# rubysherpas/forem

The best Rails 3 and Rails 4 forum engine. Ever.

Repository: https://github.com/rubysherpas/forem
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rubysherpas-forem
Homepage: http://forem.herokuapp.com
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2016-10-05T12:45:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5673, "days_push": 3619, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1549, forks 412 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:02.054463+00:00)

## What it is
Forem is a Rails engine that adds forum functionality (forums, topics, and posts) to Rails 3 and Rails 4 applications. It is designed to be dropped into an existing app with a User model and authentication already in place.

## Use cases
- add a forum to my rails app
- embed discussion boards in an existing ruby on rails project
- let users create topics and posts on my website
- build a community section for my rails application
- self-hosted forum engine for rails 4

## When to choose
- you are maintaining a legacy Rails 3 or Rails 4 application and need basic forum features
- you want a mountable forum engine tightly integrated with your existing Devise-based user model

## When to avoid
- starting a new project - the project is officially unmaintained and recommends Thredded instead
- you need security updates or support for modern Rails versions
- you need advanced forum features like moderation tooling or rich text editing

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: abandoned
- function: web-framework, ui-components, auth
- domain: web-development, backend, cms
- platform: ruby
- tags: rails-engine, forum, discussion-board, community, unmaintained, web-server

## Member repositories
- rubysherpas/forem (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:02.054463+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:30:24.231271+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rubysherpas/forem (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:02.054463+00:00, sha cf07afa0e4ea)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.