The instructions for importing are very opaque, and then there is the double complication of Discourse running in a Docker and how that affects how the import has to work.
Since it seems a large proportion of Discourse installs involve user moving data from other forum software why don’t you add import facility into Discourse itself ?
I think that your assumption is wrong. Most Discourse installs do not involve importing from an existing forum.
And then there is the question of which import?
And then why does an ongoing forum need import features after it starts?
Imports often require customizing the import script. It’s always going to be a task for someone with a bit of specialized knowledge. Having it in the ux will actually make it much harder since you’ll need to add user interface stuff for tiny custom issues.
Okay, I have to come back to this next week anyway now as I have some higher priority tasks to resolve.
It is a good idea, it is just exceedingly difficult to do from a technical perspective.
Its exceeding difficult if you try and support importing from different importers. But I’m not suggesting that, Im suggesting just provide a basic import users from csv file, import categories from csv option etc, so Discourse basically has to provide just one way to import users, then it is up it customer to massage userlist from whatever source into pescribed Discourse csv format.
BTW thankyou for StackOverflow, has really helped me out over the years.
Discourse does have a standardized JSON export/import. You can convert your existing content to that format and then import it. I’ve done this with the API for one off stuff, to play, but it works.