I see there is a ruby script for importing a simple:press forum into a Discourse forum here:
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/tree/master/script/import_scripts
However there don’t appear to be any instructions on how to run the script.
Would someone please enlighten me on how to do this?
Many thanks in advance 
It’s essentially the same as any of the others. Try using bbpress instructions, for example.
Right so where are instructions to run bbpress then, Im struggling at the first hurdle.
i.e. do I ssh into the machine and run a script, or do I run it from the web front end ?
You’ll run a script from a command line. Either on a docker container or a development environment.
So my new site is installed on DigitalOcean server, I can ssh to that machine, then can you please give me an example of what to do next.
Is there an import script that can just import data from a file, if so I can create the file offline if I understand the format of the file.
Hmm, I tried to follow step 3 of Migrating to Discourse from another Forum software, but there are no scripts in the script folder !
Maybe its because I am the /var/discourse folder rather than the ```
path/to/your/discourse_folder but I don’t have my own discourse folder
You need to put the uploads/images somewhere that they can be accessed from inside the container. Maybe in /var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/ and then they’ll be in /shared/uploads inside the container. You get into the container with
cd /var/discourse
./launcher enter app
Then you’ll be in /var/www/discourse and see the scripts.
If you’ve a budget, I can set things up for you. See Migrate to Discourse Discussion Platform from your current formum software.
By uploads/images you mean .csv file, database image etc
Okay that worked so I now get I was installed onto machine, but then have to go into the docker (virtual machine) , which is where my Discourse instance is actually running and I can then cd /shared/uploads
Well I dont have much budget, and I also like to understand things myself if possible. But if you could get me started with instructions for importing users/topics/forums then Im happy to spend $200 on the advice.