Thanks! I leveraged an open source Node.js based discussion platform called NodeBB. It's similar to Discourse but not made in Ruby on Rails. I cloned the base repo but then was quite liberal in customizing it to my own needs and extending the functionality. Any other feedback is very welcome, it's a work in progress!
Nice! I was going to ask the same question. It's great to know about nodeBB. Great work on the platform!