Need Help with discourse setup

Discussion & Solutions
1

Can someone help me setup Discourse on my domain?

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2

:rocket: Run Your Own Forum in 10 Minutes (Yes, Really)

:world_map: One-Line Flow: Paste one command → answer 4 questions → your forum is live.

Why this slaps:
Forums used to require server wizards, domain purchases, and email server nightmares.
Now? One terminal command. Free subdomain. No email setup. Just… works.
You mass-DM 50 Discord strangers OR own the whole damn clubhouse. Choose.

⚡ The Braindead Method (2024+)

What you need: A Linux server. That’s literally it.

SSH in and run:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/discourse/discourse_docker/main/install-discourse | sudo bash

The wizard asks 4 things:

  1. Domain? → Pick a free yourname.discourse.diy subdomain (no purchase needed)
  2. Admin email? → Your email
  3. SMTP? → Skip it. Users login via Google/GitHub/Facebook instead
  4. Confirm? → Yes

Walk away. Come back in 10 min. Forum’s live.

🖱️ DigitalOcean 1-Click (Even Dumber)
  1. Go to DigitalOcean Marketplace
  2. Create a $10/mo droplet (the $5 one chokes—don’t)
  3. First SSH login auto-launches the setup wizard
  4. Answer the same 4 questions
  5. Done

~20-30 min total (DNS propagation is the slow part).

đź’¸ Free Hosting Option (Oracle Cloud)

Oracle gives you an “Always Free” VM forever. Not a trial—actually free.

  1. Sign up at Oracle Cloud (card required, never charged)
  2. Create an “Always Free Eligible” VM instance
  3. Open ports 80 + 443 in security rules
  4. SSH in → run the one-liner above

Free forum. Forever. The catch? Oracle’s UI is confusing as hell. Worth it though.

đź“Š Minimum Specs
Minimum Recommended
RAM 1GB + swap 2GB+
CPU 1 core 2 cores
Disk 10GB 20GB

The installer auto-tunes performance based on your hardware.

🔧 If You Actually Have a Domain
  1. Point an A record to your server IP (forum.yourdomain.com → 123.45.67.89)
  2. Wait for DNS (usually 5-30 min, can take 48hrs)
  3. Run the one-liner
  4. Enter your domain when asked
  5. Let’s Encrypt SSL gets added automatically

For email: Mailgun gives 1,000 free emails/month. Use their SMTP creds when prompted.

The old way: Buy domain → configure DNS → rent VPS → install Docker → clone repo → edit YAML → set up Mailgun → pray → debug for 3 hours.

The new way: One command. Free subdomain. Social logins. 10 minutes.

Discourse literally removed every excuse not to start.

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