What is Plots2 used for?

Plots2 is a Ruby on Rails community platform that combines a research-notes blog, wiki, Q&A portal and location map for the Public Lab environmental community. It is a good fit for running a community knowledge-sharing site and documenting citizen science projects.

Is Plots2 open source?

Yes. Plots2 is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at publiclab/plots2 and is written mainly in Ruby.

Yes. Plots2 is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Plots2?

Yes. Plots2 can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What are some alternatives to Plots2?

Similar open-source tools in the Forums & Communities category include Lobsters, Discourse and Apache Answer. SaaS products in the same category include Bettermode, Google Groups and Bevy.

Is Plots2 actively maintained?

The most recent commit to Plots2 was on 4 December 2025, and the latest release is v4.2, published on 18 January 2022. The project has 1k stars on GitHub.

Plots2: open-source forums & communities

About Plots2

Plots2 is the web application behind PublicLab.org, a platform for a community that works on environmental technology, design and documentation. It combines a group research blog, called research notes, with a wiki so contributors can publish findings and also maintain shared knowledge pages. The project calls itself a collaborative knowledge-exchange platform and welcomes first-time contributors.

Key features include a Q&A portal for peer problem solving, a rich text and Markdown editor, wiki editing with revision tracking, tagging and topic-based groups, email subscriptions for topics and comments, a search interface built on its growing API, a user dashboard with recent activity, and a privacy-sensitive Leaflet-based location tagging system with a community map.

The site began as a Drupal installation and was rewritten in 2012 with Ruby on Rails, and the new code has extended but not completely replaced the legacy Drupal data model. The README offers a quick start with Gitpod, detailed installation guides including Windows and Redis, a roadmap and a data model description. The project is licensed under GPL-3.0 and takes part in programs such as Google Summer of Code.

Key features

Research notes and wiki combined
Q&A portal for peer support
Rich text and Markdown editor
Wiki revision tracking
Tagging and topic-based groups
Leaflet-based location map
Email notification subscriptions

Good fit for

→Running a community knowledge-sharing site
→Documenting citizen science projects

Built with: Ruby; Rails; JavaScript
Tags: wiki; community; rails; knowledge-base; collaboration; qa; research; open-source

Plots2: questions and answers

What is Plots2 used for?: Plots2 is a Ruby on Rails community platform that combines a research-notes blog, wiki, Q&A portal and location map for the Public Lab environmental community. It is a good fit for running a community knowledge-sharing site and documenting citizen science projects.
Is Plots2 open source?: Yes. Plots2 is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at publiclab/plots2 and is written mainly in Ruby.
Is Plots2 free?: Yes. Plots2 is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Plots2?: Yes. Plots2 can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What are some alternatives to Plots2?: Similar open-source tools in the Forums & Communities category include Lobsters, Discourse and Apache Answer. SaaS products in the same category include Bettermode, Google Groups and Bevy.
Is Plots2 actively maintained?: The most recent commit to Plots2 was on 4 December 2025, and the latest release is v4.2, published on 18 January 2022. The project has 1k stars on GitHub.