# Vendor facets — Discourse. A hosted or self-hosted forum; on the Kin Score it is a support channel
# (2 pts) that grades at half credit when declared as Community, plus a conditional roadmap and
# changelog if the provider actually runs them as categories. Everything else it ships is the
# forum's own surface, not the provider's.
vendor: discourse
name: Discourse
website: https://www.discourse.org
areas:
- community
registry_keys:
- discourse
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  Discourse earns a provider one check reliably: support_channel, worth 2 points, and only half of that
  when the forum is declared as Community, because the pointer probe does not read that type and grades
  it "unverified". Declared as Support, the forum is probed and Discourse forums come back live (5 of
  5 probed). Topic voting (Business and up) can carry a public roadmap and a category can carry release
  notes, but only if the provider really uses them that way. The forum's own API, embeds and chat earn
  the provider nothing.
features:
- id: hosted-forum
  name: Hosted community forum (free plan; custom domain on Pro and up)
  description: >-
    A public discussion forum with categories, tags and Q&A, hosted by Discourse, on the provider's own
    domain from the Pro plan.
  source: https://www.discourse.org/pricing
  tier: all
- id: self-hosted
  name: Open-source self-hosting
  description: The same forum software, free to run on the provider's own servers.
  source: https://www.discourse.org/pricing
  tier: open-source
- id: topic-voting
  name: Topic voting (ideas / feature-request categories)
  description: >-
    Members vote on topics in designated categories, sortable by votes; built for ideas and feature-request
    categories.
  source: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-topic-voting/40121
  tier: paid
- id: doc-categories
  name: Doc Categories
  description: Organizes documentation inside forum categories.
  source: https://www.discourse.org/pricing
  tier: paid
- id: pinned-announcements
  name: Sitewide alerts and pinned topics
  description: Staff can pin topics and post sitewide alerts, which is how forums usually carry announcements.
  source: https://www.discourse.org/features
  tier: all
- id: blog-integration
  name: Blog integration (embedded comments)
  description: Uses forum topics as the comment threads for an existing blog.
  source: https://www.discourse.org/features
  tier: all
- id: discourse-api
  name: Discourse API and webhooks
  description: Everything in the forum UI is callable through Discourse's own API.
  source: https://www.discourse.org/features
  tier: all
maps:
- feature: hosted-forum
  check: support_channel
  layer: composite
  credit: 0.5
  provider_must: >-
    Declare the forum URL in apis.yml common[]. As Community it grades "unverified" (0.5) because probe-pointers.py
    does not probe Community; as Support it is probed and earns 1.0 when live.
  note: >-
    195 providers whose only support-class pointer is Community all score support_channel partial ("pointer
    liveness 0.5"), measured 2026-09-25. Discourse URLs that were probed as Support were 5 of 5 live.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.45
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.69
- feature: topic-voting
  check: roadmap_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider runs a public voting category as a roadmap (planned / in-progress states it maintains),
    not only as a request inbox, and declares it as RoadMap. Business plan and up.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.011
  facet: operational_transparency
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.037
- feature: pinned-announcements
  check: change_log_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Discourse ships no changelog feature. Only if the provider posts release notes to a dedicated category
    and declares that category URL as ChangeLog.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.157
  facet: operational_transparency
  points: 6
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.438
- feature: doc-categories
  check: documentation_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider actually keeps its API documentation in doc categories and declares them as Documentation.
    Business plan and up.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.453
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 4
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.95
  saturated: true
  saturated_note: >-
    95% of providers with a contract, docs and a reference already earn this; the vendor cannot move it
    for most of its buyers.
earns_nothing:
- feature: blog-integration
  check: blog_present
  why: It puts forum comments under a blog the provider already runs; it does not host a blog.
- feature: discourse-api
  check: contract_present
  why: Discourse's API is Discourse's, for administering the forum. It is not the provider's API contract.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - contract_present
  - status_page_present
  - sdk_count_1
  - plans_present
  - getting_started_present
  note: A forum routes people to humans; it cannot produce a contract, a status page, SDKs or plans.
surface:
  operational_transparency:
    reachable: 8.0
    total: 38
  developer_ergonomics:
    reachable: 5.0
    total: 42
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 0
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-topic-voting/40121
- https://www.discourse.org/features
- https://www.discourse.org/pricing
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 0
    in_baseline: 0
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5216
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 0 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 3701
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.5
    p90: 0.5
    max: 0.5
    mean_among_movers: 0.5
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.0
    p90: 0.0
    max: 0.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.0
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    developer_ergonomics: 2.4
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 101
    emerging -> thin: 30
    developing -> strong: 21
    strong -> exemplar: 6
  agent_readiness_band_moves: {}
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written