Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?
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You know i really like to try nodebb unfortunately it doesn't have installation based on docker for easy upgrades.
Since i failed at installing nodebb via digitalocean and successfully installing discourse following the beginner docker guide -> +1 discourse
Any up-to-date tutorial for newbie non developer hobbyist to install nodebb on digitalocean?
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@Nur https://docs.nodebb.org/en/latest/installing/cloud.html
The site that holds the digitalocean step by step tutorial seems to be down, but may be temporarily since is owned by @psychobunny . I think theres docker support too for nodeb now.
Edit: https://docs.nodebb.org/en/latest/installing/docker.html?highlight=docker
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here's some small addition to what I want to see for nodebb that I liked from discourse.
- keyboard shortcut for the text editor (its faster to use keybord shortcuts)
- link clikcs number showing (this is somehow very important to if people do really show interest on my post and it also adds attraction to the post and curiousity)
- highlight quote (discourse does have this hopng to see it also here or in a plugin)
- search realtime results when typing
- image does not show in a lightbox
although I am not sure if this has already been implemnted here on nodebb via plugin or core features
so far those are the things I think missing as far as I used the discourse for a couple of months and now migrating to nodebb
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I spent more time messing with Discourse, this is my impression of the two so far:
What I liked most in NodeBB so far:
- less memory usage
- faster and lighter
- downvotes
- option sort replies by most voted
What I like in Discourse and didn't find in NodeBB:
- wiki posts
- reply by e-mail
- got better results in search with Discourse (used mongodb dbsearch in nodebb)
- poll plugin
- the message in the end of the topic asking users to register seems to be working
- I managed to have topic thumbnails using the first image from the topic body
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For what it's worth, I ended up going with NodeBB.
Node + MongoDB (or Redis) just makes life so much easier than Rails. The plugin system here is great. I have no regrets I think what this team has done is awesome!
So for me it's solved. NodeBB is better.
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@djensen47 Thanks for the kind words, always love hearing about converts from all sorts of forum software
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I hope I don't get accused of super bumping multiple threads tonight (really not so old threads or well not so old last post!)
On first impression, nodeBB was the ticket - without any of the technicals. It's all that matters.
It truly is all that matters. Since the majority of fourm users are not going to be technical and forum have there work cut out to drag people away from the twitters and face books of the world.
A forum can be deployed to any user base so it's application and audience is potentially as wide as you like and varied as you like, that you have to think about simple but not dumb Ui/UX and rely on the beauty of tradition, i.e. established and solid universal conventions that are universal but not afraid to push the envelope to enhance convention to the point it's at least feels innovate if not actually is.
Speed.
It's silky response. The fade out fade in transition was a genius choice, let me type that again GENIUS!
The Composer.
- It looks and is weighed better i.e. it's styled better, simple.
- It's not perfect, but it's one of the best out there.
The composer is the window to all content creation, the crucible of an entire forums everyday lifeforce. It's got to be good, it's got to always be trying to be better, by trying to be great. This is the interface that makes or breaks the user experience and thus a forum.
My UI/UX 2c:
Please consider making the composers upper top line a drag focus draggable area so it is not restricted to the black circle aligned to the left, that should really be centered (it took me too long to figure out) - it breaks a basic UI/UX expectation burned into our retinas at this point!
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Thanks for the kind words, we strive to keep NodeBB minimal and fast, and I feel we're keeping up with trends. Of course, what's in style always seems to pass too quickly
With regards to the composer resize, there's no particular reason it has to be limited to the resizer button, I'll look into it
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One thing to add to the list is the lack of reliability of sending the digest email to a moderate or larger user base. I have 12,000 users and have successfully sent 7/20 digest emails.
To the teams credit, one issue related to this has been resolved. Thank you for that.
Today, however, NodeBB ran out of memory. It appears this while it was getting ready to send the digest. The server crashed and the digest was not sent. The smallest error happens related or unrelated to the digest and it just doesn't start nor finish. And there is no way to resume or resend to those who did not receive it. The solution? Wait a week or wait until the "underlying issue" is resolved.
Update, possibly irrelevant:
The team does not believe this to be an resolvable (nor important enough) issue so it will not be resolved. (That's an opinion and their decision and that's fine). If you're looking for reliable weekly digest, you need to seriously consider something else besides NodeBB. I don't want this to be true but it just isn't a priority for them.
(Development teams have a lot of issues pulling them in different directions; so you have to set some sort of priorities and some things get left out, this just happens to be one of them.)I don't know if Discourse is better on this point but I am on a few Discourse forums that definitely have 10s of thousands of members and I get the email every week.
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For the first time reader of all of this, it is important to note that despite the digest email issue, the team is super responsive and receptive to every other issue. Especially when it is a well defined problem, the team turns around very quickly. I've logged a ton of bugs and nearly all of them get fixed and nearly all within a week of reporting. Priorities are priorities and this might be occurrence problem.
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@djensen47 said in Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?:
Node + MongoDB (or Redis) just makes life so much easier than Rails.
Heck yeah. And so much easier to have it be screaming fast!
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@djensen47 said in Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?:
Today, however, NodeBB ran out of memory. It appears this while it was getting ready to send the digest.
What sending mechanism are you using? Local SMTP? A service? We use MailGun and haven't seen an issue yet.
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@scottalanmiller said in Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?:
What sending mechanism are you using? Local SMTP? A service? We use MailGun and haven't seen an issue yet.
The out of memory may have been an independent issue. We use Sparkpost (as mentioned in the other thread).
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@djensen47 said in Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?:
@scottalanmiller said in Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?:
What sending mechanism are you using? Local SMTP? A service? We use MailGun and haven't seen an issue yet.
The out of memory may have been an independent issue. We use Sparkpost (as mentioned in the other thread).
Gotcha. Haven't used Sparkpost, don't know how they are. That would make sense if the memory was a different issue.
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@julian said in Which is better NodeBB or Discourse?:
Thanks for the kind words, we strive to keep NodeBB minimal and fast, and I feel we're keeping up with trends. Of course, what's in style always seems to pass too quickly
With regards to the composer resize, there's no particular reason it has to be limited to the resizer button, I'll look into it
This looks to be implemented. Thank you very much @julian !
I will suggest that the icon/resizer button needs to re-considered along following lines:
- be gone or redesigned.
- and/or move position to centre.
I"m going to provide you with a mock-up or my own version of the icon ok!
Here it is
or
- weight the top line if the composer differently to suggest it's draggable.
For example:
OFF state
ON state
note: I think my colours are mis-match to the persona colour scheme, need to check that out!
I kinda like NodeBB extremley 
