1. If you're **brand new to Ruby and Rails**, please see [**Discourse as Your First Rails App**](http://blog.discourse.org/2013/04/discourse-as-your-first-rails-app/) or our [**Discourse Vagrant Developer Guide**](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/VAGRANT.md), which includes instructions to get up and running in a development environment using a virtual machine. This beginner's guide is also adequate for developers ready to sink their teeth quickly; it's the easiest way to hack on Discourse!
2. If you're familiar with how Rails works and are comfortable setting up your own environment, use our [**Discourse Advanced Developer Guide**](docs/DEVELOPER-ADVANCED.md).
Before you get started, ensure you have the following minimum versions: [Ruby 1.9.3+](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/), [PostgreSQL 9.1+](http://www.postgresql.org/download/), [Redis 2.6+](http://redis.io/download). And if you're having trouble, please see our [**TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE**](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md) first!
If you're not here to hack on the open source code, but rather looking to set up a Discourse forum in a production environment, see our [**Discourse Install Guide**](/docs/INSTALL-ubuntu.md). Be warned, however, that Discourse is still very much beta, and you will probably need a background as a developer or system administrator to set it up successfully.
Discourse is a **Civilized Discourse Construction Kit**, a free, flexible, fundamental building block for online discussion communities of any size, tiny to huge.
- A **flattened, endlessly scrolling discussion**, avoiding the awkwardness of traditionally threaded and paginated discussion, where replies to be expanded in place for context.
- A **user trust system** that grants users rights to assist in governing the forum as they participate in good faith over time. The goal is for the forum to be nearly self-moderating in the absence of any formal moderators, although excellent moderators always accelerate the process greatly.
- An **advanced JavaScript app** which runs in modern browsers and works identically on desktop and tablet and smartphone without the need for a native app.
Internet discussion belongs to everyone, not just huge corporate websites. Our goal is to **foster an active community of contributors**, all of whom commit to free, simple, pleasant to use online discussion software that can thrive in an Internet age dominated by micro-blogging and diminishing attention spans.
2. Read and sign the [**Electronic Discourse Forums Contribution License Agreement**](http://discourse.org/cla), to confirm you've read and acknowledged the legal aspects of your contributions, and
The original Discourse code contributors can be found in [**AUTHORS.MD**](docs/AUTHORS.md). For a complete list of the many individuals that contributed to the design and implementation of Discourse, please refer to [the official Discourse blog](http://blog.discourse.org/2013/02/the-discourse-team/) and [GitHub's list of contributors](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/contributors).
