# Is the Free Discourse group website authentic?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914
**Category:** General
**Created:** [October 21, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914 "2020-10-21T21:25:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chairbfroblox](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chairbfroblox)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/1 "2020-10-21T21:25:59Z")
Is this website [https://free.discourse.group/](https://free.discourse.group/) real or is it fake?
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/2 "2020-10-21T21:30:47Z")
It’s real 🙂 You can read more about our free hosting plans in these two blog posts:
- [Free Hosting for Open Source v2](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/11/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/)
- [Free hosting for Patreon creators](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/12/free-hosting-for-patreon-creators/)
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### Author:  [@chairbfroblox](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chairbfroblox)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/3 "2020-10-21T21:33:44Z")
It’s asking for a source code but I don’t have one. Can I put my website link there instead?
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### Author:  [@chairbfroblox](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chairbfroblox)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/7 "2020-10-21T21:40:54Z")
I have open source projects for roblox on pastebin.
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/8 "2020-10-21T21:42:17Z")
We are strict about the criteria for granting free sites. If you are applying for the Free Hosting for Open Source plan, you need to enter a link to your open source software project’s repository. If you are applying for the Free Hosting for Patreon Creators plan, you need to enter a link to your Patreon page. Unless that URL is provided and verified by us, the submission will not be considered.
> [@chairbfroblox](#):
>
> I have open source projects for roblox on pastebin.
Due to issues in the past with Roblox, we do not accept free forum requests for anything related to Roblox.
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### Author:  [@chairbfroblox](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chairbfroblox)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/9 "2020-10-21T21:43:04Z")
So not even any script in the language of lua? (well the script i have that works for the language lua works in roblox)
If I submit it, will it be approved or not? @simon
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### Author:  [@Chaboi\_3000](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Chaboi_3000)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/11 "2020-10-21T21:52:36Z")
@chairbfroblox,
You will need to have a **need** for a forum. It can’t just be a single-person project to be eligible for free hosting. As Simon said, anything related to **Roblox** will not be eligible for the free forum. In terms of something eligible, our forum initially was one of the free-hosters until we upgraded to Business Plan at a discount price. Here’s an open-source project that’s eligible(This is ours):
[https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/](https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/)
Thanks to Discourse, our forum is running with the best support available. Originally they had a higher-criteria, but they recently lowered it, but you’ll still need to have a good **reason** for a free-hosting. (1000 star requirement to none).
Additionally, Discourse’s source code is 100% free([GitHub - discourse/discourse: A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple. · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse)), so if you want to, you can self-host it with 0 fees. Additionally if you just need a sandbox forum to try things out, you can always setup a developer environment and test some features there.
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### Author:  [@what](https://meta.discourse.org/u/what)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 12:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/12 "2022-06-22T00:59:20Z")
> [@Chaboi\_3000](#):
>
> Additionally if you just need a sandbox forum to try things out, you can always setup a developer environment and test some features there.
How could I do that?
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### Author:  [@MarkDoerr](https://meta.discourse.org/u/MarkDoerr)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 3:18am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-the-free-discourse-group-website-authentic/167914/13 "2022-06-22T03:18:42Z")
There are a number of topics with the #dev-install tag that would be a great place to start.