Questions About Installing Discourse As A Stand-alone Forum

Installation
1

Hey guys,
I have couple of questions I need answers to before making up my mind to use Discourse. I want to start a forum for students in my country Nigeria and these are my questions:

  1. Does the domain have to be forum.example.com? Can’t I use something like www.example.com instead?
  2. Am planning on using DigitalOcean one click Installation. Will I get the domain differently or I register it as part of the process that involves the installation of Discourse?
  3. Does using a public WiFi cause damage to the setup?
  4. How do I install Ubuntu on my Windows 10 laptop?
  5. Can I create custom fields to include the school they attend when creating an account?

That’s all for now :grinning:

1 Like
2

Hi Murphy,

I’m pretty new myself, but i will try and answer your questions for you.

  1. You can use www.example.com, that would have Discourse as your front page, pointing it to a subdomain like forum.example.com means you can have a whole website in the front and discourse tucked away behind.

  2. You should register your domain separately and point it to your droplet on Digital Ocean.

  3. I don’t know, but i shouldn’t think it would.

  4. You don’t need Ubuntu on your laptop to use Discourse if Digital Ocean are hosting it.

  5. Yes you can, go to Admin, Customize, User Fields

I recommend using Discourse, Murphy, it’s built for the next decade of the internet™

7 Likes
3
  1. No, it can be whatever domain you want.
  2. Someone else will need to answer, never used DO.
  3. No, but it isn’t secure, and you’ll be configuring things like server credentials, mail credentials, etc.
  4. That’s a complicated question that doesn’t belong here on Meta. There are many guides on Google, or you could ask in the Ubuntu forums.
  5. Yes.

Edit: Ninja’d by @GSeven :stuck_out_tongue:.

3 Likes
4

Thanks. @GSeven
I have a better understanding now :slight_smile:

2 Likes