Aside - how do you determine what version of Discourse you’re using from the front-end?
Do you mean not going to /admin? If so, you should be able to get the current version by viewing page source. Right click on a blank part of your site and click view page source. A few lines from the top (here on Meta it’s line 10) you’ll see something like this:
<meta name="generator" content="Discourse 1.7.0.beta7 - https://github.com/discourse/discourse version 71fa9541fa65571249921bb47ac49e9ff2880726">
There’s the current version.
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Thanks - I’m not an admin but on a Discourse forum I frequent, I would be useful to know so that I can say “Hey, any chance of upgrading for this new feature”. One to add to the wish list for a slightly more user-friendly “About” box somewhere.
No argument there. It seems it would be fairly simple to add to the /about page that already exists. Might I suggest you make a new feature topic with this suggestions? It will very likely get lost here in a very unrelated topic.
Edit: Thanks @sam!
Not sure if I support adding it to /about but adding /version that return version (and plugins list) is something I totally support.
There is actually quite a lot of value in having a public plugin list cause we can then help alert various forums in the wild if they have plugins that need updating.
Added pr-welcome for /version that is a static text page that shows version.
Public plugin list and plugin version is open to discussion. May need to add a switch to optionally hide.
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Would /version simply be another “tab” like FAQ and TOS, or do you envision it being it’s own “unique” page?
At the moment I am thinking a non-discoverable hidden route. This is not information that 99.9% of users need.
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There are two requirements here - firstly just to be able to find out the core Discourse version and having that on /about would be reasonable? Secondly a more detailed dump of component versions which I agree is of limited use to most users.
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As mentioned above, simply view source and read the version number tag.
Placing this on the /about page is a great opportunity for telling people what platform is being used, and would be doing so in a non-intrusive and fair way. Example:
Powered by Discourse
This site is powered by Discourse 1.8.0, a free & open source software product powering the next generation of civilized discussion.
Will also help malicious people to exploit bugs in old versions of Discourse.
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With all due respect, that’s ridiculous when this data is already available to anyone wanting to run exploits, thanks to the generator tag. 
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I think @zogstrip refers to how script kiddies use google to search for a common phrase on every install of Discourse and thus randomly target any Discourse install not yet updated (thus harboring security bugs easily exploited).
This was how countless phpBB installs were compromised.
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Yeah no. If people don’t keep their Discourse installs updated, they kinda deserve what they get imho. You don’t need to hide information like this. It’s stupid.
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That surely is not a humble opinion, or at least not presented that way, for you sound as though you come from a background where this is a common occurrence, to where it is shrugged off as an act of God.
Only for those who choose to see it that way, and not really see why.
Refer to my text above.
Imho, nobody deserves to have their car stolen because they forgot the keys in the ignition.
I am pretty sure most courts would send the car thief to prison despite the fact the car was so easy to steal.
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We’ve had this discussion before, if you want version, view source. It’s really not complicated and the kind of people who would care about version should know how to get it.
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Why does the user need to care about what version of the discourse is running? As @zogstrip said, it will be the only use of finding of exploit bugs and nothing else.
It’s handy for admins that are members of multiple Discourse communities and notice discrepancies in functionality. Pretty much what Rob is saying here.
Viewing the source is an acceptable solution for me in these cases.
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6 posts were split to a new topic: Add headers to denote version on API responses