Since these forums run on Discourse, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s have the idea. Have you looked into somehow adding Discourse integration via API/plugin?
Hi @jetatomic! To be honest, I’m not excited at all by the idea of integrating Discourse with Open edX. I love Discourse, and it’s a great platform for discussing around Tutor and Open edX. It’s reliable, very user-friendly and it does not use too much server resource. But Discourse is yet another complex piece of software, with many moving parts, and it’s going to need a lot of tweaking to make it fit in the context of Open edX deployment. It would be like trying to fit cubes in circles (as we say in French).
My opinion is that a lightweight alternative like FUN’s Ashley is much more promising than Discourse, and I’m really looking forward to its integration with Open edX.
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Yes, we say “fitting a square peg in a round hole”. I think the Discourse project enjoys being a square peg and causing pain. Its Docker implementation is almost as easy as Open edX. 
There doesn’t appear to be much information on the Ashley forum, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see.