Weekly Summary

[Discourse]

This week on meta.discourse.org…

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Key Stats

• New posts: 703
• New topics: 102

Top users (by posts & likes)

1. Moin — 72 posts, 95 likes
2. tobiaseigen — 65 posts, 34 likes
3. NateDhaliwal — 29 posts, 40 likes
4. ToddZ — 27 posts, 40 likes
5. Falco — 12 posts, 32 likes
6. pmusaraj — 14 posts, 22 likes
7. sam — 19 posts, 19 likes
8. RGJ — 7 posts, 18 likes
9. supermathie — 9 posts, 18 likes
10. lindsey — 6 posts, 23 likes

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Interesting Topics

Announcements

• lindsey kicked off the Current Projects – October 2025 newsletter to unveil upcoming admin area changes and image grid support, prompting one1 to ask about AI opt-out options [403328/2] and Falco to clarify AI Search toggling behavior [403328/4]. read more

• Danielle announced the free Webinar: Community Scaries – What to Worry About in Communities, exploring actionable metrics for community health ahead of the Oct 28 session. read more

blog

• jordan.vidrine shared insights in How We Built Horizon with Design Driven Development, detailing how the design team led the Horizon theme project and inspired conversations on dogfooding in replies by tobiaseigen [386569/3]. read more

• jawestenberg compared platforms in Why I Chose Discourse Over Discord, sparking commentary on user attribution and style by ToddZ [386353/2]. read more

Theme component

• Moin released Filter Favorites in Filter Favorites, enabling users to save and default their favorite topic filters. Community feedback praised the hack, and sam suggested first-party support for future enhancements [386594/4]. read more

Support

• A new wave of spam emerged in Spam from “system”, where “system” suddenly posted Chinese shipping and tax compliance ads. Falco traced the bug to incoming emails landing under the system user [386364/4], and the team is working on a fix. read more

• Moin reported lost drafts after cancelling replies in Draft is no longer automatically saved after you cancel replying. martin fixed the autosave logic in PR #35534 [386370/4], restoring reliable draft saving. read more

• ToddZ asked if it’s possible to PM only TL2 without TL3/4 in Any way to send PM to TL2 without including TL3 and TL4?. Moin and tobiaseigen recommended Dynamic Groups and BCC plugin approaches, making group-specific messaging straightforward [386238/3]. read more

• StephaneBRT couldn’t find “Set Topic Timer” on v3.6.0.beta2 in Impossible de trouver “Définir un minuteur de sujet”. Moin clarified it’s in the topic menu, not the post menu [386500/2]. read more

• jawestenberg’s questions on video hosting spurred the Considering PeerTube or Bunny.net Integration for Video Hosting with Discourse thread. nathank suggested iframe whitelist tweaks and existing video components [386421/2]. read more

• whitewaterdeu shared that enabling force_https fixed passkey creation in Error when create user passkey in browser, highlighting the importance of HTTPS settings. read more

Bug

• noahl found the tag management entry point missing in Tag settings entry point missing. awesomerobot pushed the fix in PR #35551 [386448/4]. read more

• RGJ uncovered that bundled plugins still inject queries when disabled in Disabled plugins still causing performance impact. The report was tagged pr-welcome for a performance-focused fix [386419/2]. read more

• The Category Groups component broke category listings on the homepage in Category Group component malfunction. Arkshine submitted PR #62, merged by awesomerobot to restore navigation [386507/3]. read more

• An unwanted horizontal scroll in Admin logs was tackled in Admin pages should be full width. supermathie and ToddZ shared simple CSS tweaks to expand .admin-interface full width [386640/2]. read more

• Dax reported that Pie charts ignore ranked-choice weighting in “Ranked choice” polls don’t work properly with pie charts. The consensus was that preventing Pie selection for ranked polls is needed, as Sankey diagrams remain the only suitable visualization [386168/3]. read more

Feature

• ice.d discussed Official groups/posts, proposing a middle ground between pinned and bannered topics. tobiaseigen and Moin dissected pin/unpin settings, adjusting defaults to surface key posts [386255/6]. read more

• sok777 asked if flagging could reduce gamification points in Reducing points for flagged users. Falco outlined how to apply penalties via the Gamification API but noted built-in scoring remains positive only [386482/2]. read more

• twofoursixeight suggested logging email-log views and gating access in Admins: Show a dialogue before entering email logs. The proposal aims to bolster privacy auditing for sensitive email content. read more

• rokejulianlockhart proposed allowing case-only username changes in Allow the Latin case of a username to be modified. Community pointed to existing behavior on other sites, resolving via a simple rename flow. read more

UX

• tobiaseigen called for clearer pin-unpin site-setting descriptions in Can we improve usability of pinned topic site settings?. Suggestions included merging or rewording settings to reduce confusion [386365/5]. read more

• supermathie noticed missing chat-message notifications in the header in Notification about chat messages in the header. lindsey confirmed the internal discussion and committed to a UI enhancement. read more

Community

• Bas introduced the Safe by Design white paper on GDPR-ready communities in Safe by Design: How to Protect Your Community Members and Their Privacy. The post underscored design patterns for privacy and trust. read more

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Activity by the @team Group

• lindsey authored the Current Projects – October 2025 update, guided the draft-autosave fix in Draft is no longer automatically saved…, and clarified composer improvements in How do I ensure my draft will be saved….

• Falco demystified AI search toggling in Current Projects – October 2025, diagnosed the “system” spam bug in Spam from “system”, and proposed chat activity UI tweaks in Notification about chat messages….

• tobiaseigen shared design-driven dev insights in How We Built Horizon…, guided pin-unpin setting enhancements in Official groups/posts, and streamlined admin layout in Admin pages should be full width.

• pmusaraj troubleshooted Discourse ID activation in Discourse ID fails to activate…, and flagged plugin-performance injections in Disabled plugins still causing….

• sam highlighted Apple’s iOS 26.1 beta fix in iOS 26 bugs with fixed position… and weighed in on draft behavior in Draft is no longer automatically saved….

• supermathie proposed the CSS tweak to widen admin logs in Admin pages should be full width and guided API usage for ad-hoc PMs in Any way to send PM to TL2….

• renato validated the draft-save reproduction in Draft is no longer automatically saved… and contributed to the Escaped tildes bug fix for the new composer.

• david reviewed component-template deprecations and merged the fix for Home Logo Wrapper outlet…, improving plugin-outlet behavior.

• awesomerobot merged the Category Groups fix in Category Group component malfunction and offered the custom CSS solution for emoji picker prioritization in Is it possible to prioritize custom emojis….

• saquetim guided dev-news on post-stream changes in Upcoming post stream changes and ensured Glimmer Post Stream defaults in Upcoming post stream changes.

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Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again next week!

[Discourse]

This week on meta.discourse.org…

Key Stats

• New posts: 750
• New topics: 112

Top users (by posts & likes):

1. tobiaseigen – 59 posts, 75 likes
2. Falco – 18 posts, 49 likes
3. Moin – 43 posts, 47 likes
4. pfaffman – 36 posts, 40 likes
5. RGJ – 19 posts, 37 likes
6. lindsey – 5 posts, 34 likes
7. sam – 36 posts, 31 likes
8. supermathie – 9 posts, 27 likes
9. NateDhaliwal – 35 posts, 26 likes
10. Canapin – 12 posts, 23 likes

Interesting Topics

Announcements

• tobiaseigen shared highlights from Toronto Community Week, where Saif, Jenny, and ruben talked migrations, community building, and even Discourse socks. read more

• lindsey unveiled an updated lightbox built on PhotoSwipe, improving image viewing on desktop & mobile and adding gallery navigation controls. read more

• hugh announced 3.6.0.beta2, with editable built-in theme colour palettes, live AI translation progress bars, and enhanced wiki tracking. read more

blog

• Falco introduced Discourse MCP and demonstrated a Discourse→Jira integration workflow, sparking discussion on AI agent use cases. read more

• The Discourse team showcased inspiring AI Communities in our latest Discourse Discover roundup. read more

Feature

• Canapin proposed auto-obfuscating quoted usernames when deleting an account to better respect user privacy. read more

• moin and per1234 debated bringing back the modal login, with tobiaseigen requesting impact data on sign-up rates. read more

• hameedacpa asked for an AI-powered “Format” button to convert text into SEO-friendly headers & bullets—NateDhaliwal shared an effective prompt and results. read more

• jrgong suggested a slash-command menu (/) in the Rich Text Editor, similar to Notion, for adding images, GIFs, polls, etc. read more

• craigconstantine discussed the Horizon theme + Topic Thumbnails component, detailing podcaster and gardening use cases and requesting official support. read more

Support

• A security report from a third-party researcher prompted Falco to advise routing issues through HackerOne. read more

• NathanJPearce asked about chapter-specific Discourse threads on FF7.com; ToddZ and chapoi guided him through permalinks and the WordPress Discourse plugin. read more

• Ahmed7 reported missing reactions on iOS; sam walked through safe-mode testing and NateDhaliwal traced it to a CSS conflict in the Jira plugin. read more

• itsbhanusharma diagnosed Discourse backups hidden by theme CSS and helped restore S3 backup visibility in a Marketplace request. read more

• tyler-mairose-sp canvassed AI content policies; j127, Tris20, and others weighed in on disclosure, vetting, and category isolation strategies. read more

• Mail integration FAQs were clarified: Lilly and tobiaseigen explained Mailgun API visibility differences between hosted vs. self-hosted (#386821) and showed how to enable reply_by_email via site settings (#387229). read more Mailgun • read more Email-in

• arun wanted G > C to jump to specific categories; pfaffman demonstrated a Theme Component that adds KeyboardShortcuts.addShortcut("g 1", …). read more

• bayardo.rivas revisited Top Referred Topics spikes on a private forum; tobiaseigen concluded they’re likely bot or social-share traffic with no further action needed. read more

UX

• nathank pointed out that the tracking button hover text (“Tracking”) is misleading; awesomerobot and the team debated clearer wording like “notification level.” read more

• tkforbes highlighted low-contrast ticks on Going / Interested / Not Going event buttons; led to a discussion on color accessibility and icon weight. read more

• Richie reported the quote popup hidden behind iPadOS menus; sam noted an iPhone fix and suggested extending it to iPad. read more

Installation

• pangbo showed how to fetch acme.sh via proxy on mainland China servers and disable pre-built assets for smoother ./launcher rebuild. read more

• pfaffman guided an admin through PostgreSQL 15 upgrades after “invalid command \restrict” errors, linking to CVE-2025-8714 details. read more

Migration

• Anton_Akhmerov kicked off discussion on Mattermost→Discourse migration, weighing bulk-import scripts vs. chat bridging via ActivityPub. read more

#Hosting

• supermathie exposed SendGrid’s List-Unsubscribe RFC violation, showing broken headers that strip easy-unsubscribe links and urging alternate ESPs or header fixes. read more

Activity by the @team Group

• tobiaseigen kicked off the Toronto Community Week recap, fielded questions on migrations and swag, and globally pinned the topic for weekend visibility. view kickoff • view pin

• Falco authored the Discourse MCP announcement and demo, then guided a thread on extending MCP integrations beyond Jira. launch post • Jira demo

• lindsey delivered the PhotoSwipe lightbox rollout and iterated on user feedback around gallery navigation and loop settings. read intro • user feedback

• sam troubleshot iOS reaction issues, walked through safe-mode tests, and proposed an LLM-powered sitemap compression approach. reactions debug • sitemap RAG

• supermathie spearheaded an overhaul of the emails:test rake task, added true STARTTLS toggles, and polished failure messages. task refactor

• awesomerobot clarified the notification hover text, suggested UX improvements, and added a giphy_size_variant setting for controlling GIF file sizes. hover fix • giphy setting

• pfaffman assisted with multisite Postgres restore errors, shared mail-in polling tips, and demonstrated the power of KeyboardShortcuts.addShortcut in a custom Theme Component. Postgres fix • shortcut demo

• Jenny, Saif, and ruben amplified the community presence at Toronto Community Week, co-authoring the recap and showcasing Discourse’s migration expertise.

• Juan_David_Martínez merged a fix for the Brand Header + Versatile Banner conflict, ensuring these theme components play nicely together.

• loic backported a performance improvement that makes disabled plugins truly inert, reducing unnecessary serializer calls.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again next week!

[Discourse]

This week on meta.discourse.org…

Key Stats

• New posts: 719
• New topics: 91
• Top users:
  • Moin: 83 posts, 97 likes
  • tobiaseigen: 50 posts, 46 likes
  • nat: 19 posts, 41 likes
  • ToddZ: 19 posts, 37 likes
  • sam: 32 posts, 37 likes
  • NateDhaliwal: 37 posts, 35 likes
  • lindsey: 2 posts, 28 likes
  • Falco: 8 posts, 17 likes
  • putty: 9 posts, 17 likes
  • Roi: 13 posts, 16 likes

Interesting Topics

Announcements (Announcements)

• Introducing chat search
  lindsey unveiled the new chat search feature on Nov 5, enabling full-channel, group chat and DM search via the sidebar read more.

• Discourse Doc Categories on Business plans
  nat announced that the Discourse Doc Categories plugin is now available on our Business hosting tier.

Site feedback (Site feedback)

• Do we want to auto-close support topics?
  tobiaseigen proposed auto-closing Support topics 30 days after last reply in [387520/1], sparking a community debate with Moin and Falco read more.

• Pinning topics globally on Meta
  tobiaseigen is experimenting with pinning up to three global topics and disabling auto-unpin, making it easier to revisit pinned discussions read more.

Bug reports (Bug)

• Search toggle re-opens on every click
  Moin reported that after using the back button, every click would toggle search open/closed; cvx fixed it in PR 35876 read more.

• Undefined ICS file name in calendar plugin
  dax discovered .ics downloads were named undefined.ics; sam merged PR 35886 to unify ICS generation and fix filenames read more.

• Photos half-displayed in Chrome PWA on tablets
  Moin repro’d an RTL lightbox bug on Android and iPad, tracked in [387639/6].

• Staff action logs show the wrong user
  Navigating between users’ action logs didn’t update the filter; gabriel’s PR 35842 restored correct filtering read more.

• Bookmarks search permission error
  Searching for :test in bookmarks threw a 500 error due to a missing SQL param, fixed by PR 35850 read more.

Support (Support)

• Single-post translation button missing
  MiikkaLaitila asked how to enable the “Translate now” button in content-localization; nat and Moin guided adding addTranslation to the post menu in [387756/1].

• Migrating Mattermost channels
  italo outlined how to build a custom import script for migrating Mattermost to Discourse in [386881/5], covering DM import, mentions and attachments.

Dev (Dev)

• Installing a new theme deletes color palettes
  kris.kotlarek shipped PR 35754 to preserve custom palettes when new themes are added read more.

• Reworking emails:test output
  Moin reported an unexpected admin alert in rake emails:test; pmusaraj suppressed it for hosted sites in [387286/5].

• Color-input component for non-admins
  pirhoo asked if color-input could live outside discourse/admin; david recommended copying the component into your plugin for now read more.

Theme components (Theme component)

• Discourse Post Image Carousel
  NateDhaliwal released a Splide/Swiper-powered carousel theme component with thumbnails in [387872/1].

• Qingwa Timelines
  scavin shared a timeline-layout theme component; preview at Discourse Qingwa Timelines - Discourse - 小众软件官方论坛 and repo on GitHub read more.

• Glacier Theme
  ばこん introduced Glacier Theme with light/dark modes; feedback on spacing in [387941/1].

Blog (blog)

• The Community Lifecycle: From Launch to Legacy
  HAWK explored community stages from Inception to Mitosis and the need for archival support in [387820/1].

• How Discourse Uses Discourse
  blake detailed how our 100+ employee remote org runs entirely on Discourse in [387597/1].

UX (UX)

• Styleguide_allowed_groups setting ignored
  gormus discovered that the Styleguide plugin was open to all; pmusaraj fixed it in PR 35912 after Moin’s repro in [387869/1].

• “New posts” banner too small on iPad
  AstonJ noted the updated thread notice got too narrow and hid avatars; PR 35852 restored multi-avatar breakpoints read more.

• Reviewable-type styling breaks in German
  Moin spotted that German reviewable classes weren’t colored; tracked in [387729/1].

• Huge gap under tables on tablets
  Moin shared screenshots of extra vertical space below table-builder layouts in [333153/1].

Praise (Praise)

• Full-featured community edition appreciated
  ToddZ thanked Discourse for offering all features to self-hosters in [387594/1].

• Emoji Fluff updated
  Roi flagged deprecation notices in [339163/31]; Arkshine revived it with PR 72949d2 adding rich editor & chat support.

Feature proposals (Feature)

• “Off Topic” hide functionality
  thec proposed folding off-topic replies behind a red banner toggle, a classic feature from older forums in [387619/1].

• Lightning “tip this post” plugin
  chavic floated a Breez SDK-powered Bitcoin tipping plugin; early discussion in [387770/1].

• Slash-command composer extension
  ego-lay_atman-bay adapted a BBCode snapblocks extension for Rich Text Editor, later fixed by switching from html_raw to bbcode_open tokens in [387753/2].

• Admin setting for default calendar view
  manuel asked for a setting to choose Month/Week/Year defaults, with route suggestions in [387389/5].

• Exclude GIFs from topic thumbnails
  jrgong requested skipping GIFs in topic cards for cleaner thumbnails in [387446/1].

Site Management (#site-management)

• Admin guide to tags
  Moin pointed out /tag_groups after the missing menu entry was fixed in [121041/41].

• Email revocation message UX
  Ltrlg examined confusing bounce notices and suggested clearer wording in [387675/1].

• Huge “Top referred topics” spikes
  bayardo.rivas saw unreal click counts in private forums; tobiaseigen advised Marketplace support in [330332/6].

• Digest/Activity Summary issues
  Jacob_Peebles and @to‌biaseigen tracked missing digest emails and related plugin fixes across [385651] and [385621].

Activity by the @team Group

• tobiaseigen

  • Proposed and refined auto-close settings for Support topics in [387520/1].
  • Piloted global pinning changes in [387909/1].
  • Triaged Styleguide plugin access and pinned topics in [387869/1].

• nat

  • Announced Doc Categories on Business plans in [384356/1].
  • Unhidden and described ai_translation_backfill_hourly_rate in [374669/18].
  • Fixed locale-from-param bug in content localization in [387547/2] and merged [35868].

• sam

  • Merged ICS filename and RRULE improvements in PR 35886 for [387696/7].
  • Fixed search toggle bug in [387726/7] with PR 35876.
  • Suppressed email:test hosting alerts in [387286/5].
  • Restored chat composer quote button positioning on iOS in PR 35907 for [387358].

• lindsey

  • Introduced chat search and responded to user feedback in [385755/1–3].

• Falco

  • Challenged auto-close experiment and highlighted timer UX in [387520/8].
  • Reproduced Styleguide access bug and validated fix in [387869/4].

• j.jaffeux

  • Debugged chat search ordering quirks in [385755/3–7].

• keegan

  • Improved translation composer image resizing and raw-view toggles in [374750/9–18].

• blake

  • Shared how Discourse uses Discourse across company operations in [387597/1].

• pmusaraj

  • Enhanced ActivityPub plural handling and locale overrides in [363687/7].
  • Guided MaxMindDB vs DB-IP setup and test strategy in [148512 discussions].

• manuel

  • Explored community lifecycle and archival needs in [387820/1–3].
  • Suggested “Today” button UX refinements and default view setting in [387389/5].

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again next week!

[Discourse]

This week on meta.discourse.org…

Key Stats

• New posts: 651

• New topics: 67

• Top users (posts / likes):

  • Moin (44 / 65)
  • tobiaseigen (39 / 57)
  • hugh (4 / 53)
  • pfaffman (27 / 37)
  • j.jaffeux (6 / 32)
  • NateDhaliwal (23 / 23)
  • nathank (11 / 22)
  • nat (13 / 21)
  • lindsey (5 / 17)
  • sam (8 / 17)

Interesting Topics

Announcements

• tobiaseigen launched the live “What’s Next for Discourse: Live AMA with Sam & Hawk” to field questions on Discourse ID, the 12-month roadmap, and AI features.

• hugh unveiled the new review queue layout with all new features, highlighting a refreshed interface, moderator notes, and a timeline panel under the review-queue tag.

• lindsey announced the deprecation of the Search Banner theme component in favor of the core welcome banner feature, complete with migration scripts and manual upgrade instructions.

Bug Fixes

• j.jaffeux committed to resolving composer positioning issues on iOS, tackling erratic “Save edit” behavior when the keyboard remains open.

• Falco diagnosed and fixed Safari video playback issues on iOS and macOS, identifying range-request regressions in reverse-proxy setups.

• jordan.vidrine corrected a TypeError that broke topic voting for anonymous visitors on #feature-voting topics, now deployed site-wide.

• Moin spotted and clarified why there was no edit option for a flagged post, guiding on post-menu settings and permissions for restoring flagged content.

Theme & UX

• ばこん updated the Glacier Theme to fix excessive width and address mobile Safari border glitches under Theme.

• putty released Hidden User Fields, a theme component enabling user-field visibility restricted to specified groups, sparking discussions on object editor settings.

• Lilly assisted adopilot in troubleshooting the User Card Directory component, resolving console errors and verifying compatibility with the latest Discourse release.

Plugins & Integrations

• kaktak introduced the Discourse Rich JSON-LD Microdata Plugin, enriching pages with Open Graph, Twitter Cards, and Schema.org markup for SEO and LLM discoverability.

• kaktak shared the Discourse llms.txt Generator Plugin, automating llms.txt creation to guide AI systems in indexing forum content.

• kaktak also published Yandex ID OAuth2 Authentication, a plugin for secure Yandex account login, complete with email verification and avatar import.

• pmusaraj highlighted the community-contributed VK ID OAuth 2.1 Authentication plugin as the successor to the deprecated VK authentication solution.

Features & API

• pmusaraj extended REST API support so non-anonymous users can request localized content via ?tl=en in “Support for tl=[lang] parameters”.

• nathank requested—and chapoi tagged—adding the ability to convert chat discussions into Threads after the fact, a feature under chat discussion.

• yuriy merged a PR to expose a new plugin outlet in group chats, mirroring after-chat-channel-username for customized extensions.

• j.jaffeux added a site setting for default calendar view (Month/Week/Year) in the calendar-and-event plugin.

• ToddZ championed a tweak in pdf-previews to open PDFs inline by default, reducing extra steps on mobile and desktop.

Support & Installation

• stephtara kicked off “Fresh install, where do I start?” seeking guidance on restoring backups and choosing themes for a Facebook-migrated community.

• patrickemin confirmed that syntax highlighting now works in post previews after safe-mode checks.

• MaxenceC and Canapin debugged a network error on backup downloads, exploring one-time link restrictions and alternative retrieval methods.

• Moin walked a user through the steps to unflag and restore a post they’d hidden when an admin flags content.

Blog

• jawestenberg’s “The Death of Community Memory” reflected on the perils of ephemeral chat archives vs. forums as long-term knowledge bases.

• stella’s “How to Communicate the Value of Your Community” offered strategies for justifying community investments to stakeholders.

Activity by the @team Group

• tobiaseigen kicked off the week with the AMA announcement and guided on the group inbox toggle request.

• hugh unveiled the refreshed review queue layout and fielded follow-ups on stability and Data Explorer queries (read more).

• j.jaffeux delivered the iOS composer fix and improved chat search positioning under the “Introducing chat search” discussion.

• nat rolled out localized results with the rest API ?tl support and showcased the localized search UI.

• sam moderated community feedback on Safari playback issues and debated feature voting limits.

• lindsey managed the Search Banner deprecation and refined chat search access options.

• manuel assisted with the iOS notch color fix and discussed Fediverse integration roadmaps.

• Falco dived into video playback regressions and contributed to the Emoji Fluff update.

• pmusaraj optimized Discourse ID activation flows and clarified POP3 polling settings.

• supermathie investigated Cloudflare onebox blocks and resolved MaxMind 401 errors for geo-lookup.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again next week!