Suggestion: Add a fallback Forum engine (like FluxBB) for those that block JavaScript

General Feedback
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The forum engine that Purism is currently using does not allow us to use it while blocking all JavaScript. FluxBB instead works perfectly in such conditions https://fluxbb.org
Can we add FluxBB as a fallback forum engine for those that block JavaScript? Thank you.

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Is it possible to integrate FluxBB to the same database as Discourse, or do you envisage an entirely separate forum for people who don’t use JavaScript?

In theory it should be possible for a motivated team or individual to create a browser extension that replaces the Discourse JavaScript with verified, locally-hosted copies.

I note that forums.puri.sm also doesn’t work with the GNU LibreJS browser extension.

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I don’t know for sure but I hope so, at least in theory it seems doable.

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Just doesn’t seem too practical. I would suggest that if the forum and javascript are too much for you, that you participate via their matrix chat rooms.

It is often times more lively there than here.

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For the record, the Discourse folks are trying to make the application somewhat accessible without Javascript. If I turn off frames and Javascript in uMatrix here, I get this:

a screenshot of this page without my post, showing the comments but no possible interaction
a screenshot of this page without my post, showing the comments but no possible interaction1678Ă—915 72.9 KB

That is: the page renders, but is static. You can read the content, but cannot interact. It seems the Discourse authors picked the road of “graceful degradation” instead of the (better, IMHO) “progressive enhancement”:

It’s hard to go back on those design choices, but I will note that you might be able to operate on this forum with Javascript disabled by enabling “mailing list mode” in your preferences. This will send you an email for every post in the forum, and you can reply by email as well.

I found that is an interesting way of seeing how Discourse works: it’s just an application, with multiple user interfaces. If you don’t like the web-based, Javascript-heavy interface, you can still use just email…

Otherwise I don’t think it’s realistic to add another engine in the backend: that would just not work without major engineering. It would probably be easier to add basic interactivity without Javascript than add FluxBB integration, for example…

I hope that helps.

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