Overview
In the current era of dynamic digital discourse, preserving technical, privacy, and innovative discussions is essential. Our forum archival initiative is designed to capture valuable content from Discourse-based forums and store it for future reference. This project is not only an anti-censorship effort but also an endeavor to empower technology communities by preserving their conversations, ideas, and innovations.
How It Works
Our archival process is built upon the Discourse-to-GitHub-Archiver. Key components include:
-
Data Collection:
- Fetch posts using the Discourse API.
- Archive each post as a JSON file organized by creation date.
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Content Transformation:
- Concurrently convert HTML posts to Markdown.
- Download images and update URLs to maintain offline accessibility.
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Dynamic Indexing:
- Generate and update a README.md file that provides a navigable table of contents linking to all archived topics.
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Incremental Updates:
- Process only new or modified content, ensuring efficient and regular updates.
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Serverless Hosting with GitHub/GitLab/Codeberg Pages:
- The transformed and archived data is hosted serverlessly via Git Pages.
- This approach facilitates easy mirroring and decentralized backup.
- Custom domains can be configured by adding a CNAME file, ensuring that the archive is accessible through your own branded URL.
NOTE: THE SCRIPT IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
Archive Criteria: Defining What Makes a Forum Worth Preserving
To guide our efforts and ensure that we capture the most valuable discussions, we propose the following criteria for target forum selection:
-
Quality of Discourse:
- Technical Depth: Forums where discussions demonstrate in-depth technical analysis, innovative problem-solving, or pioneering research.
- Privacy & Security Focus: Platforms that engage critically with issues of digital privacy, encryption, and secure communication.
- Philosophical and Ethical Dialogue: Spaces encouraging thoughtful debate about the societal impact of technology and the importance of free expression.
- Questioning the Official Narrative: Sites that routinely scrutinize mainstream perspectives and challenge commonly accepted narratives.
- Challenging World Views: Forums where participants critically analyze and debate world outlooks, ideologies, and prevailing cultural assumptions.
- Truth Seeking: Communities dedicated to uncovering hidden facts, seeking evidence-based discussions, and exposing misinformation.
- Self Empowerment: Platforms that foster personal growth, encourage autonomy, and equip members with the knowledge to question authority and assert individual freedom.
-
Community Engagement:
- Active Participation: Forums with a vibrant, growing user base that continues to generate meaningful content.
- Expert Contributions: Presence of knowledgeable experts, researchers, or practitioners contributing to and enriching the discussions.
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Content Uniqueness:
- Original and In-Depth Analysis: Platforms that provide unique perspectives, including long-form analysis, case studies, or comprehensive guides.
- Historical and Emerging Voices: A mix of established archives and rapidly emerging communities that might otherwise be lost if trends shift.
List of Potential Discourse Forums
An initial review of Discourse Forums identified the following potential forums for archive. Forums can be find with a “Powered by Discourse” search engine dork.
| Forum Name | Topics Count | Posts Count | Users Count | Site Creation Date | Archived Status | Archive Priority | Archive URL | Site Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hack Liberty Forum | 131 | 1297 | 146 | 2023-12-09 |   (Partial) |
P0 | Link | We are a group of cypherpunks, privacy advocates, engineers, and philosophers dedicated to the pursuit of truth, liberty, and knowledge for all |
| Tor Project Forum | 4277 | 36864 | 6356 | 2021-01-29 | |
P1 | N/A | A forum for Tor users. Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship. |
| Qubes OS Forum | 15517 | 150345 | 6179 | 2020-04-14 | |
P1 | N/A | A forum for Qubes OS users |
| Whonix Forum | 8495 | 76784 | 5886 | 2016-05-13 | |
P1 | N/A | Privacy protection. Anonymity online. Anonymous Operating System. |
| Privacy Guides Community | 5503 | 74524 | 3895 | 2022-09-29 | |
P2 | N/A | Discover privacy tools and resources, ask questions, receive advice, and stay informed at the biggest digital rights, privacy tech, and cybersecurity community on the internet. |
| Techlore Discussions | 5162 | 52601 | 2748 | 2022-02-11 | |
P2 | N/A | A place to discuss tech, digital rights, and Techlore content |
| PrivacyLx | 907 | 4988 | 41 | N/A | |
P4 | N/A | This is the PrivacyLx forum |
| F-Droid Forum | 4461 | 77853 | 7605 | 2016-12-16 | |
P3 | N/A | The official forum for the free and open source Android app repository |
| 0x00sec - The Home of the Hacker | 3226 | 88449 | 11957 | N/A | |
P2 | N/A | The Home of the Hacker - Malware, Reverse Engineering, and Computer Science. |
| Bisq | 3829 | 35669 | 2965 | 2016-04-12 | |
P1 | N/A | Official Bisq forum |
| Monero Space Forum | 59 | 1636 | 333 | 2023-06-11 | |
P3 | N/A | A community for Monero, a secure and private currency that is open-source and freely available to all. Operated by the Monero Space workgroup |
| Zcash Community Forum | 10613 | 219023 | 12044 | 2016-02-22 | |
P2 | N/A | An open forum for Zcash users and enthusiasts, hosted by the Zcash Foundation. |
| Cake Wallet | 41 | 258 | 68 | 2024-08-14 | |
P2 | N/A | Community for the multi-crypto app Cake Wallet |
| Bitcoin Cash Research | 345 | 6281 | 336 | N/A | |
P3 | N/A | In the path to a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. |
| LitecoinTalk Forum | 3661 | 99447 | 26544 | 2016-08-23 | |
P3 | N/A | Litecoin Forum |
| DREAM | 320 | 2185 | 36 | 2020-09-15 | |
P3 | N/A | Bootstrapping P2P/Web convergence for offline-first, local collaborative autonomy |
| Overgrow.com | 24082 | 3439820 | 11816 | 2016-07-17 | |
P5 | N/A | Cannabis Cultivation |
| LunarDAO | 61 | 865 | 99 | N/A | |
P3 | N/A | |
| Digital Life Collective | 212 | 689 | 42 | 2017-04-26 | |
P3 | N/A | Tech we trust for the world we want |
| Become A Living God | 71570 | 2443634 | 19539 | 2017-03-17 | |
P2 | N/A | Official Forum of Become A Living God - Learn the secrets of magick to ignite spiritual ascent. |
| The BioLogos Forum | 6917 | 337711 | 4064 | 2016-04-13 | |
P3 | N/A | A community seeking truth and engaging the tough questions on science and faith. |
| Crossmap Communities - Christian Forums | 6354 | 20167 | 773 | N/A | |
P4 | N/A | |
| Victorious in Prayer | 397 | 2409 | 190 | N/A | |
P4 | N/A | A safe Christian forum for brothers and sisters in Christ to come together and share in prayer and the word of God. |
| Christian Forums at Crosswalk | 1807 | 14788 | 3789 | 2021-03-19 | |
P4 | N/A | Christian Forums at Crosswalk is a faith community for believers and seekers to ask questions, share prayer requests, discuss the Bible, and grow spiritually together. Join now. |
| The Evangelical Universalist Forum | 7149 | 160143 | 1090 | N/A | |
P4 | N/A | A Christian forum for discussing Evangelical Universalism—inspired by Gregory MacDonald’s “The Evangelical Universalist” |
| Discuss Kubernetes | 7274 | 47403 | 11244 | 2018-04-17 | |
P5 | N/A | A place to discuss Kubernetes and its ecosystem |
| Mozilla Discourse | 27147 | 273278 | 28904 | 2016-02-23 | |
P5 | N/A | Mozilla Community Discourse forum |
| Start9 Community | 936 | 9649 | 1135 | N/A | |
P5 | N/A | |
| Autonomi Forum (Safe) | 12393 | 402861 | 6137 | 2016-02-22 | |
P5 | N/A | The main discussion forum of the Autonomi Network (Formerly Safe) community. |
| Level1Techs Forums | 144595 | 3907083 | 129576 | N/A | |
P5 | N/A | A place to discuss technology, science and design |
| Syncthing Community Forum | 11889 | 106831 | 10009 | 2016-03-11 | |
P5 | N/A | Discussion forum for the Syncthing community. Support, announcements, development coordination and general chat. |
| Ubuntu Community Hub | 10862 | 141759 | 20099 | N/A | |
P4 | N/A | The meeting point for the Ubuntu community. |
| Fedora Discussion | 109850 | 382597 | 22650 | 2018-06-19 | |
P4 | N/A | Fedora Project community conversations — both for project development and Fedora Linux users. |
| openSUSE Forums | 166463 | 1297889 | 49862 | 2022-12-10 | |
P4 | N/A | The official openSUSE Forums providing help, support and community resources to all the users of openSUSE family of distributions and various project within the openSUSE Project |
| GNOME Discourse | 10815 | 79549 | 7470 | 2019-02-27 | |
P5 | N/A | GNOME Project and Community related discussions |
| GitLab Forum | 27985 | 177269 | 41429 | 2016-02-21 | |
P4 | N/A | Community Forum about GitLab, the AI-powered DevSecOps platform |
| NixOS Discourse | 24422 | 203758 | 15432 | N/A | |
P5 | N/A | NixOS community forum. Hosted by flyingcircus.io (sponsor) on NixOS. |
| Rocky Linux Forum | 4792 | 50234 | 6205 | 2020-12-08 | |
P5 | N/A | The community hub for the Rocky Linux project. |
| EndeavourOS | 29213 | 635027 | 13904 | 2019-06-27 | |
P5 | N/A | A terminal-centric distro with a vibrant and friendly community at its core |
| Parrot Community | 5856 | 72831 | 7158 | 2018-01-21 | |
P5 | N/A | Community forums for the Parrot Project |
| OpenStreetMap Community Forum | 66901 | 1112660 | 45341 | 2021-07-14 | |
P3 | N/A | A shared place for conversations about OpenStreetMap |
| OpenAI Developer Community | 52793 | 1568293 | 979106 | 2021-02-26 | |
P5 | N/A | Connect with other developers building with the OpenAI API Platform. |
| Pi-hole Userspace | 24382 | 270080 | 25718 | 2016-09-24 | |
P5 | N/A | Get sucked into the latest news and community activity by entering Pi-hole’s orbit |
| GL.iNet | 18630 | 201460 | 18751 | 2018-02-09 | |
P5 | N/A | OpenWrt Wi-Fi Routers for Things |
| Purism community | 11344 | 181631 | 5574 | N/A | |
P4 | N/A | |
| FreedomBox Forum | 1681 | 11513 | 734 | 2019-03-21 | |
P5 | N/A | A forum to discuss FreedomBox related topics |
| Nextcloud community | 71512 | 647101 | 66209 | 2016-05-28 | |
P4 | N/A | A place to discuss Nextcloud, get help, and meet other friendly people  |
| Umbrel Community | 5231 | 46090 | 7195 | 2021-03-29 | |
P5 | N/A | A friendly place to discuss all things Umbrel and to connect with the community. |
| KoboToolbox Community Forum | 16365 | 141748 | 17286 | 2018-10-16 | |
P5 | N/A | The ideal place for users to share ideas, suggestions, and best practices with the global KoboToolbox community. |
| /e/OS community | 21225 | 274654 | 14073 | N/A | |
P5 | N/A | deGoogled smartphone OS and online services - my data is MY data |
| Octant | 184 | 1480 | 380 | 2023-07-06 | |
P5 | N/A | Discussion around governance and funding experiments for Octant. |
| Cesium Community | 18136 | 110414 | 11662 | 2020-03-25 | |
P5 | N/A | Community Forum for the Cesium Platform - CesiumJS, Cesium for Unreal, Cesium ion, and discuss geospatial concepts & industry news, and share your work. |
| Ansible | 31034 | 127619 | 6248 | 2023-07-20 | |
P5 | N/A | Discussions related to the Ansible automation tools, the Ansible ecosystem, the Ansible Community. |
| Flathub Discourse | 2324 | 15411 | 3218 | 2019-12-13 | |
P5 | N/A | A place for Flathub Contributors and Users |
| HUGO | 22392 | 171952 | 13362 | 2017-06-16 | |
P4 | N/A | Support and discussion about the Hugo static site builder. |
| Home Assistant Community | 272203 | 3322642 | 281772 | 2016-03-30 | |
P4 | N/A | Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. |
| Art of Memory Forum | 16701 | 248442 | 55273 | 2018-10-27 | |
P3 | N/A | Learn memory techniques, brain training, mental calculation, and math |
| n8n Community | 25471 | 235959 | 33808 | 2019-09-07 | |
P4 | N/A | Join the n8n Community to connect with other users, learn from detailed discussions, and share your automation insights. Explore topics and get support |
| TrueNAS Community Forums | 9472 | 115163 | 9459 | 2024-03-26 | |
P4 | N/A | TrueNAS Community Help and Discussion |
| DeepLearning.AI | 40809 | 1072394 | 666539 | 2021-01-28 | |
P4 | N/A | Build the future of AI, together |
| Hugging Face Forums | 21669 | 196942 | 78644 | 2020-07-07 | |
P3 | N/A | Community Discussion, powered by Hugging Face <3 |
| Framework Community | 12614 | 243552 | 32189 | 2020-07-22 | |
P3 | N/A | The Framework Community: an online forum where you can connect with us and each other for discussions and support around the mission and products |
| Jitsi Community Forum | 40955 | 330769 | 26473 | 2018-05-30 | |
P4 | N/A | The place where the Jitsi community comes to discuss |
| Docker Community Forums | 34230 | 239536 | 62143 | 2016-03-14 | |
P3 | N/A | Docker Community Forums |
| Grafana Labs Community Forums | 41371 | 256900 | 49802 | 2017-02-24 | |
P4 | N/A | Official Grafana Labs community forums. Get technical support for open source Grafana, Loki, and Tempo |
| USCCA Community | 17182 | 608670 | 71207 | 2018-12-06 | |
P3 | N/A | Your place for self-defense education, training & great discussions with responsibly armed Americans |
| FreePBX Community Forums | 65816 | 446308 | 19173 | 2016-04-07 | |
P5 | N/A | FreePBX is an open source GUI for managing Asterisk PBX |
| KSEC Community Forum | 7175 | 8508 | 653 | 2023-11-04 | |
P3 | N/A | The KSEC Forum is a hub for security professionals, enthusiasts, and community members to connect, share insights, and access support. It offers a wealth of training and research resources, providing members with educational materials, expert advice, and the latest industry developments. Whether seeking help or expanding your knowledge, the KSEC Forum is your go-to community for all things security. |
| The Rust Programming Language Forum | 53233 | 512452 | 32964 | 2016-02-22 | |
P5 | N/A | General discussion of The Rust Programming Language |
| OpenSearch | 8428 | 52170 | 6866 | 2019-03-01 | |
P5 | N/A | OpenSearch is a community-driven, open source search, analytics, and vector database platform with integrated tools for observability, security, visualization, and AI-powered applications. |
| Traefik Labs Community Forum | 8580 | 55344 | 8786 | 2019-06-11 | |
P5 | N/A | Discuss, Learn, and Connect with the Traefik Community! |
| 32-Bit Cafe | 1028 | 17666 | 448 | 2024-01-20 | |
P4 | N/A | A community of like-minded website hobbyists and professionals helping to make the web fruitful and bountiful again |
| Jupyter Community Forum | 8892 | 63348 | 14412 | 2018-10-29 | |
P4 | N/A | A place for Jovyans to share and learn from each other |
| I Love Philosophy | 50184 | 1433001 | 7136 | 2024-03-04 | |
P3 | N/A | A community forum for the discussion of philosophy, broadly defined. |
| Maker Forums | 57286 | 442063 | 27093 | 2018-10-02 | |
P3 | N/A | Forums for makers, 3D printing, Lasers, CNC routers, and more |
| It’s FOSS Community | 4066 | 74951 | 3214 | 2018-05-30 | |
P2 | N/A | A place for desktop Linux users and It’s FOSS readers |
| Gitea | 2654 | 17507 | 3208 | 2017-06-15 | |
P4 | N/A | Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service, including Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD |
| American Homebrewers Association® Forum | 33590 | 485820 | 221183 | 2023-11-28 | |
P4 | N/A | Dedicated to protecting, uniting and educating homebrewers while empowering an equitable homebrewing culture, and showcasing the fun of fermenting. |
| Rocket.Chat | 5589 | 36986 | 6047 | 2017-12-05 | |
P4 | N/A | Community discussions about Rocket.Chat |
| Barbell Medicine Forum | 14447 | 84073 | 11078 | 2024-07-23 | |
P4 | N/A | Community for Barbell Medicine |
| BioExcel | 1973 | 13532 | 1410 | 2016-02-17 | |
P3 | N/A | Support Forums for Bioexcel Center of Excellence |
| Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups | 425 | 5674 | 936 | 2024-03-08 | |
P5 | N/A | |
| Biohacking Forums | 159 | 1446 | 444 | 2024-09-29 | |
P3 | N/A | The Biohacking Forum is a forum by the International Biohacking Community for individuals to discuss longevity, biohacking, transhumanism, life extension, cryonics, DIY-biology, and more. |
| OSI Discuss | 233 | 2177 | 281 | 2024-01-11 | |
P4 | N/A | Open Source Initiative Discuss |
| FUDiabetes | 6202 | 149306 | 2341 | 2017-03-17 | |
P4 | N/A | a community for unlimited diabetics |
| IPFS Forums | 6089 | 41982 | 4578 | 2016-11-05 | |
P2 | N/A | Discussion forums for users and implementers of the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and its related technologies & protocols. |
| Practical ZFS | 669 | 5980 | 989 | 2023-06-29 | |
P3 | N/A | A home for OpenZFS news, education, and discussion |
| Serverless Forums | 5123 | 31301 | 6838 | 2016-06-30 | |
P4 | N/A | Discuss Serverless Architectures, Serverless Framework, AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google CloudFunctions and more! |
| DeepTalk - Deep Learning Community | 739 | 8197 | 1025 | 2017-10-02 | |
P4 | N/A | A Deep Learning community forum, a place to discuss Machine Learning and A.I. |
| AM22Tech Forum | 6064 | 245678 | 157670 | 2019-03-01 | |
P5 | N/A | Immigration, Visa Questions, Reliable Answers |
| Peaceful Science | 7190 | 257862 | 641 | 2017-12-03 | |
P5 | N/A | Exploring the grand questions together. |
We Need Your Feedback
This initiative is driven by community input and collective wisdom. We invite feedback and suggestions to refine our archive criteria and help us discover new targets for preservation. Specifically, please share your thoughts on:
- Additional Archive Criteria: Are there other factors we should consider when selecting forums to archive?
- Potential Forum Candidates: Which other Discourse-based forums or similar platforms do you believe are essential to preserve?
- Improvement Suggestions: Do you have ideas or improvements in the archival process that could enhance accuracy, efficiency, or resilience against censorship?