tl;dr: http://pony-forum.com, forums are in again, baby!
Longer version that breaks character limit: https://gist.github.com/ndarville/4753948
Discourse has received a lot of attention, and revitalizing the forum software of yore is suddenly part of the public conversation. As such, I feel I should bring your attention to my own forever project[2], which has been years in the making from the idea stage. I am not planning on “launching” it any time soon, but the project, Pony Forum, is relevant to the discussion for a few reasons:
1. As another “modern” take on forum software, it allows us to conceptualization modern forums from multiple perspectives.
2. My approach is entirely different than Atwood’s—just look at the screenshots(!).
3. All of it is open source, available for your immediate perusal and comparison at GitHub.
4. It is based on Django, increasing the potential for some hilarious fanboy wars.
The project should be fairly easy to set up on dotCloud or locally. Here is how to do it locally, IIRC: https://gist.github.com/ndarville/4753982.
I submit this project not because I plan on “launching” it soon, but because it makes me happy that Jeff was able to draw so much attention to something so great and yet so abandoned. It means the iron is hot as ever, and the the time to discuss the future of forums is now.
As you can tell by comparing both of our projects, Atwood and I only agree on the state of forums, and the urgency of doing something about it. But now what?
That couldn’t be a better way to start the discussion of what to do now.
http://pony-forum.com
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5172905
[2]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5096009