OK - hit a snag trying to deploy my test app to heroku. This may need to be in a different location, maybe a formal github issue, but will start here:

I followed the very helpful wiki entry at (https://github.com/designcreateplay/NodeBB/wiki/Installing-NodeBB-on-Heroku)

Got to Step 8:

me$ heroku labs:enable websockets -a guarded-basin-1356.herokuapp.com
Enabling websockets for guarded-basin-1356.herokuapp.com... failed
 !    Application error

Everything seemed fine up to that point, and I checked this Heroku help page (https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/node-websockets), and seemed to work - I got the local app to work ok from:

me$ foreman start

So any ideas? I may just try a different hosting cloud if this isn't an obvious fix.

I did a very quick wiki page on Administrator Functions. I realize this is really somewhere between user help and development. The value added might be in (1) explaining some of the features where its needed or helpful (I made a few NOTEs), and (2) linking out from that page to other more technical pages that are managed in ACP. Can't necessarily expect an Administrator to be a developer but also want to give them a heads up whats there and how its all connected.

Very rough still - If you would prefer different formatting let me know.

Thanks. We agree that retaining clear vision is critical.

Can you comment on which direction you would suggest - write a plugin to NodeBB that links docpad, or the other way - a docpad plugin that links in NodeBB, or both?

What's your estimation as to the level of difficulty involved?

See my post here - possibly relevant

So I can think of a number of ways to make a NodeBB site appear to have a sort of content-structure beyond topics and posts.

Architecturally, you could simply stand NodeBB next to a nodejs content management app like Calypso - or you could roll your own, either separate from NodeBB and make a lot of links, or as part of a Fork.

That said, what would an integral capability look like in NodeBB? I can't see what it would take exactly, but the outcome would look something like this:

1. The Category view would include a content section like the landing page MOTD. Admins enter that content.

2. In addition, the Category view would enable Admins to present a specialized view of posts - like a searchable listing that pulls specific items in as if they were links to content or data items (which of course is more or less already in place).

3. Finally, Users would be able to enter structured data - with textboxes etc, and that structure would follow to the database to facilitate the structured Category post views. So a user could comment about a price for something, but also post an "official" price entry (ultimately these reflect the same gesture - "I have something to share" )

This would enable the app to (A) conform to a legacy idea of seeing content, (B) expand to structured data entry and retrieval system, and (C) retain the discussion format as the matrix from which these useful extra functions operate.

My question: how hard would this be to do, assuming we accept the architectural proposition that NodeBB is a realistic platform for this sort of thing?

OK, I want to open up a discussion in a weird direction.

If I am an old-school CIO I have a website full of content, made by content-makers, about what they think users want to see.

If I am a current CIO I have a website as above, but I also have a discussion board or capability where people are reacting to my content.

If I am a new-school CIO, well, what am I thinking: mainly that I don't want to employ content writers, I want to attract a large group of contributors, who will essentially write my web site content themselves, with a little moderator help.

OK, so then I have to sell it to the board, to the staff, to the old-school customers. They see chaos. They see the end of all that beautifully written and "safe" content. They see no way a pure discussion board like NodeBB can offer the structure and format they love.

tl;dr: Up to now we have had web sites that have a discussion page; now we need discussion topics that have web pages.

Hi. A couple of our users are having on-going issues trying to log in. (Remember several others are doing fine - which points to a OS or browser setup issue of some kind)

Here are additional notes. Let me know if you could use a more formal "bug troubleshoot/test" rundown on these:

Two users have had trouble when attempting to log in when using Chrome.
However, one later logged in with IE and it worked.

They get on Chrome console:

GET http://guarded-basin-1356.herokuapp.com/socket.io/1/xhr-polling/Eycd2uG1ooBH3CWMYtf1?t=1382981648897 503 (Service Unavailable)

and

Uncaught ReferenceError: io is not defined nodebb.min.js:6
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'config' of undefined garvacious1?loggedin:25
Uncaught ReferenceError: templates is not defined garvacious1?loggedin:128
Uncaught TypeError: Property 'require' of object [object Object] is not a function garvacious1?loggedin:183
GET http://guarded-basin-1356.herokuapp.com/socket.io/socket.io.js
In the network panel - socket.io.js isn't loading.

One of them also got in FireFox:

The connection to ws://guarded-basin-1356.herokuapp.com/socket.io/1/websocket/z4TG-kJ-orOfGxnYYtgK was interrupted while the page was loading.
this.websocket = new Socket(this.prepareUrl() + query);

I am now getting user feedback from about 6 test users. Not sure how to handle it in terms of bug reporting, because some of these may be features :), but I will just dump here and let you guys tell me:

On just one of our machines - Win7, NodeBB communication (login, posting) just failed on all 3 browsers (Chrome, FF, IE). Other similar side-by-side systems worked fine on the same network. I suspect that there is something blocking websockets on that pc. Is there a way to troubleshoot that on a WinPC?

Users have noticed that sometimes they are sure they are posting a new topic to a certain category, but that topic goes in to a different topic (perhaps the one they were last in?). One clue is that perhaps having similar titles of topics might have a bearing on why a post may switch over to another Category - the times this happened there may have been an exact match on the topic.

Right after registering, users reported they could not edit or delete their own posts. One user saw that logging out and in would clear this up, and that did seem to help. It was as if the more the user worked in NodeBB the smoother the functionality. But first impressions...

When users load their own image/avatars from local resources, they stay in the system while they are logged in - but the next day those images are gone/broken.

One user put in his email address and was surprised to see an unexpected old picture of himself, that he had no idea where it came from. He did not think it was from his known social network ids. This bothered him. Maybe a clear understanding of where NodeBB can extract pictures based on email would be helpful.

OK - What does the ImgurID actually do or enable, and how do you get it? It says "Imgur Client ID for uploading images" - but I can't find any documentation for it.

I did a very quick wiki page on Administrator Functions. I realize this is really somewhere between user help and development. The value added might be in (1) explaining some of the features where its needed or helpful (I made a few NOTEs), and (2) linking out from that page to other more technical pages that are managed in ACP. Can't necessarily expect an Administrator to be a developer but also want to give them a heads up whats there and how its all connected.

Very rough still - If you would prefer different formatting let me know.

Success! I have my test NodeBB up on heroku - Thanks for that guidance. I updated the wiki to try to steer next users away from that mistake.

All in all, this forum and the wiki page on deploying to heroku got me through the process. I have deployed other apps to CloudFoundry and nodejitsu, and the first push is always a huge obstacle. The best you can do if you are a novice like me, is follow a good step-by-step like that and learn how to interpret and correct your errors.

btw, when will you be offering hosting packages?