Discourse Chat Bridge (Telegram)

Plugin
12

I’m not entirely sure if I understood your question correctly, but I’ll try to explain step by step what I envision. In the period from 2021 to 2022, I attempted to create a forum based on Discourse. However, despite the relevance of the forum, the project was unsuccessful because, in our region (Central Asia), the majority of residents prefer using messengers such as Telegram and WhatsApp instead of registering and using new features on websites.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, I observed changes in the rules of the game. Various services, including websites and applications designed for the use of artificial intelligence, emerged. Messengers cannot fully provide functionality for working with artificial intelligence, although Telegram is more advanced than WhatsApp. Learning about new plugins in Discourse, such as Discourse AI and Chatbot, I realized that this was a new opportunity for my website.

I want to fully utilize the ability to create thematic posts (topics). Recently, I asked a question here - on Meta about the Chatbot plugin, wondering if the GPT chat can remember the first post and not forget the content of the main topic after numerous messages in the thread. Then, @merefield replied that the chatbot will always remember the first post. This became the main criterion for applying this plugin on my site.

I plan to create thematic sections on the forum for interaction with artificial intelligence and real people. The communication format in Discourse through creating topics is more advanced technically compared to chats. Therefore, chats are not entirely suitable for training the bot since in a chat, the bot may not remember the initial topic among numerous recent messages. I plan to use the capability of creating thematic posts, training the bot in the first post so that it can respond to user questions within the specified topic.

However, considering the popularity of messengers in our region and people’s habit of using chats, I am contemplating how to provide users with the Discourse forum experience without abandoning their familiar messengers. After installing the Discourse Chat Bridge plugin, I found that it connects the Discourse chat with the Telegram chat but does not create a bridge between a published post on the forum and the Telegram chat.

My plans include:

  1. A user (possibly site personnel) sends a private message (PM) to the AI bot on the forum with instructions on how the bot should respond to subsequent messages, such as advising other users on using the forum.

  2. The user links this private message to the artificial intelligence in a regular Telegram bot.

  3. The user shares the link to the Telegram bot with other users who are not yet registered on the forum but want to learn more about it.

  4. Each user, clicking on the link in the Telegram bot, starts a private conversation with artificial intelligence, which responds and advises according to the instructions posted on the forum.

  5. All user messages directed to artificial intelligence are published in a private forum topic. Thus, Telegram users do not see messages from other Telegram users, as each user communicates separately with the Telegram bot.