SMF's categories vs Discourse's categories

Product Support Self-hosting

AI-generated summary

SMF’s categories vs Discourse’s categories

A discussion on the differences between SMF (Simple Machines Forum) and Discourse categories has been initiated by dsanchez. In SMF, categories are containers for boards, with unlimited sub-boards, while in Discourse, categories and sub-categories (up to two levels) allow posting, and tags are used for further organization.

dsanchez inquired about the migration process from SMF to Discourse, using the example of a category structure with three levels: Category > Board > Sub-board. Falco responded that the top two levels would remain as categories and sub-categories in Discourse, while the third level would disappear and be replaced with tags.

dsanchez clarified that the example was not ideal, and sought to understand the general process for migrating sub-sub-categories from SMF to Discourse. Falco advised reconsidering the category infrastructure before migrating, as Discourse only supports up to two levels of categories.

1

In SMF a category is just a container for boards, i.e. you can not post anything in a category, you can only post in a Board or a sub-board. SMF allows for unlimited sub-boards.

In Discourse you can create topics in categories and sub-categories (two levels). To dig more, you use tags.

Assuming a forum is moved from SMF to Discourse is correct to assume the following will happen? For instance in http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php

Category: Simple Machines
 Board: News and Updates 
  Child (sub) board: Archives

In Discourse:

  • “Simple Machines” will become a category
  • “News and updates” will become a sub-category of the above
  • “Archives” will dissapear and all topics in it will be tagged with the word “Archives”? and all topics there will belong to “News and Updates”

Reason I am asking this is to prepare my forum’s structure for possible migration to Discourse.

Thanks!

2

After doing this, you can amend the script to “Archive Topic” on Discourse.

3

Hi Rafael, maybe the “Archives” name is not a good example. I just wanted to know what exactly happens with sub-sub-sub-category from SMF or any other traditional bulletin board when migrated to Discourse. Thanks.

4

Well we don’t have more than 2 levels deep categories, so it makes sense to reconsider your whole category infrastructure before migrating.