What's the difference between "open source" and "source-available" here?

Open source means an OSI-approved license — MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL, and similar — so you can run, modify, and redistribute it freely. Source-available means the code is visible but under a license, like BSL or a custom "fair source" license, that restricts commercial use or redistribution. We label each listing with which one it actually is, since the distinction has real licensing consequences.

Is "open source" the same as "free"?

Not necessarily. The license is free to use in the sense that you can self-host at no licensing cost, but most projects here also sell a hosted or managed version, and self-hosting has its own real cost in infrastructure and maintenance time. Check each listing for what's actually free versus what's the paid tier.

How do you judge whether a project is actively maintained versus abandoned?

Recent commit activity, release cadence, and issue response time — not star count. A project with a large star count from years ago can be effectively dead, while a smaller, newer one might be actively maintained. Verify directly on the project's repository before depending on it.

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Forums & Community Platforms

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Lynx

by Lynx

Empower the Web community and invite more to build across platforms.

Community BuildingForums & Community PlatformsOpen Source

Forum Java

by Qbian

一款用 Java（spring boot）实现的现代化社区（论坛/问答/BBS/社交网络/博客）系统平台。A modern community (forum/Q&A/BBS/SNS/blog) system platform implemented in Java（spring boot）.