Thredded is an open source Rails forum / messageboard engine. Thredded’s goal is to be as simple and feature rich as possible.
Thredded works with the following relational databases: SQLite, MySQL (v5.6.4+), and PostgreSQL.
Thredded provides an app generator that will generate a Rails app with Thredded, Devise, SimpleForm, RSpec, PostgreSQL, and a basic theme and navigation that is configured to work out of the box.
Thredded can be run standalone or as part of an existing Rails app. The software supports Rails v4.2+.
Key Features
- Markdown (default) and / or BBCode post formatting, with onebox and <spoiler> tag support. Markup is configurable.
- (Un)read posts tracking.
- Email notifications, topic subscriptions, @-mentions, per-messageboard notification settings.
- Private group messaging.
- Full-text search using only the database.
- Pinned and locked topics.
- List of currently online users, for all forums and per-messageboard.
- Basic moderation to help stop the trolls.
- Reactive moderation, where posts from first-time users are published immediately but enter the moderation queue.
- Pre-emptive moderation, where posts from first-time users are not published until they have been approved.
- Flexible permissions system that can be configured per messageboard/user.
- Lightweight fully-responsive minimalist default theme configurable via Sass.
- No infrastructure dependencies other than the database.
- Supports SQLite, MySQL v5.6.4+, and PostgreSQL.
- Auto-follow.
- Global / message board-level unread page.
- Plugins to extend functionality:
- BBCode formatting for posts, e.g. [b]for bold[/b]. Can be used alongside Markdown.
- Code Syntax Highlighting in Markdown using Coderay.
- TeX math via LaTeX in Markdown, fast, accessible, JS-free math rendering.
- Internationalization support – available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), German, Polish, Italian, Russian, French, and Spanish.
Website: github.com/thredded/thredded
Support: Wiki, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Gleb Mazovetskiy and contributors
License: MIT License
Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Thredded is written in Ruby. Learn Ruby with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Internet Forum Software | |
|---|---|
| Discourse | Discussion forum, mailing list, and long-form chat room |
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| Forem | Platform for building modern, independent, and safe communities |
| phpBB | Flat-forum bulletin board software solution |
| bbPress | Forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress |
| MyBB | Intuitive, extensible forum software |
| miniBB | Easy, lite, and speedy quick forum |
| Vanilla | Simple and flexible forum software |
| Thredded | Simple and feature rich Rails forum engine |
| Simple Machines Forum | Elegant, effective, powerful forum software |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |


It looks really cool. Is there a demo that you know of?
Or a site that is using Thredded?
The Github link (thredded.org) just links to a blank Heroku.
Thank you for sharing.