Wasn't Thoth originally called Riposte? Why the name change?

It turns out there's a company already using the name Riposte for a web app, and they own a trademark and have been doing business under that name for years. Their lawyers sent us a friendly letter requesting that we change the name, and we complied.

Does Thoth run on Windows?

It should work in Cygwin, but this hasn't been tested. It probably won't work using the native Windows Ruby build. Thoth has only been tested on FreeBSD, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Does Thoth work with PostgreSQL?

Probably, but it hasn't been tested. If you can confirm this, please let us know.

How do I run multiple instances of Thoth on the same server?

Create a different configuration file for each instance you want to run and configure them to run on different ports. Then start each instance separately by running:

thoth -c <config file> --home <home dir> -d start

Don't forget that you'll also need to pass in the name of the config file and the home directory when you stop or restart Thoth.

Does Thoth protect against comment spam?

Yes. Thoth uses a very simple but very effective form of comment spam prevention: the comment form contains extra fields that are hidden from normal browsers via CSS but look like comment fields to spambots. When the form is submitted, if any of these fields contain content, Thoth denies the request.

This technique has been in use for over a year at wonko.com and has been effective at stopping virtually all automated comment spam attempts.

What hosting services support Thoth?

In general, any host that gives you root access or allows you to run custom software should support Thoth. If you're having trouble finding one, we recommend Slicehost.