I've been writing and running a little Rails forum for about a month now for some friends!
I think I still have a little bit to go for a 1.0 for the software (mainly pagination, our forum is too small to require it yet) but think it's in a place where I can recommend it to others if you're interested in shaping development.
if you're interested in running a little forum for your friends or an existing community, check it out (and let me know so I start versioning!): https://github.com/hartsick/ruBB
also big thank you to everyone who has helped me develop this and given me another delightful place to spend time on the internet! it's been fun and such a relief to work on the last month honestly