvements are planned. read more
@OS_Corsair asked whether Discourse can handle pluralistic diversity in discussions. @NateDhaliwal highlighted the platform’s moderation tools, while @nickdb offered a pragmatic perspective, framing Discourse as a “bag of tools” that depends on how you configure and customize it for your community. read more
In the thread on public vs private discussion, @rosiesherry shared insights on giving users granular control over content visibility, while @HAWK raised the challenge of blocking AI scrapers without breaking open access, referencing the EU AI Act transparency obligations. read more
The Ask Me Anything about the new admin dashboard continues to draw questions. @one1 and @HAWK engaged in a thoughtful exchange about community manager trust levels and the desire for a “sudo” mode to enable admin powers only when needed. read more
#Feature
@Moin confirmed that the Icon type theme setting is now available in objects type settings, thanks to a new PR that also improved the icon picker for easier browsing and selection. read more
A feature request for a start date option in the RSS Polling plugin was raised by @Heliosurge, aiming for parity with standard RSS readers and to limit content from long-running YouTube channels. read more
@polybos filed a detailed feature request for secure-uploads on S3 backends without per-object ACLs, proposing alternatives like presigned URLs or separate buckets to separate public assets from private uploads. read more
Copy Workflow step names feature got a fix thanks to @zogstrip, resolving the reported challenge. read more
@sren-1 shared a JavaScript workaround for redirecting doc category landing pages to an index topic by default, a feature request that continues to gain community interest and discussion. read more
@awesomerobot confirmed that a secondary confirmation prompt for the delete user button has been merged, addressing the concern that it was “too easy to delete a valid user.” This was discussed in both the initial report and the original UX thread.
@rishabh and @jordan.vidrine acknowledged that invitation links are nearly impossible to find and confirmed work is underway to add a copy link action to each row in the invite list. read more
@jordan.vidrine shared their agreement on improving homepage for doc categories and hinted at the possibility of building a new UI from the index in the future. read more
#Plugin & #Theme component
@angus released another set of fixes for the Custom Wizard plugin and gently encouraged community contributions, noting that PRs passing CI are reviewed and merged quickly. read more
@Don unveiled Discourse Stickers v2.0, a major modernization with a redesigned settings interface, group filtering, category-specific stickers, and automatic migration of existing collections. read more
@manuel merged a community PR for the Category List with Banners component, migrating it to .gjs, though it remains tagged as unmaintained pending further style polish. read more
@satonotdead raised a styling question on the Quick Profile Links Menu component, prompting @Don to add new icons with hearts. read more
@dubwoc reported a potential bug where custom fields are cleared when location, URL, or event image changes on event topics. @zogstrip confirmed the fix in a pull request. read more
@roke_julian_lockhart discovered a CSS bug where code inside small becomes invisible due to identical background colors, but only when not inside a link. read more
@twofoursixeight reported that the fullscreen chat container is too tall on Android tablets, hiding the title. @Moin confirmed the issue and provided workarounds. read more
@Heliosurge encountered an odd Android permission prompt when using the forum, but reported it may be a one-off issue as permissions remained unchanged. read more
@Shauny sought help with voting in polls not working for some users, providing device and browser details for troubleshooting. @zogstrip requested more information and possible adblocker or extension issues. read more
In the AWS SNS topic ARN allowlist discussion, @Jose_C_Gomez reported still seeing “Pending confirmation” despite following the documentation, and asked community members to share their working configurations. read more
@Moin tested the calendar markup in the Creating and managing calendars documentation and found that hiddenDays and defaultView parameters don’t seem to work as documented, suggesting a possible bug.
The Team group has been busy across the board. Here’s a summary of their activity:
Sam dropped a major announcement on Discourse AI subagents, sharing how the new feature enables delegation to other agents and provides concrete use cases. read more
Awesomerobot confirmed two merged changes: a confirmation prompt for the delete user button in moderation queue, and addressed earlier design complications in the UX thread. Thanks for shipping these! read more
Rishabh acknowledged the difficulty in finding invitation links and confirmed the team is working on adding a copy link action to each invite row. read more
Angus was actively maintaining the Custom Wizard plugin, pushing a new set of fixes and inviting community contributions, while also helping users get started on their first PRs. read more
Zogstrip confirmed fixes for both the Copy Workflow step names issue and the event custom fields clearing bug, linking to the relevant pull requests.
Moin led the discussion on the new Icon type theme setting in objects type settings, confirming its availability and praising the improved picker. He also reported issues in the Calendar plugin documentation and the chat container on tablet bug. read more
Jordan.Vidrine is working on the invites list improvement, adding new information to the list UI, and shared positive feedback on doc category homepage ideas.
Tannerabread helped debug the admin sidebar missing issue, requesting console output to narrow down the cause, and was unable to reproduce the keyboard jitter bug reported on mobile.
Yesterday was a fantastic day for Discourse AI and theme components: subagents are here to make our AI friends smarter, while a complete v2.0 makeover for Stickers ensures our conversations stay colorful — who knew delegation and stickers could make such a perfect pair?
In the Quick Profile Links Menu theme component, Asa reported a missing border in the Foundation theme, noting it’s a nice component they use regularly. Don, the component author, replied that they’ve updated the component to fix this.
Ethsim2 asked about running Caddy in front of the app’s Nginx via Docker Compose to enable HTTP/3 and better log redaction. Pfaffman pointed to a related PR in discourse_docker. Ethsim2 further explained their setup, which keeps nginx and adds Caddy on top, including modifications to app.yml for proper client IP handling. They’re gauging interest in publishing a step-by-step guide.
Feedback continued on the Help Us Test the Composer Redesign announcement. Sterretje noted the new composer takes too much vertical space for creating new topics. Nickdb reported compatibility issues with the mermaid plugin but found a workaround after a full page reload. Sk-Or-V1-Contents confirmed a fix for a double-tap minimize issue and updated on a URL bar jump bug that persists only with the Sogou keyboard on Xiaomi.
Per1234 reported a Workflow modal bug where the modal appears in every open tab of the forum when triggered, and closing it in one tab doesn’t dismiss it elsewhere, leading to confusing error messages on redundant instances. They provided detailed reproduction steps in the bug report.
Twofoursixeight posted a feature request for removing notifications permanently, suggesting a “clear all” or individual X button to delete notifications from the feed, as currently dismissal is only temporary.
In the long-running thread on Configuring an S3 compatible object storage provider, Thomas_Rother suggested adding hetzner.de to the list, noting EU-DSGVO compliance and ISO certification, and provided a sample configuration table.
Jittery keyboard in “languages I understand” input box on mobile continues to be investigated. NateDhaliwal couldn’t reproduce the issue with Gboard or Samsung Keyboard, but Sk-Or-V1-Contents confirmed they can still reproduce it with the Sogou keyboard customized for Xiaomi, and cannot with Fcitx on other devices.
Slate offered a useful diagnostic script for finding old topics published via WordPress embed that are missing x-robots noindex and canonical tags, explaining how to check both signals independently via curl.
In the PHPBB to Discourse Migration Speed Optimization thread, Mattash asked for any updates on tooling that could speed up migrations.
Jahan_Gagan sought a recommended replacement for modifyClass("model:composer") when overriding save(), asking whether the new addModelMethod API can be used to delegate to the original implementation.
Nacho_Caballero shared a detailed report about sv hup unicorn dropping traffic for ~40 seconds during reloads on a pitchfork-based setup. They provided logs and a proposed fix to the config/unicorn_launcher script to wait for the new master to become ready and to retire the old one gracefully with SIGQUIT instead of SIGTERM.
Over the last 24 hours, the community has been buzzing with 64 new posts across 26 new topics, generating 38 likes in the process. Here are the most active contributors:
Does Discourse work on Lynx or SeaMonkey?OS_Corsair asked whether Discourse can be accessed via the text‑based Lynx browser or the legacy SeaMonkey. Merefield doubted compatibility, while Twofoursixeight explained Lynx’s lack of JavaScript and CSS, and pointed out SeaMonkey has been unsupported since 2023. They also suggested a plugin for old browsers and Merefield shared a terminal‑based alternative, Termcourse. Read more
Ghost admin bot cannot be deleted – AkarinLiu reported a mysterious bot with admin rights that cannot be removed. Community members Kddkd, Sk-Or-V1-Contents, NateDhaliwal, and Satonotdead discussed possible causes, including the Discourse narrative bot and AI agents. Moin pointed out that bot users lack the usual “Revoke admin” button in the UI, and Satonotdead provided Rails console commands to demote and delete the user. Read more
Open pingable group – Thatflyerguy wanted a group anyone could join and leave for event pings. Heliosurge confirmed that Group settings offer “freely to join” and “allowed to leave” options, and NateDhaliwal added info on configuring who can ping the group.
How to configure AWS SNS topic ARN allowlist – Jonathan5 and Deenius discussed the correct URL format for the allowlist, with Deenius confirming that the earlier configuration guide works once the format is fixed.
#Plugin
New plugin: See TL3 Progress – NateDhaliwal announced a plugin that shows users their TL3 progress on their profile, complete with a progress bar and optional detailed breakdown. Lilly pointed out a missing summary, which NateDhaliwal promptly fixed. The plugin is now published and available for installation.
Automatic Sitemap Linking – AJ_Quick introduced a plugin that fetches a sitemap and automatically links keywords in posts to the corresponding wiki pages, similar to Watched Words. It offers many settings to control matching and rebaking. Read more
Discourse Calendar and Events – Hellekin reported that embedding Peertube live streams used to work with the calendar plugin, but the chat and “Livestream” button no longer appear. The issue remains open for discussion. Read more
Discourse Chatbot improvements – Merefield shared a pull request that adds cache optimizations, aiming to reduce costs and speed up responses. Read more
#Feature
Feedback for Ask Discourse – Twofoursixeight noted that many sidebar links (e.g., “All Questions”, “Topics”, “My Posts”) are useless on the ask.discourse.ai site and should redirect to the AI bot. HAWK explained the deliberate default URL, and Twofoursixeight provided a video showing how to access the hidden pages. Read more
Feature request: Removing notifications – Twofoursixeight requested the ability to permanently delete old notifications, not just dismiss them. This is currently unimplemented and open for discussion. Read more
Allow users to see trust level 3 progress – NateDhaliwal linked from this older feature request to his newly published plugin that fulfills the request. Read more
#Sysadmins
XenForo to Discourse migration script – Andrew_Bond shared a comprehensive refactored import script supporting XenForo 2.3, including users, custom fields, PMs, media gallery, and resources. He tested it on a 750k‑post forum and provided detailed Docker mount instructions. Read more
#Announcements
PostgreSQL 18 update for self‑hosters – Several users discussed the upgrade process. Saiano asked about the recommended approach for a large database, Chrisr clarified that collation mismatches are expected and harmless, and Jonathan5 confirmed a successful upgrade. Read more
Granular group‑based permissions – Martin and Moin engaged in a detailed exchange about the new anonymous_users and logged_in_users groups, with Martin promising fixes to make them visible when the feature is disabled. Read more
Introducing the unified new view for the topic list – Martin explained that /new and /unread remain accessible via specific URL subsets (/new?subset=topics and /new?subset=replies) even after merging the views. Read more
<code> invisible inside <small> – Roke_Julian_Lockhart reported that code blocks become invisible when directly inside a <small> element in certain themes. Sk-Or-V1-Contents suggested it might be a theme issue and asked for the theme name. Read more
Category permissions with new groups – Martin and Moin discussed limitations of the new permission groups in theme components, with Martin acknowledging that mandatory_values don’t yet work there. Read more
Reply button not visible on iOS PWA – Blalor reported a recurrence of the issue and Nickdb confirmed a fix was pushed to hosted sites, but the problem persists after a recent update. Read more
#Self-hosting
Caddy in front of Nginx via Docker Compose – Ethsim2 corrected his earlier advice, explaining that the real fix for client‑IP issues was a persistent nginx hook using Caddy’s X-Forwarded-For, and that disabling QUIC 0‑RTT was unnecessary. Read more
Deployment with Kamal – Sigmike asked if anyone has deployed Discourse using Kamal, wondering if the standalone template or a full compose setup would work. Read more
#Theme component
Asyntai AI Chatbot – Asyntai introduced a theme component that adds an AI chat bubble to your forum, answering visitor questions from your own content. It supports 80+ languages and includes a free plan. Moin questioned the use of Discourse 3.5 for testing, given its age. Read more
Report Content to Group – Heliosurge suggested adding an option to restrict reporting to specific categories, useful for knowledge bases where users can submit corrections. Read more
The Team group has been active in several discussions, contributing expert insights and guiding community members.
Martin participated in the Granular group‑based permissions topic, clarifying the intent behind the new anonymous_users and logged_in_users groups, and outlining future fixes to ensure they work even when the feature is disabled. Read his full explanation.
Martin also addressed Category permissions and the new permission groups, explaining that the mandatory_values feature doesn’t yet apply to theme components, but could be extended later. Read more.
Martin responded in Introducing the unified new view for the topic list, reassuring users that /new and /unread are still accessible via specific URL subsets, just no longer as top‑level tabs. Read more.
Chrisr provided key insights on the PostgreSQL 18 update, explaining that collation mismatch warnings during the dump are harmless and part of the process. He also confirmed that customizing Discourse Docker images to hold versions back is perfectly acceptable. Read his post.
Sign‑off
From text‑based browsers to Telegram‑style bots, the community proved again that no curiosity is too niche — keep exploring, and may your JavaScript always be “supported”!
Another vibrant day on Meta, packed with new plugin releases, deep community design debates, and helpful sysadmin tricks. Here’s what happened in the last 24 hours.
Key Stats
140 new posts and 46 new topics were created in the last 24 hours, drawing 143 likes across all activity.
Notable: NateDhaliwal led the day in both likes and posts after publishing his new TL3 progress plugin, while Scoresby sparked one of the most intriguing design conversations of the week about money-based moderation.
Interesting Topics
#Community Building
Scoresbyproposed a radical concept: a forum where posting, replying, and upvoting all require small fees, with visibility and ranking driven by community financial investment. @nickdb pushed back, noting it would create a wealth divide and deter quality contributors, while @merefield argued you can’t charge people to create your content on the free web. @awesomerobot compared it to Flattr, SomethingAwful’s title-change shop, and microtransaction-style “gems,” ultimately noting small-payment friction rarely works. @Ed_S pointed to Metafilter’s $5 signup fee as a successful moderation-via-money case, and @HAWK humorously suggested paying in “Discoin.” Read more
AJ_Quickintroduced a new plugin called Automatic Sitemap Linking that ingests an external sitemap, extracts page titles, and automatically links those phrases to your wiki/external site in forum posts — a Watched Words-style alternative with safety gates for short/common words. Read more
Feedback continues on the redesigned admin dashboard. Skodde noted it’s “not usable for many sysadmins” without the Docker Manager plugin, and asked for a selectable block with classic Version and Backups info. Chapoiresponded that “something along these lines is in the works.” Read more
Dennisjbrshared a clever pups template that parallelizes recursive chmod/chown operations during rebuilds, dramatically cutting deploy times on upload-heavy forums (especially over NFS/JuiceFS/CephFS). NateDhaliwalpointed out that’s why S3 and CDN setups exist, but Dennisjbrnoted not everyone wants that complexity — he uses JuiceFS to mount object storage locally. Read more
#Self-hosting
Fuguesofthit a pnpm build failure when trying to install the Discourse package via nix-shell (ERR_PNPM_INVALID_DEPENDENCY_NAME on @types/@glimmer__component). Ducksdiagnosed it as a pnpm version mismatch in the community-maintained Nix package (10.34.4 vs. the pinned 10.28.0), pointing to the likely Nixpkgs fix. Read more
Overgrowissued a heads-up that browser_pageview_events grows unbounded by default — a 10M-row/10GB table in a month — because clean_up_browser_pageview_events is false by default and both settings are hidden. He suggested enabling cleanup via console; Davidsmithjoneagreed that making the setting visible would be a good compromise. Read more
#Feature
Tonjarequested a way to hide third-level categories on the categories homepage while keeping the boxes layout, since introducing a grandchild category flattens the entire list for their ~1,200 staff users. They prefer an official supported option over a modifyClass CSS workaround. Read more
Martinopened a dedicated roadmap topic for making the granular_anonymous_and_logged_in_groups_permissions upcoming change stable and permanent, laying out high- and low-priority fixes across core, plugins (AI, Assign, Activity Pub, Suggested Edits, Resenha), and how auto-group IDs (0, 4, 5, etc.) are handled everywhere. Read more
#Extras
Merefieldannounced he’d migrated 17 to Go, promising a single compiled executable, lower overhead, stronger concurrency, and much cleaner terminal UI with mouse control — even on the progress bar. Read more
The Team group was hard at work across the board today — here’s what they got up to:
Chapoi fielded design feedback all day: he noted the feedback on moving AI suggestions to the composer helper, confirmed that classic Version/Backups info is coming to the new admin dashboard, shared guidance on why new forums get deindexed, and asked for clarification on the notifications removal request.
A packed 24 hours on Meta brought everything from micro-payment moderation theory to Pitchfork memory graphs, with a fresh Discourse Events announcement, an AI title-helper debate, and a lively community discussion about AI bots, citations, and the future of support forums.
Key Stats
Over the past 24 hours, the community generated 84 new posts across 36 new topics, earning 99 likes in total.
The unified new view for the topic list continues to generate strong feedback: Mbauman explained why mixing tracked/unread state with brand-new topics is confusing, and linked back to the previous “new new” experiment that was reverted three years ago after similar community pushback (read more).
Chapoi responded to criticism that the AI title suggestions move to composer helper adds extra clicks, arguing the old star icon was noisy, broke layouts, and that consolidating AI actions enables future features—including a no-click end state where the AI just applies the best title automatically (read more).
The persistent Reply button not visible when composing on iOS PWA issue saw RGJ request a backport of a second fix that hadn’t reached stable, and Chapoi confirm work is underway on the related Safari PWA pinch-zoom backports for versions 2026.7, 2026.6, and 2026.1 (read more).
#Community Building
The thought-provoking Can money be the only moderator of a forum? thread deepened as Andrew_Rowe observed how the mere mention of charging users made many recoil, Scoresby defended micro-payment-based signalling, and Merefield cautioned that paywalls could cripple engagement and SEO for struggling communities (read more).
Don unveiled a Skeleton Layout Loader for Discourse, a builder that generates skeleton screens from real UI selectors with scored candidate selectors, handling for hidden elements, and a key lesson: the skeleton should never become a DOM-readiness gate (read more).
Jahan_Gagan asked for a supported way to replace the old modifyClass("model:composer") approach when overriding save; David responded with a draft PR introducing a composer-minimum-post-length value transformer hook, enabling plugins to alter behaviour cleanly through the documented API (read more).
In Ask me anything about the new admin dashboard, Viddekla reported that dashboard statistics weren’t updating in real time, and suggested a public statistics page similar to the admin dashboard would be a great feature for community transparency (read more).
#Feature
Digitalities laid out a concrete EU research use case for Allowing multiple OIDC sources, needing both EU Login and EGI Check-in simultaneously; Hellekin suggested an Authentik federation proxy, though EU Login policy unfortunately blocks that approach (read more).
Ed_S asked whether Pitchfork is using too much memory, sharing free output showing ~1.3GB freed after recycling; David explained that growth is normal, shared production cluster graphs showing memory settling around 1.4GB, and revealed the team is hoping to enable Pitchfork’s periodic “reforking” feature soon (read more).
Merefield highlighted a nice improvement in the Force Mobile Homepage theme component’s pull request, thanked the maintainer, and reiterated that the feature really should be part of core (read more).
David was all over the place: he shared production memory graphs for Pitchfork and discussed upcoming “reforking” plans on Is pitchfork using too much memory?, proposed a new API hook for composer minimum post length via PR #42686 (read more), and encouraged a PR-based approach for speeding up rebuilds with large upload counts (read more).
Chapoi coordinated UX fixes and feedback across the day: confirming Safari PWA pinch-zoom backports for three stable versions on Safari PWA zooming is buggy, weighing in on the iOS PWA composer issue (read more), defending the AI title helper move while promising a no-click future (read more), and offering a one-line CSS workaround for hiding read notifications (read more).
Sam apologised for the Ask Discourse AI spouting nonsense during an upgrade, asking users to report back if the issue persisted after the upgrade completed on Feedback for Ask Discourse.
Yesterday, the community proved you can moderate a forum with money, populate it with AI bots, and stream webinars into it—but convincing everyone to agree on the unified new view remains the one thing no amount of likes, Llamas, or livestreams can buy.
