Discourse
Last updated
Last updated
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 17 July 2023
Discourse is an open source forum provider. These forums are very useful for remote working groups because they allow a clear, organized and efficient way to have discussions on different issues. DAOs extensively use these forums to discuss and improve proposals before they have a vote.
Discourse is a paid service. There are four different plans offered by Discourse, each have different features which can be found here.
Discourse offers users to set up their own forum environment easily.
Discourse does not require users to go between pages, all topics, categories, and discussions expand as you scroll.
Writing content on Discourse is very simple. You can write your messages in markdown, BBCode or HTML format. Discourse also shows you preview of your message.
You can also add links and images easily to your messages. All you need to do is paste the link and it will be rendered automatically. Putting images can be done by dragging and dropping the image.
Discourse offers a system of trust levels. This system is used to prevent scam attacks. Users are given abilities gradually as their trust levels increase and some of these abilities include Private Messages, Post Hyperlinks, Post Images, and Flag Posts. More about the Trust Levels can be read here.
Community involvement is almost the most challenging thing for any DAO. Most DAOs use Discord to have their discussions but by its nature, Discord can become overwhelming quickly. Discord is a good tool to have different discussions on different channels but it is suitable for that actual moment. Finding a discussion from a week ago is profoundly difficult. On the other hand, forums have become one of the best discussion ways of todays internet. Using a forum to have DAOs discussions is probably the best solution. They are organized and easy to track. Discourse is designed to enable rich, civilized discussions. DAO members can create and participate in various topic threads, facilitating open communication, idea exchange, and discussions about important decisions. It allows for categorization and tagging of topics, which can help organize discussions around different areas like governance, proposals, general discussion, and more.
An example is Lido DAO. Lido uses Discourse in their governance process. Proposals in Lido DAO are discussed and perfected before on-chain voting. Here is Lido DAOs Governance Forum.
